That review video above was pretty good. What I take away from that is the car really looks better in the flesh than I had thought it might look. It's still not as good as the concept version but not bad at all. I'm a manual transmission guy (like in my JCW), but those paddle shifters are "proper" imo...much more flexible and easy to use than most, especially like the ones in our 2015 Countryman S All4. One thing I really think they missed the boat on is leaving the chrome beltline trim...come on MINI, you even offer a blacked out option now these days right? They missed on that feature. Will be interesting to see how fast they sell out! I have no doubt the GP3 will be FAST! Did you notice how relaxed the driver looked compared to the passenger who was moving all over the place, as he didn't have the steering wheel to hang onto! LOL! Overall, nicely done video.

 

Great to meet you Jeff, not sure the Project Lead on the GP3 could keep up with all those questions we fired at her

Your photos were way better than mine, looks great.

Takeaways from learning more from the horses mouth who helped develop the car was the fact its track ready - the work they've put into the engine, gearbox and cooling along with chassis strengthening is way above what they did with the GP1/2. I can not wait to get my hands on one and see what it can do at the track. Already bought the Cali vanity plate for mine, going to have to rock it on another car until this one arrives.

I did a walk-around video on the car too, its the first time I've ever done a youtube video like this so excuse the fact I held the phone the wrong way round and then had to overdub the video due to crappy microphone.


Got sent this today, already looks good fake modded:

 

They used another semi slick to impress! Did anybody of the VIPs drove it himself ?
Does the car offer a 30 kg removal of AC as said ?

 

But in total this car is for a few very useful, as a solid base ;-)



My present GP2 is on that level as well, but the stock engine and it's out of the box 50HP boost is to enter a different level. Don't forget what a removal of that "Greta Filta" will gain?

 

MINI will be offering semi-slicks for sale at the dealers for GP3 owners which is a nice touch - these in the pic are I believe the same ones.

No one got to drive it, MINI brought in race drivers to do passenger hot laps.

One option pack on the car... with A/C, nav and some other toys or without. Without I can see a 30kg saving for sure having taken out ours for our track MINI.

 

Nice GP2! And agree, stock with over 300bhp stock and all the cooling sorted and LSD and bracing ready to go makes me think this will be fantastic out the box. Thanks to the engine being worked on too taking it to 350bhp should be no issue, I think on these it will be the gearbox that will be torque limited for reliability long term if you push those torque number higher.

 

The auto gets the additional oil cooler of the F40, such as the whole car`s wider track. The missing MT is for me a pain, under the aspect of competition, on the other hand, anybody who drives 300 hp on a daily F56, knows that the manual works fine in the hands of a few and bring that ride under 1100kgs to make it anyhow special.

Auto is a safety issue for the most.

 

The auto is a game changer for old farts with bad knees. Age does not lessen the desire for fast fun in twisties and on the tracks. I enjoyed manual transmissions as they do seem to make the driver more connected and a part of the machine, but it is hard to beat new technological advances in all aspects. Enjoy the time we have left with internal combustion engines. All to soon the speedsters that sound like a sewing machine will be the ones to beat.

 

With modern transmissions the missing manual box isn't something that has bothered me, flappy paddles when tuned for the application, as I'm assured this trans has been, will in 90% of hands be quicker than average joe rowing through gears whilst trying to rev match and/or trail brake into corners. Plus if I was that serious about making it work on track, I'd probably pull the box out anyway and swap in the sequential box from the Challenge MINI's and call it good.

 

to mod a transmission is costly needs specialist, the present layout considers a further oil-cooler in that fat coolpack - very cost- and in-effective, just to keep AC function alive.

I was thinking of getting a cleaned up frontend (without condenser), an engine with no compressor, nor a clutch belt running aside. No tubing to the evap of course. If they should grab that out as well Bingo, but they should keep that for easy reasons.

No they don't have done that, or I bet they won't do it and that's for me a no-buy!

 

"MINI will be offering semi-slicks for sale at the dealers for GP3 owners which is a nice touch - these in the pic are I believe the same ones."

Some already use 225 from Michelin to know its kicks and fits, but i would never buy from MINI a tire )))))

 

All,
New to the forum here. Just placed the order for GP3. Never had GP but have a Countryman All4S as my daily which helped me place the deposit when the window opened for mini owners to place the deposit this past Friday.
Dealers are claiming limited to 500 here in states but i think almost 700-900 will come to US given the production now is 3000 units worldwide instead of 2000 units.
Thanks
Loki

 

Everything I have read stated that 300 be allocated to the US market. Has that changed?

 

Here is a link to an article from Australia about the GP3, interesting although somewhat flawed in what the author state.
https://www.chasingcars.com.au/mini-...oz36UklOpMkCM4

 

Another interesting, but also flawed review of the GP3. See if you notice the readily apparent flaw!

