While driving down the HWY I contemplated for the 10,000th time (not kidding) why the leather steering wheel is so hard and "plastic-y" feeling. Let's be honest, for a leather steering wheel it sucks. It occurred to me that BMW/MINI purposely designed the steering wheel for accurate feedback and feel. A thick rimmed leather steering wheel would numb the sensations from the roadway. The R56 has probably the quickest and most accurate turn-in available in FWD, but with electric PS feedback is slightly numb. A hard steering wheel was MINI's way of mitigating the numbness associated with EPS.

With all this being said MINI could've still made a "hard/firm" leather steering wheel feel good in your hands. I'll give 2 examples:

The M steering wheel found on E24 M6, E28 M5 and E30 325es, 325is and M3. My '86 325es had one and it was PERFECTION.

The Factory MOMO wheel on my 2006 Forester XT. Made in Italy this steering wheel is firm and is the business. Very similar to the M steering wheel of the 1980's. Both are very firm but FEEL like high quality leather. I marveled at how great it looked and felt on every single drive. Just like how I marvel at how terrible the wheel is in the R56!!!

 

Mine's hard as a rock as well. Though it looks like leather, even has what looks stitching, I've suspected it's actually plastic..

 

But they made the JCW steering wheel thicker and softer.

 

They sure did. It looks pretty awesome especially in Alcantara. But it's $450

 

The point I was making is that if the stock steering wheel was purposely designed to be thin and hard for performance, then why would they abandon those principles for the JCW wheel?

 

Yes, it does feel really good.