For a daily, the r58, my opinion only, the gp is a great car for me though I worry about it as a daily driver, it's too low, but drives amazing. I do like the stiffness of the coupe tho, that brace goes from side to side nicely....remember the gp was supposed to be a coupe 😊

 

It will be a 3rd fun car. And DD at times but I will have my old beater comfy vw with dsg if I want to relax.

 

Since you've already custom ordered the coupe, I'd recommend to stick with it. There will always be opportunities to pick up a pre-owned GP in the future, but there is only one R58 custom spec'd by you.

 

Drove a GP today. God what a great mini. Now I wish I could just drive a JCW coupe to do a direct comparison.

 

Too bad your not in CT I could help u out ☺

 

Haha yeah it would be nice. I guess this is the major drawback when shopping for rare cars. The GP is awesome. I just wonder how close the JCW Coupe is!! The steering on the GP seems quicker than I remember my R56 being. I am wondering if the steering rack is different on those cars too.

Can you describe if the coupe and GP have different steering feel?

Also while being stiff the GP billsteins are great. I wonder if the coupe + sport/JCW feels anywhere close. The GP turn in is so immediate and crisp. The brakes are great too.

My ordered coupe could be here as early as 11/8 so perhaps I can just wait, but I found a few unsold GPs I may want to move on.

I am now really bummed I didn't get the GP in Camarillo. $31k w/1180 mi!!!

 

Sorry to butt in but I went to Mini of Camarillo to pick up my other car today. We took Amtrak to Camarillo and Kim from the dealer came to pick us up on time at the station. Super friendly and nice person/dealership. They got my car all washed and filled up with gas all ready to go. Kept it real nice for the past 5 days. I wish the dealership is close to me so I can take my GP for service.

 

So how much did you end up paying?

 

I bought my GP2 in Camarillo. Best, car buying experience

 

The steering rack is the same. The difference in feel you describe is mainly due to the wheel alignment, and to some degree the kumho's.

The GP comes with negative camber on the front, and neutral to slight toe out. This gives it fantastic turn in feel. On the downside it also makes the car tend to wander on the road, tram track slightly etc.

You might find this article interesting. It is a review I was involved in of GP2 vs JCW vs JCW with KW coilovers http://www.ausmotive.com/2013/08/03/...v-mini-gp.html

 

Wow! Great article. Thanks so much for that. This definitely matches with my best guess as to how the JCW coupe would compare with the GP. It seems JCW suspension + JCW coupe is going to be around 3/5 if the GP is 5/5. Great stuff. With that said I am still drooling on a GP.

 

Well I'm still fairly up in the air. I love the Coupe, but I just recently drove the GP and that is definitely the best R56 mini I've ever driven. I've never driven the R58 coupe unfortunately so I can't do a ranking there.

So my current plan is to wait for the R58 to get here, try it out then make my choice. I've found a great GP at a great price, but it's far away from me. I'm not sure if I want to go through all that trouble, but I kinda do.

 

I'd go with the GP for looks alone. Never been much a fan of the baseball-cap esque roofline of the coupe.

 

I figure its time for me to chime in here. I had a 2015 FIST which I quickly did the stage 3 tune on. The car was a monster and would keep up with Caymans and cars way outside its price range in the twisties.

Here's my owner review, make sure you go to the end because I talk about it after returning the lease. https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forum...sta_ST_30000_m

I recently picked up a really clean and sorted 2006 R53 with 104,000 miles and I would say they are very different cars.

Let me know if you have specific questions about the car.

 

The GP2 is truly magical and capable on track. I have the onlins/vorschlag set up with a quaife lsd up front. Just had 2 track days at Laguna Seca. My friends modded golf r on same tires was over 2 seconds behind. The car is a beast with no bad habits!

 

Hi Ckussoff,

I just bought Ohlins for my GP2, as well, i was wondering if I could go without the Vorshlag plates. I was told on this forum that the ohlins, if lowered to the stock GP2 height would still give me the -1.5 camber, without having to add the plates. Do you know if this is correct?

Thanks