John Cooper would be proud of the new JCW Mini Cooper S.

Mini’s fastest S yet, the JCW Cooper S.

John Cooper was a man who had an extreme passion for motorsport, a man who was a proper petrol head. His passion for cars saw him competing in various races but he became a legend through his business, the Cooper Car Company. This company which was co-founded by himself and his father, created small single seater race cars that pioneered many design elements for race cars of the future. Fast forward a few decades later and John Cooper was behind the Mini Cooper and Cooper S, the fast versions of the original Mini. These cars were used for rally and were very good at it too.

Has the John Cooper legacy lived on?

John Cooper was a man who loved some good old fun whilst driving. Anyone who has driven a new age Mini Cooper S can agree that it is possibly one of the best handling fun hatches to drive. So the definite answer to that question is a whole-hearted yes. I wonder what John Cooper would say if he was alive today and knew that the current car bearing his name produced 170 kW and 320Nm? I think he would be well impressed by those figures.

Those figures aren’t ridiculous, there are other hot hatches that produce more than that. That being said, those other hatches don’t weigh less than 1300 Kg, something the Mini has as an advantage. They say less is more, in the case of the JCW Mini Cooper S this is true. The vehicle accelerates from 0-100km/h in 6.3 seconds, which is properly quick for a small hatch. This new JCW version is the fastest production Mini ever made and the coolest looking too. There is nothing soft looking about it, it’s screams aggression in a sophisticated kind of way.

There is no such thing as being sophisticated when behind the wheel of a Mini Cooper S JCW though. The normal Mini Cooper S already makes one act like a small child on a sugar rush, so one can only imagine what the JCW does to an even remotely well composed individual. That is the point of the car though, it’s not meant to be calm, it’s meant to excite you and set your pants on fire, that is what John Cooper would’ve wanted. It’s good to see that even under new management, the name John Cooper has not been watered down, his legacy has lived on. His legacy was a simply one too, a small car, a good engine and a brilliant chassis. Happy Modded Monday Motorists.