Mini Clubman JCW

HELLO

£ 35,045 OTR/£37,425 as tested/£415pcm

WHY IT’ S HERE

It’s a hot estate, and who doesn’t love one of those?

DRI V ER

Jason Barlow HENCEFORTH, IT WILL BE KNOWN AS THE JCW. IT’S ONLY GOING TO live in the Garage for three months because we’ll be switching out of this, the most extreme Mini currently available, to the Mini Electric. Which is the most current Mini, as well as being the one that uses actual current.

Following last year’s mid-life refresh, this elongated, not very mini Mini now tops out with the JCW, using the same TwinPower Turbo 2.0-litre, 302bhp four cylinder that you’ll find under the bonnet of the BMW M135i. This puts it on a more equitable footing with the likes of the Audi S3, Mercedes-AMG A35, and the Golf R (if you can still find one for sale), whose 0-62mph time of 4.9 seconds it matches dead on.

But this feels like a more overtly characterful car. Mini eschews the industry-wide obsession with angry headlights in favour of big, expressive lamps, and those ironically patriotic rear lights. There are a few bits of aero addenda, and the (optional) red roof and go-faster stripes ladle on extra drama. It’s not as fugly as a Honda Civic Type-R, but it’s not pretty, either. Mini’s designers have also achieved peak quirk inside, although my initial acclimatisation suggests that it’s easier to navigate and use than the touch-sensitive overload in the Merc-AMG GT four-door that I had. It’s relatively lightly optioned: the stripes are £200, the sun-protection glass £300, the HUD £500, and the Harman Kardon audio £600.

The JCW runs various chassis modifications, including revised spring and damper settings. Adaptive damping is an option our car doesn’t have, and so far I’m finding its secondary ride on its passive set-up rather coarse. The AWD system uses a mechanical diff at the front, an electronic one at the rear, and up to 50 per cent of the torque can be sent to the rear wheels. The trade-off between feisty, accessible performance and a car that does a bouncy castle impression on the M25 is one I’ll be exploring.