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1st GearNew members: make an initial post and introduce yourself as you shift from Neutral to First Gear. Current members: meet some of the new members.
Just registered and thought I'd say hi. Looking forward to exploring the whole mini line up as I learn before my first purchase.
Married with a 3 and 4 year old. Car would occasionally have us all in it but would primarily function as Dad's whip.
Initially exploring all models except Countryman.
First question I have that I'm going to explore with search function is the differences between S model and JCW for 2-door hardtop.
welcome to the forum. You came to the right place for your questions. I am sure that others will follow with far more knowledge of the differences.
My my first question for you is: What generation are you looking for? The first generation is the most go-cart like and have superchargers. The later generations have turbos and grew with each generation.
Horsepower! The Gen-1 S (supercharged) has 163-hp. Very peppy because of the light weight. The JCW of that same era includes additional headwork, exhaust, injector and other mods that push it north of 200-hp. Even more fun.
Hi and welcome to NAM!
The 06 MCS JCW came from the factory with 210 HP. They are zippy and are designed to cut curves without the lag a turbo has on the gen 2 and later models. This is only important if you drive the curves like you stole the car! The supercharger comes on smoothly and climbs in horse power evenly, which is important, coming into and going out of sharp turns. The turbos can make better horsepower, but need to be tamed in hard cornering.
I am a gen 1 kinda guy, so I am biased to the handling portion. I live in the twisties and would want it no other way!
The verts are fun too, but I feel a little better with the hatch models for thrashing around. I also have a 08 Justa vert, which gets used very little. It is fun, but with an automatic, it is not me! Whine not walnuts, can give you the heads up on the verts, as he has a high hp model that he flogs in and is biased to verts!
Whatever you get, you still need to drive it like you stole it! LOL!
Here is mine:
Hello, I am from Omaha as well, and have had my 2005 R52S Vert for just over a year and it is a blast to drive. 1st gen S is really responsive above about 23-2500rpm, I'm sure the JCW would be even more so. Easy and relatively inexpensive to put 25-35 more HP into the S model. Welcome to the forum.
