Mini John Cooper Works GP gets shaken down at the Nurburgring
It'll go on sale in 2020, but supplies will be rather limited.
Mini first introduced the John Cooper Works GP hot hatch by way of a wildly styled concept at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. Now, as we approach its official debut, Mini wanted to show off its latest creation a little bit, so it went to the one place a proper performer can really stretch its legs -- the Nurburgring Nordschleife.
Mini this weekend showed off its John Cooper Works GP hatchback to the public for the first time. It was still clad in camouflage, mind you, but it nevertheless arrived at the Nurburgring as part of the 24-hour race this past weekend, and it cooked its way around the 'Ring in less than 8 minutes, which is a huge leap forward from the last GP variant, which needed 8 minutes and 23 seconds to lap the Green Hell.
While its Nurburgring lap time is new, Mini didn't give out any more details that we didn't already know. Its turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine will make in excess of 300 horsepower, but Mini hasn't given an official output yet. It'll be pretty easy to tell the GP apart from other John Cooper Works creations, because it's rocking some crazy fender flares and a big ol' wing out back. Only 3,000 models will be built, and it's unclear how many are set aside for each market, so it's likely that your home country will be getting far fewer than that total number.
Mini first confirmed that it would build a new John Cooper Works GP model in late 2018. Since then, the automaker has been relatively mum about the vehicle, teasing only a bit of its rear wing and mentioning the estimated power output. We'll have to wait a little longer to find out more -- a debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September doesn't seem like too much of a stretch, but we'll have to wait for Mini to confirm that.
