2025 Mini Cooper JCW First Drive: Fair Trade

Back in October we got a good look at the 2025 Mini Cooper John Cooper Works hardtop and convertible but could only wonder how the new car, measuring and weighing roughly the same, would feel on the road. This duo got a new powertrain that trades away 7 horsepower and an eighth (traditional automatic) gear ratio for 52 extra lb-ft of torque and a potentially quicker-witted dual-clutch transmission. Well, our wait is mostly over. We’re hedging a bit, because our driving experience was restricted to largely flat and unchallenging, heavily patrolled and trafficked roads around Savannah, Georgia. Still, the results are promising.

Great Transmission

Newly adopted in all Mini Coopers, this new dual-clutch transmission is particularly brilliant in the JCW models, where it gets Sport DCT programming. This includes the expected adjustable shift schedules to suit the various modes (quickest and most aggressive in Go-Kart mode, slowest and most prone to lugging in Green mode, and somewhere in between for Core and the others). It also taps into the vehicle’s navigation map database to get a peek at what the road ahead is about to do. An upcoming tight curve or steep incline may cause it to preemptively downshift to ensure it’s in the proper gear.

Given the vastly different internal gearing, the overall ratio between the crank and the tire contact patches works out to be remarkably close, with the Sport DCT measuring between 3 and 5 percent taller overall in the first three gears (which get you past 60 mph), getting taller from there up, with seventh coming out a smidge shorter than the old eighth.

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Torque for the Win

You’ll never miss those 7 horses that strayed off, and all that bonus torque has no trouble leveraging the taller gearing to deliver exciting feeling and sounding acceleration—despite numbers that are kind of no big deal from our increasingly electrified vantage point. Importantly, anyone conflicted about the $6,000–$6,500 price bump over a Cooper S who test-drives them both around the block will instantly feel the performance difference. We got a convertible to bark its tires on the one-two upshift on some smooth new asphalt during a Boost mode dash off a green light. We’ll be eager to document the difference in performance with and without Boost, which Mini claims permits sufficient additional turbo pressure to add 10 percent more power (251 hp?) for 10 seconds, but unlike most manufacturers with such features, Mini doesn’t commit to a number. We look forward to checking its math.

All that extra torque certainly enabled the slightly taller transmission gearing, which in turn helped contribute to the 1-mpg bump in city and combined fuel economy and 2-mpg improvement on the highway. Nobody buys these tiny performance cars specifically for their fuel economy, but more is always better.

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Busy Suspension

Now as ever, the John Cooper Works package is not for the fragile of kidney or loose of denture. It only takes about 50 feet of driving to notice the firmer suspension tuning, which is not electronically adjustable. The damping rate of each corner does self-adjust based on the frequency of the inputs its experiencing, remaining softer on the high-frequency stuff—road texture, chatter, small inputs—and firming up for individual low-frequency stuff. Like when you hit the brakes or bend into a corner. Stiffening for that stuff improves dynamic handling.

The chassis rigidity of the convertible is highly impressive, allowing barely any noticeable cowl or steering-wheel shake; nevertheless, the open car feels slightly softer than the hardtop. That, plus the claimed 132 pounds of added weight are bound to add a few tenths on our figure-eight course, but folks won’t be buying a JCW convertible to autocross. They’ll buy it because it’s big fun to throw down a twisty canyon road, logging as many minutes as possible on the Always Open top-down meter.

Bottom Line

The 2025 Mini Cooper John Cooper Works 2-Doors are still a hoot to drive, so long as you can stomach(jiggle) the suspension. The new 9.4-inch ultra-bright, super-crisp OLED screen with all its fun graphics, meters, sounds, and other character, teamed with the new roster of fun colors (11 for the JCW!) combine to make a compelling case for the Mini Cooper JCW.