In addition to the high demand of the customers wanting more power, MINI's tuning division, John Cooper Works (JCW), seeks to distance itself further from the competition with a second more
powerful performance and styling kit for the Mini Cooper S. With potential competitors such as the - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER with 197 horsepower or Fiat's 180hp - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER revealed at this past Frankfurt Motor Show and likely to go into production, the - ONLY REGISTERED AND ACTIVATED USERS CAN SEE ALL LINKS - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER for the second generation MINI with its 192hp is slightly inadequate.

Expected features:

• power increase to 215hp
• JCW exhaust
• bigger / larger JCW brakes
• restyled JCW Aero body kit
• unique 18' JCW wheels
• JCW sport suspension

The car shown in the images is a prototype / development car during tests at the Nürburgring - Nordschleife with a restyled Aero kit which includes front and rear bumper fascias and side skirts plus 18-inch wheels from the JCW GP Limited Edition. The front bumper fascia shows revised fog lamp and lower center grills for improved cooling to the new brakes.

The unveiling of the finalized car is expected for Geneva Motor Show in March 2008 with first deliveries starting with model year 2009 in summer 2008.

215hp LoL, give the car 300 hp and then we are talking.

Don't you think that 300hp is simply too much for such small FWD car?

you're right but 260hp shouldnt be a problem.

A compromise: 300 hp and AWD.

Bingo!

what is the cost of a small power hike and some tuning and kitting? let's call it X
what is the cost of making the mini AWD and giving it a substantial power hike? a large multiple of X
what is the profit from such a model? surely not as a large as the cost

but if you factor in the AWD readiness of the mini platform, given the coming SUV, this could be a realitly sometime after the intro of the Mini SUV

Well, it was more a joke than an opinion based on analysis as you propably guessed. Heck, 300 hp would be stepping on 135i's toes powerwise! But I can still dream about Mini Cooper AWD with 240-280 hp.

what was said as a ajoke is economically not viable now, but in the context of the near future, it could be a possibility, and a mini however powerful will never be an in house competitor for BMW
it's not that remote of a possibility at the end of the day to have an AWD mini
that's my whole point
but i like to be needlessly creative in my posts

Right! BMW simply cannot allow that.