In today for an oil change on my 07 MCSa (jcw 1). Factory JCW car sitting outside the dealership w/ plates so I asked for a test drive being a curious car junkie. No problem.

This car had the "launch kit" incl. aero package, blacked out side skuttles, and alcantra JCW steering wheel. $36.5 K yikes...( I have the parts guy looking into getting the side skuttles for me..they look nice and I am not a fan of the OEM ones). New JCW wheels/ red brakes look great.

Very impressive. Car is quick. Everything is more immediate than my friend's 6 sp manual JCW stage 1. Power seems to come on lower and pull harder all the way up the tach. Brakes are awesome. IMHO--I still feel the power difference from OEM to stage 1 is bigger than from stage 1 to stage 2. The test drive was short AS I did NOT want to fall too much in love with the car. This car had 430 miles on it BUT that is my initial impression. Out of respect to a "new car" I did not even use the sport button. Perhaps that would have widened the perceived gap.

NOW--for the biggest differences TO ME. The clutch feel on this car is infinitely better. Torque steer was virtually non existent by comparison.
I specifically left myself some room before hitting it hard the first time expecting the added power to rip the wheel from my hands. Less torque steer than my auto trans JCW stage 1 and much less than other JCW 6 sp. manual cars I have driven. It also seemed quieter than my car but that might be mileage related as I have 8K miles on my JCW exhaust.

Wish I was in the market for am factory car. THAT IS ONE HOT MINI.

 

It already has 430 miles on it? That's a lot of test drives...

 

The salesman told me he was taking it home for the upcoming weekend.
I am sure that is adding to the miles on the odometer.

I was actually surprised they had one for demo purposes. They have almsot zero inventory of any MINIs. I guess the gas crisis is helping someone...

 

My dealership got a similar JCW with the launch kit and it's not being sold. Demo and test drive only, and even that, only "interested" buyers would be allowed to test drive it. It had ~15 miles on it when I drove it. :P

 

My dealership is fairly open about test drives. I was "just curious" and told the guy that. I am a steady customer. On my 2nd Mini and numerous referrals BUT none of my "people" were there and this was a new MA.

He just took a copy of my license and handed me they keys.

When we went outside he looked at my car parked next to the demo and asked...is that a JCW automatic--how did you pull that off?

 

I was in for some service at my dealer today and they let me take a JCW out for a ride. I thought my S had more power. I can't believe that would be true, but I think it is because the turbo spools up so much quicker. When I take off with my S you can really feel the turbo kick in and pull. With the JCW I never felt the turbo kick in, so I must assume it was spooling up right away. The best part about the car was the exhaust. It sounded awesome. When you took the car up to redline in first gear and shifted it make a fantastic little "burble". I asked if they were selling the exhaust as an add on. They told me right now the only way to get it is to get the stage 1 engine kit.

 

Did you have Sport mode turned on?

I drove an 07 MCS a couple weeks ago and a 09 JCW last week and thought the JCW seemed much, much faster. Not sure how much it changes things, but I didn't have Sport mode turned on in the MCS, whereas I did in the JCW.

 

Yes, I did have it turned on. It was the first thing I did.

 

Sounds great

My dealership shows 2 in stock online (most likely pre-sold) and priced from $31,900 PW to $35,900 AB naturally not including ADM.

 

Thread moved and duplicate cross-post deleted.

emtrey - please don't cross-post, per the NAM Site Guidelines:

 

The exhaust systems are different and the burble is a result of the stage 2 ECU programming, so unfortunately you won't get that with the dealer stage 1 kit.

 

Also the Stage 1 exhaust is a fairly minimal cat back and the factory JCW exhaust is a full turbo back.

 

i too got to test drive a JCW and man was she sweet!!!!! From the growl from her boot to the stickiness of her tread. and then i touched her sweet spot, the sport button. she tightened up nicely, my MA evenly let me take her on the hiway. i didn't want to abuse her but Oscar ( MA ) didn't mind or at least until he warned me, as i was doing 80 on a beautiful straight way back to the dealership.......... of the police precinct on my right hand side. whoooaaa!!! quick downshift, my girlfriend and daughter thought that was funny.

and then i put in my order for a pw week 33 production, 2nd week in sept delivery. let the wait begin

 

Drove one yesterday at MINI of Pittsburgh, during lunch.

It was sitting outside, I walked in and said, "you got a 2009 JC...." Before I could say W, the key was in the air, being tossed to me by the sales manager....

I said "I'll be back!" and proceeded to drive it around for ~45 minutes.

All I can say is WOW!!!

As I was walking out to the car, one of the service techs proceeded to give me the dealership address, so that I would remember where to bring it back!

 

There is one a launch JCW Clubman at DTM in Orlando. The salesmanager told me he'd buy back my Clubman S if I wanted to switch out. The look my wife gave me last night said no! Nice car. I may try to drive it tomorrow.

 

I test drove one yesterday. While it was quite a bit stronger than a regular S it wasn't as quick a mine - but then again it doesn't have the same mods I do either.

I can't wait to put the same mods on a JCW =)

 

i drove a jcw clubman at mtts this past weekend. it was pretty sweet and i was really pleasantly surprised. i haven't had a turbo car in a few years and the whoosh sound brought back good memories. what stood out the most to me were the brakes. maybe it was 'cuz it was a new car and a hot day, but the brakes were awesome! mine's felt like a minivan's in comparison. it was a little grabby and a bit hard to articulate at first, but boy did the car stop. another thing that jumped out at me was how big the clubman SEEM in person but the car handled so sweetly. the exhaust note on the jcw is interesting. it's definitely very distinctive, and i suspect some people might find it weird. but i like it a lot. overall, i was very impressed by it. if i had a bunch of $ and want to buy a new car that's family-approved, the jcw clubman would be it. i've always loved fast wagons. plus, the black and red paint coupled w/ the rectangular clubman spoiler remind me of the a-team van

 

JCW has loads of torque, excellent brakes, but the gearbox is not very good. THrow is too long and it cant handle high rpm shifts. Power is all mid end and you have to say goodbye to it at high rpms. The exhaust on the clubman is very impressive. Overral, a decent car. MUCH better than the non JCW i'm afraid.

 

No it's no Lotus (thank God).