Had some time to kill, so I stopped by my local Mini dealer. They had a new Mini S JCW available to test drive---YEAH! They tossed me the keys and said, "have fun". I had driven an R56 before and was looking forward to the JCW. WOW..... Now, I have a MCS04, and I'm not afraid to put the throttle down and run it through the gears. But this car had more power than this old man could handle. Fun, Yes. Power, Yes. Torque steer, Yes. I loved every second of it. But, I thought, "where would I ever use this kind of power"? I don't track, just street drive. I don't care. I wanted it. So, being excited about the thought about owning such a machine, I went home and built up a Mini the way I would want it. WOW. $33,000. That $10,000 more than I paid for my 04 MCS. Grant it, I would be getting a new car and a beauty at that, but $33,000 is alot of cheese , even for someone from Wisconsin. So I have resigned myself to being happy with my MCS04. It's still the most fun car I have ever owned. When I came back from the test drive, Ryan, the salesperson, ask me what I thought. I said, " is there such a thing as too much power? I'd burn through a set of tires every 10,000 miles." It seemed to me the tires were spinning all the time. Oh...if I were 30 years younger...or $10,000 richer.

 

Nice review! I don't test drive cars that I know I'd be tempted to purchase for a reason.

 

I came to the same conclusion re cost. I thought my 04 JCW was a decadent purchase at $25k. I'e decided to drive mine as long as I can, and continue to upgrade along the way. next up... big valve head.

You've also inspired me to lose my rear spoiler.

 

If you will be dreaming about the power of the R56 JCW, just mod your car. For half the price of that +$10k vs your 04 MCS, you can have a decent power upgrade close enough to satisfy your need for speed and even few hundreds on the suspension to further improve an already great handling car. Personally, I like to looks of the R53 and whine of the Supercharger.
This just me but I am glad you had a good time driving the new car. In fact I will aslo sign up for the next Mini Driving Invitation to try out the R56 MCS not to buy but add another Mini experience.