Mini Cooper “John Cooper Works”

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The Mini Cooper “John Cooper Works” is the fourth guest to go through the Autoblog Box. Paul "Coloflow" Szebesta, official pilot of the blog, tested it on Circuit 6 of the Autodromo de Buenos Aires and measured his time to enter the Autoblog Ranking.

How is this ranking made, how are cars measured and under what conditions? The answers to all frequently asked questions are in these FAQs. And all the cars we are testing are already being published in this section.

The Mini Cooper "John Cooper Works" was released for sale in March 2019 and the mainstream review was released in February 2020. Today it is priced at $ 59,900.

And how did the Mini behave in the Gálvez? Coloflow's track criticism is reproduced below.

 

 

or the comments that were made when Orly Cristófalo tried this car and also when we announced his time at the Autoblog Box, more than one thought that it would have an outstanding performance on the track, given the hardness of the car, its power and performance. In my opinion, I think that it is not a bad number, but the car has certain characteristics –like those of the Peugeot 308 S GT– that if modified, would make it go much faster on a circuit. There were also those who thought that they did not beat the Vento GLi. This is not whether it was a passionate or technical conclusion, I hope the second. Let us begin:

* Driving position: Excellent. I would like the steering wheel to be a little smaller, but it is a detail. I was surprised at how well the seats contain when it comes to folding hard, although I would like the height to go down a little more and not be as high. The steering wheel also has a very good grip and the cams are placed on the steering column, so it is not necessary to remove your hands to shift. All the buttons and elements of the torpedo are within our reach. In turn, the way the windshield and its panes are arranged (emulating the original Mini) gives us a good feeling of a race car cockpit: everything tight and close, not recommended for claustrophobics, from now on. Anyway, I would have preferred the central clock behind the wheel to be the tachometer and not the speedometer. Another detail that bothers me is that the information on what gear we are driving is very small along with the mileage, consumption, etc. in the central speedometer and when one comes on the track it is annoying to have to be looking for the number among many other numbers to find out what the box is in. It would be better if this information stands out against the other data or is placed elsewhere. Normal pedal, with a ‘button ’at the bottom of the accelerator, although it is too sensitive, so you have to be careful and hardly touch it in corner transits, since it accelerates very quickly and starts to skate.

* Suspension: Very good. Forward it carries independent suspension, type McPherson, with coil springs, telescopic dampers and stabilizer bar, while in the rear it has an independent, deformable parallelogram, coil springs, telescopic dampers and stabilizer bar. The car is quite hard, which we already know is a benefit for use on the track, but as I said in the introduction, the problem is behind. Both when handling it and watching the videos later, it is noticeable that the rear train is all the time glued to the floor and there is very little slippage that it generates when wanting to cross it to enter the curves. It crosses very little but immediately straightens. This means that all the work has to be done by the front axle, causing the tires to wear excessively and having to give you a mid-traffic steering wheel from now on, to avoid the horn going. Little by little, trust is building between the readers and the pilot of the blog, and I know that someone is falling who says: won't you be the one obsessed with cars pulling their tails for your experience with the Fiat Uno? Well, no. Broadly speaking, we could define competition cars with front-wheel drive in two groups: the super touring cars (with wide and large tires, as well as a lot of aerodynamics, flat floor, etc., SuperTC2000 and WTCC-style cars, where the handling is similar to that of a Formula, since the aforementioned elements are what make the car double faster). In the other group would be those who do not have aerodynamic aids, wear small wheels and where the work so that it can double is carried out working with the warps and divergences, making the maneuver to cross it at the beginning, generate the controlled slip and be able to carry the trunk to the rope to accelerate. National Tourism, Track Tourism or ASM style cars, which saw me compete for a couple of years. Since the Mini does not have giant wheels or spoilers that bury the trunk on the floor and prevent the tires from slipping, we must adopt a handling like that of the second group that I mentioned. Now, if we cannot generate that slip, what happens is that everything depends on the front axle and as soon as the accelerator is applied, it will skate. Unlike the 308 S GT, in this Mini Cooper the horn commands more: it is not necessary to wait so long, but undoubtedly it plays against the track very much having the rear train so stable.

* Brakes: Very good. Ventilated at the front and solid at the back. It has good stopping power and did not suffer too much fatigue. Where I do find a problem is the way ABS works. In hard braking it seems that it does not brake the same as the front wheels. As soon as you feel like you're going to lock, you don't release both wheels equally, if not the one you're tending to lock.