Fastest Factory Mini Ever Built

This was, at the very least, a perfect matchup of car and track. We've just returned from enjoying a day-trip drive in a pre-production 2012 Mini Coupe, the very two-door that is due for worldwide deliveries at the start of October. Not only that, the only model available to drive was the 208-horsepower John Cooper Works edition. You can imagine our sad frowns with curled lower lips.

Twisting the dagger so good this day were the peerless conditions at the very tightly wound seven-tenths of a mile Wachauring, a track located in Melk, Austria, about an hour from Vienna. The combo of a demanding circuit and great weather really gave us the chance to work the Mini Coupe hard.

Much more, including article, photos and video at Autoblog...

 

Video gives it alot more depth, but I'm still not too sold on this....

 

Glass hatch makes more sense now given all that camouflage vinyl and weighing more than a hardtop was a bit of a surprise too.

 

that rear end still doesn't look right at all