DON’T FORGET THE TROPHY R

Mini GP, meet our reigning hot hatch hero

Rowan Horncastle: As the philosopher Jack Black once said: “You’re not hardcore unless you live hardcore.” And that Mini GP just doesn’t live hardcore. Aside from binning the rear seats, there’s no compromise to make the thing faster. Is that aero functional? No. Is that strut brace functional? No. The Trophy R has been militant in its weight saving and performance enhancements. I think that Mini may have mistaken ‘engineering’ for ‘confected marketing frippery’.

The GP has been swept up in what society thinks sporty is: a body confidence influencer decked out in Lululemon. Where’s your substance? The proper ingredients? A manual gearbox, angry diff and motorsport tech like the Megane’s NACA duct hewn into a spookily light carbon composite bonnet.

Ollie Kew: There you have it then – the Mini is a product of its time. The GP3 weighs as much as a Fiesta ST for the same reason that you can’t buy a Lotus Elise with wind-down windows any more. The car industry mostly thinks we’ve gone soft. Don’t forget, Renault had to flog some R26.Rs at knock-down rates in the end. Thanks to YouTube drag races, the currency of what makes a car desirable, for most people, is big power numbers and low 0–60 times. And on that front, the GP3 is undeniably a weapon.

RH: But the honest-to-a-fault Renault is more fun. I worry that the Mini has taken the successful but soul destroying blueprint of the Audi RS3 then stuck some silly carbon offcuts on the side for good measure.

OK: Woah, don’t mount your good taste high horse. I may well be driving an F1 car/vintage pram lovechild, but your car looks like it matches the intended owner’s racing boots.