Will do for sure. Probably a good three weeks out though.

 

Picked up my 2016 JCW 6MT last night. Won't have much of a chance to do any serious driving until the weekend (which'll be a nice 500 mile run). First impression, the clutch is *way* different to what I'm used to (disclaimer: my other car is a 1994 Toyota Pickup with 250K miles on it). The linkage is nice and tight and produces a satisfying pop when cycling through the gears. Feels refined. More later.

 

Congrats on the delivery!

I do agree the clutch was weird right off the lot. The engagement point isn't very communicative and is right off the floor, which isn't common. As mine has broken-in, the engagement point as moved towards the middle of the pedal, which is much easier to manage when I transition to other cars.

 

There's a MT JCW in the showroom at the Oakville dealer up here. First impression of the clutch... It's quite light, but the travel is a bit more than I was expecting. (If it's true that the engagement point is quite near the floor... I'm not sure if I'm such a fan of that.)

ALSO, for ME, the most glaring thing, was that if I adjusted the seat to what was ergonomically comfortable--I'm 5'11"--and the gas & brake pedals felt like they were at an ideal distance... the clutch pedal was uncomfortably far away. I was more or less on my tippy-toes to reach it! And if I adjusted so that the CLUTCH was good for me, everything else--gas, brake, shifter, dash--was too close! Gonna take one out for a test drive in two weeks... I'll see how the real-world MT performance & ergonomics shake out.

 

I understand why many JCW owners want a MT, and in fact the first 2 years of the R56 JCW you couldn't get an automatic, but the automatic is actually pretty sweet, and I drove a manual MCS for 7 years too. Just make sure you get the paddle shifters. I don't think I'd go back to a manual now. It downshifts right away just tap on the gas. The only negative is that at about 40 MPH on level ground it wants to be in 4th gear instead of 3rd.

 

They'll have to pry the manual shift **** out of my cold dead hand.

 

Manual or nothing. Sure, the AT gets a better 0 to 60 time and better fuel economy, but I like to be in control of which gear my car is in and when.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

In my limited experience the paddle shifting mode seems to give one that same control. I've been a manual lifer but am trying the automatic with paddles this go around. Won't get new jcw until around the third week of October but I'll post feed back on experience after driving it a while

 

I like the paddle shifter. My only complaint is that it always upshifts to 4th after about 10 seconds when I'm going over 40mph. I can use the lever to keep it in 3rd around town but it wants to be in 4th. My friend's F56 wants to be in 5th at 42 MPH. She doesn't have a JCW though.

 

I know what you mean. Just the other day, I hit the "+" paddle shifter and the transmission slammed into 4th from 1st, grinding the h*ll out of the synchros!

Wait, sorry, I'm thinking of Bizarro World.

Seriously, though, I do love the fact that the F56 JCW has so many manual transmission takers, but for a non-DCT slushbox, the auto in the JCW is awfully good. In manual mode, it will hold a gear and allow you to bang into the limiter (ask me how I know) and will nearly bark the tires on full throttle upshifts in sport and/or manual modes. And whatever delay it has on shifts after a paddle click is very short and very consistent.

The tech has just gotten that good. The auto is faster and gets better mileage. I might have considered a manual but the car goes on long trips from time to time and the auto makes it a much easier drive in traffic.

My 2 cents.

 

I've had a little bit of time to drive it. Just hit 1,000 miles and I've been babying it through the break-in period. Maybe it's just me, and maybe because I only ever drive it in Sport Mode, but I have a hard time transitioning from clutch to gas smoothly in 1st and even into 2nd. Could just be because of how much power is going down. Not sure yet. All I know is the right amount of gas to get the speed to get out of first, is way too much gas once you get to second or there's a huge surge of power. I'm getting the hang of it but it feels like there's a bit of a learning curve there.

I've got a lot of other observations about the car, but this is a manual transmission thread, so I think I'll save them for elsewhere.

If anyone has a specific question about the MT I'll be happy to answer to the best of my ability.

 

That's also my only complaint with the accelerator pedal; the torque request amount is different in 1st gear than the other gears. It makes 1st feel lazy so you add more pedal angle, and then shifting into 2nd you need less pedal angle to get the same torque output. It's a bit maddening at first but once you understand what's going on it's easy to adapt. I'm just not sure why MINI felt it was a good calibration decision.

 

Agree with this, and I'm glad you mentioned it because I might have driven myself crazy thinking it was just me. Absolutely love this car with MT. It was well worth the wait.