Style? Excitement? Usability? Fun? What else makes it to your check-list for a hot new car? Spend some time in the JCW Pro Edition of the MINI Cooper and suddenly there are more boxes that appear and tick themselves. Here’s what it’s like…
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
The best way to go pro is to do what you love and keep bettering it with every attempt. Like they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Eric Clapton and Adrian Erlandsson weren’t born with their abilities. They persevered, persisted, and perfected. In the quest of the great, every achievement counts. The little goals make the big goal worthwhile, and, like life on track, each goal is like a corner. You get done with one, and then prepare for the next.
Perfection comes from consistent performance. Which is the result of commitment, diligence, and, of course, perseverance. It’s not always easy. Yet, thanks to a few committed and diligent souls who aren’t afraid to experiment, there is always a new way to go about the whole thing. In this case, it’s making a small car fast, fun and exclusive.
The MINI Cooper is a fun little car. The Cooper S is an absolute blast. And, then, there’s this little so-and-so. A proper John Cooper Works tuning kit and original JCW accessories have turned this little monster into something exceptional. So exceptional, in fact, that there are just 20 of these available, and just online. So, it’s limited-edition, too. And the price tag reflects that: Rs 43.90 lakh before local taxes and insurance and what have you — a full Rs 11.60 lakh more than the standard Cooper S three-door. What does the difference get you?
British Racing Green paint job? Check. Matte black racing stripes? Check. Red pin-striping? Check. A new state of tune? Check! While it may not seem like a massive jump, the 2.0-litre TwinPower Turbo petrol engine in the JCW Pro Edition gets a bump up from 192 to 210 PS, with torque up 20 Nm from 280 to 300. Yes, other markets get 231 PS. We don’t. I wonder why. There’s another bit: a piece of foam in the cup-holder that holds something. Something that will probably give more bragging rights apart from shaving a few tenths off your lap times on track. A little ‘Pro’ mode controller sits in the foam. Press twice to engage. ‘For track use only. Not meant for road use,’ it says. Me being me, I pressed it. Two red blinks. Nothing. Must be satellite-linked.
‘Pro’ mode is, of course, in addition to the usual Green, Mid, and Sport modes. All of them tangibly change the entire feel of the car. The ‘MINIMALISM’ mode, Green, shifts up through the six-speed automatic box at below 2,000 rpm. There’s no real engine noise, let alone a howl. The steering lightens up and the whole car tries to be as normal and un-engaging as possible to eke out maximum efficiency. The blue text in the display says I get ‘+3.6 km’ of range! Whoopee. The round setup with its stub selector gets thumbed immediately from Green to Mid.
