Sunday Drive: Mini Clubman John Cooper Works

Sunday, 29 March 2020

**Mini CLUBMAN JOHN COOPER WORKS ALL4

Base price:** $73,200.

Powertrain and economy: 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder, 225kW/450Nm, eight-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 7.7 L/100km, CO2 177g/km (source: RightCar).

The JCW Clubman has lots of stickers, but it also has lots of grunt to back them up.

Vital statistics: 4253mm long, 1441mm high, 1800mm wide, 2670mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 360 litres, 19-inch alloy wheels.

We like: Punchy and practical, spunky temperament.

The JCW's 2.0-litre engine is a 225kW/450Nm powerhouse of fun.

We don't like: Over-wrought interior, no voice control, pricey.

This road test was completed before the current coronavirus lockdown restrictions came into effect.

It might look unassuming (and a bit fat), but the JCW Clubman is a proper performance car.

Back in the day of the ‘wholly British’ Mini, BMC gained a giant-beating reputation through motorsport and by recruiting performance partners. John Cooper Minis were true standouts during the 1960s’ and the influence the late great Briton’s F1 championship-winning touch had on these cheeky cars is recognised now by BMW-era John Cooper Works models, which reach well beyond the original three-door thriller template.

Back in Cooper’s day, the only presumable motorsport use for a Mini van would have involved parts delivery. It was the one original era Mini not to get a good fizz-up. How ironic, then, that today's equivalent in JCW trim is presently the most powerful production Mini ever (well, so far).

The standard Mini interior is certainly distinctive, but are they trying a bit hard to be cute and retro?

The big advantage of the Clubman is that there is plenty of room to fit your unwanted junk in.

* A Mini Clubman is a lot better than an SUV

* Marvin is the top name in first-ever global Mini Census

Okay Mini, we get it - the original one had a big circular speedo. Can we do something new now?

* Mini makes a six-door Clubman**

In fairness, calling the Clubman an 'equivalent' to the original station wagon is a stretch. Not even the name really fits ('Clubman' Minis were snub-nosed redesigns of the BMC car) and even though the design keeps barn-style rear doors, the look overall plays extremely loose.

The role has been utterly re-interpreted too: as a totally upmarket and very plush model now, it’s several social classes above a muse that faithfully served penny-wise families and small traders.

Be that as it may, any links to the old utilitarian trader vehicle add to the good-hearted comedy of what today’s offer really is and what it really does.

On the first count? Well, it’s a decent-sized five-seater car, with good boot space, the best of the various new Minis for general road-driving, beaten only perhaps by the near-lookalike Countryman which through being elevated strives to win adoption as a crossover.

As to the second part? Well, that’s to demonstrate that looks can deceive and that a large and hefty-looking Mini can still be a hugely athletic one.

And then some. Though it is not really a hot hatch in its styling, it is certainly very much one in intent.

With the standard 2.0-litre tweaked with JCW-spec internals, a bigger twin scroll turbo, fancy injectors and an improved cooling system, this Clubman has an extra 56kW over previous JCW models.

That gives it ability to hit 100kmh in 4.9sec and achieve more than 250kmh top speed and is enough oomph to go toe-to-toe with the similarly-priced Mercedes-AMG A35 and Audi S3. Not bad for a model that might almost pass as a boutique bakery’s delivery van.

It’s bonkers. More than it potentially should be, given the mechanical mix includes an eight-speed auto, which you might imagine would dilute the experience but really doesn’t.

At least not with the Sport mode, in which the gearchanges hold much longer and become snappier at much higher (post 6000rpm) revs than in the normal (sorry, ‘Mid’) setting it defaults to at start-up allows. There’s also a Green mode just to tick the eco box.

The on-demand AWD, which has a mechanical diff lock to help traction up front and minimise torque steer, also alters its feed in that optimal fun setting, sending more to the rear.

It also takes a stiffer body structure and this, along with being 10mm lower and stiffened, and with geometry alteration for faster cornering and more dextrous hard-driving handling, driving, means it is rather firm for general driving. But that’s JCW typical.

The driving is like a Mini hatchback, but over-scaled. There’s such massive front-end grip you feel inspired to be quite brave in entering corners, because you sense it’ll faithfully stick to the apex no matter what. The steering is awesome, with excellent weighting and good feel and feedback. All in all, there’s a level of competence that a driver of an original Mini Cooper simply wouldn't believe possible.

At same token, the whole buy-in is a bit weird because, even with stripes (but no Union flag-emblazoned roof, thankfully), big wheels and a slightly insane body kit, it just doesn’t really impart as a hard-out sports device. The Clubman shape is… well, a bit bloated. Basically, you’re going to spend all your time explaining how it’s genuinely a monster.

The reason for the Clubman’s parking space-filling design of course becomes evident when you’re the cabin. It’s the rarest of Minis in being almost maxi. Rear seat room is generous enough to make it appealing to someone of my above-average height. When dropping down that back seat, too, the boot becomes very commodious. The other thing I like about this generation Clubman is that it has four proper side doors.

This year delivers a spruce-up with a new grille and bumpers, new mirrors, minor trim changes and new tech, including a head-up display and connected options for the infotainment system, which uses a built-in 4G SIM card. All very smart, with lots of stylised knobs and switches, and technically-snazzy.

Modern Mini is driven by such a fashion-first focus it’s easy to overlook those other imperatives for buying in, notably the driving fun, an element especially elevated by the JCW package.

On strength of its styling and size, Clubman might seem the most unlikely champion of performance purity. But, believe me, on the right road, this Mini is surprisingly mega.