A welcomed surprise at the New York international Auto Show was this John cooper works mini prototype. After walking the halls of the show I reached the Mini Cooper exhibit where I saw the Mini cooper John Cooper Works concept. But before talking about specifications and my opinion on the car let’s briefly look at what the John Cooper Works(JCW) division is and and how it started.

John cooper was responsible for producing and tuning the original mini cooper alongside his father, Charles cooper. He became known for his racing pedigree and his own design of a rear engine race car that eventually made it’s way to Formula one and the Indianapolis 500 at the time.

In 1959, the first mini was launched and it also had an innovative design with it’s front transverse mounted engine and front wheel drive configuration. This design allowed most of the weight of the vehicle to be placed on the front axle which consisted of the engine and transmission assembly and thus creating more space in the interior since there was no transmission tunnel. The timing could not have been better for the debut of the mini because after WWII England was experiencing the Suez crisis and it’s effects included significantly increasing the prices of fuel. This played in the mini’s favor because of it’s nature of being a small compact car that was powered by a small engine. Ever since, the mini has remained a staple in the compact car market backed by many victories in motorsport.

John cooper works(JCW) was founded in 2002 by Michael cooper the son of john cooper. The JCW division offers a higher performance trim for the Mini models in their line up. Typical upgrades include a leather steering wheel, sport exhaust and Nitron suspension with adjustability for front and rear dampers. But, the real focus for this article are the race oriented and limited edition models that have been modified by the JCW division to be the ultimate hot hatch which only include two so far, the 2006 mini cooper S John Cooper Works GP and the 2013 mini John Cooper Works GP.

This concept is a further evolution of the GP program with more aggressive aerodynamics that include a carbon fiber front splitter, carbon fiber widened front and rear fenders, hatch mounted wing, roof mounted air scoop, and 19 inch multi spoke wheels that contain massive brake rotors.