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/2...KWxSZUNKZnldsU

 

What? They are pushing out the production another year?????

And no one gets the Hp correct (at least not for US spec)

I will say, the looks of the car continue to grow on me. It is interesting to note that one of the articles states that, in addition to springs and shocks, the GP has upgraded sway bars. For anyone interested in upgrading the handling of their F56, upgrading both the front and rear swaybars works really well.

 

Wow haven't posted here in a long time. I placed a deposit on the New Gp ( sold my Gp2 about 3 yrs ago). Anyone know what the tq level is on the transmission? Looking up 8G45-460 comes up with nothing but if its the same as a AWF8F45 than its limited to like 350ft-lbs.. which would suck if you tend to mod the GP the trans wont be able to handle more power.

 

Bigshow pointed out that the hood scoop functions. Wonder how it keeps water out of the engine bay, don't see any water diverters or connection to the Air intake (like Eventuri).

 

The hood scoop doesn't function. It's blocked off like all the other modern mini's

 

Welcome and Congratulations!

The U.S. will see a little less than 500 GP units. There definitely will not be more than 500. And all will be sold via the online ordering process, not through the dealer in the traditional way. The dealers will not receive an allocation or any stock units, unless there are vehicles not reserved through the online process, in which case there will be a lottery for dealers. From what I heard today, there are less than 100 left!

All U.S. GPs are 2021 models.

Cheers

 

Well they could've done a sports seat that would've been available as an option for all F-series and just put it as a standard on the GP3. Like the Recaros on GP1 that just came with unique color stitching. Although in the US the GP1 didn't get them, I guess for the same reason as with the R56 Recaros.

There was a Sparco option for the R53 (at least in Europe), available as cloth, leather and alcantara, with a JCW logo on the backrest. I have the cloth ones in mine...

 

Boy, we sure seem to be in a rush to plunk down our cash in order to secure a toy that very few are sure about what it will do! Kudos to mini marketing, they have us all like Pavlov's dogs, and we are happy to be there! Even though flawed this new GP is the best one yet! I am like a kid at Christmas waiting for Santa. Sort of fun in a masochistic way! Bring on the cars! Then the long wait until they actually are built, shipped and arrive! I bought our first JCW off the lot, an R56 and fell in love with it immediately and we had great trips, adventures and tons of fun in it. Then we ordered F56 JCW and it was a game changer and a very fast little beastie with a few mods, but a truly comfortable riding car and dolled up with the blackjack package and other bling. The GP will take things to a new level and we are really looking forward to it and we will have fun with it too. Minis are built for fun and they have been quite successful at that. This GP should be the best yet.

 

Thanks much for the info...am surprised still close to 100 are left given the reservation windows have been open for a week now

 

OK - I have been a diehard MT traditionalist here, having start my driving on a farm tractor, then a MGA with no synchro in 1st or 2nd, a BMW 2002, Fiat 124 spider, Chevy HD 3/4 Ton PU w/stick and then 3 MINIs with sticks.

So what happened... Today I got a loaner of a 2020 MINI Clubman S All4 with the JCW steering wheel with paddle shifters. It just took 5 miles of driving and I could be a quick convert to drop the stick and go with this. I understood the point of having the paddle shifters, but I had no clue as to how nice they are to use.

The paddles are in the exact right spot on the steering wheel and have a nice feel. The up shifts come off with a real solid feel. The engine revs freely which allows the manual shifting to be useful. At moderate speeds (50-ish) it would let me manually up shift into 8th, which is about 1500 rpm (or less). Downshift are nicely done with rev matching, but they could be a little more solid, which was a comment about the JCW Clubman. It will downshift on its own, but it is at a very low speed and it did it when I was braking for a stop. Not sure what would happen if I had just coasted to a really slow speed. One oddity is that, if in a high gear and in the manual shift mode, it will down shift on its own if the throttle is mashed to the floor, but it doesn’t upshift from there. You have to do the upshifts manually from there... Also, I did this at a very low RPM and I didn’t play with it to see what would happen if I was higher up in the RPMs. Maybe it did this to save the engine from lugging and it won’t do this at higher RPMs?

I did try manually shifting using the shift lever, but it is not as nice as using the paddles and if that was the only way to do it, the AT would be a deal breaker; I would rather have a manual. Having the paddles is what makes it all come together and makes the AT worth while having.

Overall, I am impressed and I can see the GP3 working really well with the “slush-box” and working much better than with the stick. I think the people who get the GP3 are not going to miss the manual no matter how much of a diehard manual shifter person they started out as... Just MHO...

PS - can’t correct the subject - that should have said “convert”... (Done. your wish is our command!)

 

I thought the GP3 has a dual clutch box (and JCW Clubby too), not a traditional slush-box transferring power in to heat..?