#MiniJohnCooperWorks

The new limited-edition  MINI John Cooper Works Challenge has been revealed, inspired by a MINI Challenge race car.

Unveiled ahead of its official debut at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, MINI is showing off the John Cooper Works variant of its latest Cooper compact.

The latest spy photos of the MINI Cooper JCW reveal that it’s nearly ready for production.

The 2015 MINI John Cooper Works will share its powerplant with the BMW 225i Active Tourer, a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 231 hp.

Pop-pop-pop! The exhaust of the MINI John Cooper Works I’m driving reacts enthusiastically as I let off the gas and carefully point the car to the apex of the turn, then accelerate the little car towards the short straight between turns five and six on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.

As expected, the MINI John Cooper Works GP has made its American debut at the 2012 LA Auto Show today.

We have already seen the Mini JCW GP in the flesh, and now details have leaked revealing that the car will make 218 hp, and achieve a top speed of about 150 mph.

The MINI John Cooper Works GP was unveiled back in May, flexing an impressive Nurburgring lap time of 8 minutes and 23 seconds. The British automaker figured it was time to show off the radical aerodynamics that helped achieve that time.

The John Cooper Works (JCW) MINI lineup will all get a revised 1.6-liter engine based on its predecessor with performance numbers being the same at 208-hp and 207 lb-ft of torque.

It turns out that the results are pretty interesting when you combine a  MINI Countryman JCW and a man in a flying squirrel suit. 

To show off the capabilities of the John Cooper Works Edition MINI Countryman, the creative ad people over at MINI attached a man in a wing suit to the roof, and we all get to enjoy the heart racing stunts that ensue.

Watching a man double up as a flying squirrel is pretty impressive, even more so when he releases his tow and shoots out over a cliff to fly.

Crazy ads are nothing new for the British marque , but that doesn’t seemed to have stemmed enthusiasm to shoot more.

Watch the MINI Countryman JCW commercial below. It’s a re-hashed version of something we ran earlier this month, but there’s a lot more flying squirrel suit footage in this version.

MINI was proud to announce today that a John Cooper Works Super Production Car (SPC) captured its first FIA International event win this past weekend. Driver Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari took the checkered flag home at the Qatar International Rally, the first found in the 2012 Middle East Rally Championship (MERC).