Mini JCW 2025 review: Countryman, Aceman, Hatch & Convertible

There aren’t too many non-supercar brands that get kids excited before they really understand cars, but Mini could claim to be one.

But for quite a while there have been three letters associated with Mini that are exciting to grown-ups like me - JCW.

There’s a new generation of Mini models here in Australia, and now the JCW performance variants have arrived to join them.

To test out the new JCW range, we headed to a not-so-secret test facility in Queensland to do some silly driving in a bunch of cars that fortunately don’t take themselves too seriously.

There are five cars to cover, which Mini Australia split across two activities - a wet skid pan with a slalom-motorkhana for the EVs and a fast road circuit for the internal-combustion engine (ICE) cars.

The Skid Pan: Mini Electric JCW and Mini Aceman JCW

While you might not think a manufactured lack of traction and a tightly laid-out set of traffic cones would create the best environment for an electric car, it turns out Mini Australia’s faith in the Mini Electric and its Aceman cousin surpasses a bit of water on asphalt.

Two slaloms, two cornering gates and a sharp swerve were laid out in a course that, once honed in, took no more than about 20 seconds to complete.

The tools of the trade were two: a Mini Cooper Electric JCW (Mini calls it just the ‘John Cooper Works’ but we’ll call the classic three-door hatch the ‘Cooper’ for clarity) and the Aceman JCW.

Both are built on the same electric platform and have the same outputs, but the Aceman is a bigger five-door model that was introduced to fill the space between the Cooper hatch and the Countryman small SUV.

Each has a front-mounted electric motor producing 190kW and 350Nm, drawing power from a 54.2kWh (that’s its gross capacity, there’s a 49.2kWh net capacity) battery.

In the Cooper Electric, this means a claimed electric driving range of 371km which works for a car even Mini is happy to say normally takes the ‘second spot’ in the garage. It also beats the bigger (and heavier; 1650kg plays 1745kg) Aceman’s 355km driving range by a smidge.

The battery-powered Cooper JCW feels more nimble than the Aceman as a result - as much as can be gleaned from several runs around a series of waterlogged traffic cones - helped by a shorter wheelbase (2526mm vs the Aceman’s 2606mm).

They both feel heavier than you’d be used to if petrol-powered Minis are all you’d driven before, but you won’t be disappointed with the responsiveness and urgency of the powertrain once you’re dialled-in.

From a pure driving standpoint, the three-door hatch is the one to go for, but if you do really need the extra space the Aceman offers, you’ll still find there’s plenty of fun to be had.

Oh, and it’s not that much more expensive than the hatch: the Aceman is only $2000 more expensive at $65,990, before on-road costs.

The Circuit: Mini JCW, Mini Convertible JCW and Mini Countryman JCW

Arguably the main event for enthusiasts, especially those who have been around the JCW brand for years, the petrol-powered models from the range on a test circuit seemed like a better way to properly glean some knowledge of the new cars’ dynamics.

The line-up is the classic Mini Cooper JCW, a convertible version of it and the all-wheel drive Countryman JCW small SUV, the latter a little bigger than it was before.

The Cooper and Countryman run on turbo-four power, with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission driving the front wheels in the Cooper and Convertible, and all four in the Countryman (thus the 'All4' badge it wears).

2025 Mini Countryman John Cooper Works

The power and torque output for the Countryman is a little higher to get the extra weight moving: 233kW and 400Nm trumps the 170kW/380Nm of the three-door and convertible, but it’s also carrying around a heavier powertrain and more body. It weighs 1520kg, while the Cooper hatch comes in at 1330kg and the Convertible at 1425kg.

It’s less nimble, of course, but for a car that’s capable of supporting a family holiday it's quite fun. Tyre squeal is the main warning when you start to approach the limitations of the Countryman JCW, but the body roll isn’t too pronounced and as long as you’re measured with your inputs you can get quite a bit of speed out of the Countryman

The electronic stability and traction control is well-tuned, too, and you can essentially lean on that a little if you’re not too worried about being fast. It doesn’t so much interrupt you as reign you in a little.

Mini JCW, Mini Convertible JCW and Mini Countryman JCW on the circuit

The Countryman’s increased footprint and stability plus its all-wheel drive system make for a different but still very lively drive when compared to the smaller Cooper JCW.

After a few laps each in hatch and convertible form, it was clear the classic Mini JCW is still the best one for driving enthusiasts. Sorry to spoil the day’s findings.

The JCW Convertible, which was rolling on some grippy Continental tyres, proved to be the member of the Mini JCW family with ‘fun’ firmly at the top of its list of priorities.

While a set of less focused tyres would have allowed for more rotation in corners and made for a slightly more engaged drive, the top-down JCW cornered like it was - sorry to wheel out this old adage - on rails.

Its 170kW isn’t anything to write home about on paper, but any car small enough can feel fun with even less power than that, and the Mini’s small footprint and the ability to use the paddles for shifting gears make the JCW genuinely engaging.

Its steering is sharp, its brakes work quickly without having to pull up much weight, and even though there’s some turbo-lag on occasion, the characteristics of the Mini’s engine and transmission make it feel a little old-school and fun to work around. It’s not clinical, it’s not the most capable car, but when you get it right, it feels very good.

Then there’s arguably ‘peak JCW’ - if Mini doesn’t decide to bring in an even more focused, GP version (as per past generations) - the JCW hatch.

Like the Convertible, the Mini JCW is nimble and has fun as a main focus, but the fact it has a proper roof makes it easier to incorporate into your day-to-day as well as arguably looking better.

On some less grippy tyres, the hatch also proved that being fastest and most focused doesn’t always mean being the most fun. For example, one section of the test circuit with water across the road before a corner made managing the rear movement of the car on wet tyres the kind of thing you want in a 'lively' drive.

There’s character in the Mini JCW, it still feels like the purest form of the brand’s aim to be fun. And for that reason, it remains the pick of the family.