John Cooper Works

John Cooper Works (JCW) is a company originally founded in the year 2000 by John Cooper, the legendary racing car constructor and tuner responsible for, amongst other achievements, the Mini Cooper.

When John Cooper passed away very shortly after creating JCW, management passed to his son Michael Cooper. JCW continues the strong motorsport heritage of the Cooper bloodline, producing tuning parts and accessories for BMW's new MINI.

BMW Group considered JCW to be "strong enough to be developed as a good subbrand" and bought out the company in January 2007.

=JCW Tuning Kits=

Cooper

The first ever JCW kit was a convert|126|bhp|abbr=on upgrade for the MINI Cooper. The kit consisted of the following components:

- Flowed and ported Cylinder Head

- Air Filter

- Cover Injection Tube

- Uprated exhaust (cat-back)

- ECU remap

- Decorative Emblems

Despite its price tag of over €2000, this kit only offered a power increase of convert|11|bhp|abbr=on, a sportier exhaust note and a crisper throttle response. The main advantage was that these improvements, though fairly minor, could be made to the MINI Cooper without jeopardizing the factory warranty.

Cooper S

The first JCW Tuning Kit to be made available for the Cooper S was a convert|200|bhp|abbr=on upgrade for the Cooper S. Released in 2003, the kit consisted of the following components:

- Uprated cylinder head, gas-flowed and ported

- Uprated supercharger, faster-spinning

- Uprated air intake system and air filter

- Uprated spark plugs

- Uprated exhaust system

- Remapped ECU

- Decorative badges, individually-numbered engine plate and certificate signed by Mike Cooper

At the time, the kit could not be factory-ordered, but had to be retrofitted at a MINI dealer, but from late 2005 the Cooper S could be ordered with the upgrade straight from factory.

In 2005, an additional upgrade was launched that increased power even more, to convert|210|bhp|abbr=on, by installing uprated injectors and again remapping the ECU.

A "JCW Sound Kit" was made available at the same time, consisting of the cat-back exhaust and the air filter, giving a sportier exhaust note and a convert|3|bhp|abbr=on power increase for around €1100.

Cooper S R56

In 2007, MINI released the JCW tuning kit for the new "R56" version of the car. This new version now being turbocharged as opposed to supercharged, the kit itself is very different from that of the previous Cooper S. Consisting of an uprated induction system, exhaust and ECU remap, this kit ups power convert|17|bhp|abbr=on to convert|192|bhp|abbr=on. Torque is up 10 nm to 250nm (270 nm with overboost). Acceleration from 0-100 km/h is now 6.8 seconds, and a top speed of 232 km/h is now possible. Amongst MINI owners and fanatics, this kit is commonly referred to as the "Stage 1 Kit", although this nomenclature has never been officially employed by JCW or by BMW.

According to Mike Cooper, a MINI fitted with this kit will be "the fastest MINI ever produced" [http://www.motoringfile.com/2007/07/31/r56-jcw-kit-stage-1-parts-list/|R56 JCW Kit] above all due to the extra torque and in-gear acceleration, which in certain driving situations will be even faster than the convert|218|bhp|abbr=on MINI JCW GP.

In mid-2008, MINI brought out a new addition to the JCW family - the MINI John Cooper Works. This is in fact not another power kit, but a whole new version of the R56 MINI, model code MF91 (MM91 in the Clubman version). This new version - unofficially termed "Stage 2" by some MINI fanatics - comes with three major differences compared to the 192 bhp power kit:

- Maximum power of 155kw (211 bhp) at 6000 rpm, and 260 Nm of torque (280 with overboost. This is achieved by means of a new, uprated turbocharger, larger-bore exhaust and a sportier ECU map. 0-100 km/h time is down to 6.5 seconds (6.8 in the case of the Clubman). Fuel consumption and emissions are also up, however, compared to the 192 bhp kit which has no change compared to the standard 175 bhp Cooper S.

- Electronic limited slip differential (EDLC - Electronic Differential Lock Control). This is infinitely variable between 0% and 50%, as opposed to the permanent 30% of the optional LSD fitted to the R56 MINI Cooper S.

- DTC (Dynamic Traction Control) as fitted as standard on all BMW models nowadays. The MINI John Cooper Works is the first variant of the new MINI to come with DTC which, to date, is not available even as an option on other variants. The main difference between DTC and the extant DSC is the ability to "remap" the parameters for the traction and stability control systems, to allow a sportier drive while still employing these systems at the last minute, without fully deactivating them.

=References=