BIG News From Mini? Not Really…

We just came from the press conference at the Mini display, where they were going to release some really BIG NEWS. As it turns out it wasn’t really that big—it was medium-sized at best. There before us sat the new Mini Clubman, which in-and-of itself is not really big news, but upon closer inspection we noticed it was actually a John Cooper Works Mini Clubman. As some of you know, John Cooper Works Minis are supposedly the rip snortin’, take-no-prisoners Minis. In reality though, they’re more along the lines of we’d-take-you-prisoner-if-we-could-catch-you Minis. I actually like the Mini, a lot, but when their VP of development tells me that the new Mini Clubman JCW edition has "blazing performance" and then says 208hp, 0-60 in 6.7 seconds with a top end of 147mph, well—that’s just not all that blazing now, is it.

Don’t get me wrong, it was cool little bugger with some trick bits, but I just don’t know if spending a bunch of extra loot on a jacked-up Mini is worth it. My opinion, buy the standard Clubman S and save your extra shekels for a track day or something.

P.S.: Someone really has to tell these guys not to use "Mini" and "blazing performance" in the same sentence.