The new 2015 Mini Cooper John Cooper Works hardtop is a bulldog with bite

Mini Coopers have always been little cars with big personalities. But since 2003, there’s been one Mini Cooper model whose personality has been the size of an ocean liner, and that’s the Mini Cooper John Cooper Works. In 2003, the John Cooper Works package was little more than a power-bump kit, but it soon evolved into its own model produced alongside the Cooper and Cooper S versions, adding chassis and styling upgrades along the way. Now, for 2015, Mini has introduced the most powerful Mini John Cooper Works ever, and from what we have learned thus far, it could have the biggest personality of all.

The JCW’s turbocharged 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine is 10 percent more powerful and 14 percent torquier than the previous JCW’s 1.6-liter mill, with 228 horsepower available from 5,200 – 6,000 rpm and 236 lb-ft of torque on tap from just 1,250 – 4,800 rpm. The engine is based on that of the Cooper S but is 39 percent more powerful, thus enabling the car to hit 60 mph from a standstill in 5.9 seconds when paired to the paddle-shifted six-speed automatic, and 6.1 seconds with the six-speed stick. Mini further claims that the engine’s elasticity is improved by 10 percent, evidenced in a 50 – 75 mph acceleration time of 5.6 seconds. Top speed is 153 mph, Mini says.