We’ve seen countless videos of the MINI JCW GP so far and the conclusions have been lukewarm. Some people loved it but others wanted a bit more out of it. Understandably so too, since this is supposed to be a special model. Nevertheless, the MINI JCW GP does some things right and today we’re going to take a look at how it compares against some unusual rivals on the drag strip.
The guys from CarWow got together some interesting cars for this race. First up we have the MINI JCW GP, of course. The Oxford-built hot hatch has a 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine, just like all the other cars here. However, it’s the only one with an automatic gearbox.
It’s not the most powerful car here though, but rather at the other end of the spectrum. With 306 HP and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) it may be the most powerful MINI hatch ever but it’s lagging behind its competition here. The MINI makes up for it with the lightest construction though.
Then there’s the Honda Civic Type-R that got a small facelift this year. It has 320 HP and 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) of torque and comes with a manual gearbox, of course. Next is the Hyundai i30 N. Normally, this car would seriously lag behind its competition here today but this one has been tuned and is making 325 HP and 550 Nm (406 lb-ft) of torque. Last but not least there’s the Ford Focus ST Mountune which has 330 HP and 515 Nm of torque.
Normally, the JCW GP would take on smaller rivals like the Fiesta from Ford or the Audi S1 or Polo GTI but even then, I think it would have no problem winning at the kind of tests the guys from CarWow are putting it through here. Let’s see how things went down, shall we?
