John Cooper Works (JCW) is a company founded in the year 2000 by John Cooper, the racing car maker and tuner responsible for the Mini Cooper. JCW produces tuning parts and accessories for BMW's new MINI.
When John Cooper died shortly after creating JCW, management passed to his son Michael Cooper. BMW Group considered JCW to be "strong enough to be developed as a good sub-brand" and bought out the company in January 2007. Michael Cooper continues to work with JCW as a consultant.
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The first ever JCW kit was a 126 bhp (94 kW) 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 11 bhp (8.2 kW), 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. In 2004, JCW discontinued the Cooper kit and introduced a Sound Kit for the Cooper. The Sound Kit consisted of a unique air intake system, cat-back exhaust and an ECU remap.
The first JCW Tuning Kit to be made available for the Cooper S was a 200 bhp (150 kW) 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 210 bhp (160 kW), 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 3 bhp (2.2 kW) power increase for around €1100.
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 17 bhp (13 kW) to 192 bhp (143 kW). Torque is up 10 nm to 250 nm (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"[1] above all due to the extra torque and in-gear acceleration, which in certain driving situations will be even faster than the 218 bhp (163 kW) 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 (143 kW) power kit: