The LA Times/Chicago Tribune are currently running a full review of the John Cooper Works MCS. Here's an excerpt:

“The BMW-built 2004 Mini Cooper is not a perfect automobile. Let us just take a moment to let that understatement reverberate: The back seat is the automotive equivalent of a spider hole in Tikrit. The ride is rough enough to disqualify you from future organ donations. Compared with the amniotic hush of a Lexus LS 430 or Volkswagen Phaeton, the Mini's warbling, static-filled ambience sounds as if it was recorded in Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio.

But the Mini – especially the John Cooper Works edition I drove recently – is a righteous piece, a snubbed-down, amped-up, hot rod Hobbit that turns the most galling stop-and-go errand into an occasion for joyous gear-jamming and games of Diss the SUV. I defy you not to love this car.

And in Los Angeles – ohmigod – the car flat-out dogs traffic. With 200 supercharged horsepower on tap, the JCW edition makes a hole in freeway traffic like a satchel charge, nicking around bigger cars and squeezing into openings stingy drivers didn't know they had left.

With its 97.1-inch wheelbase, 143.9-inch overall length and turning radius of a mere 34.2 feet, the Mini is brought to you by the letter U, as in U-turn. See a parking place on the other side of the street? You are on it like Snoop on a fatty.

…With its wide stance, short wheelbase and quick steering ratio, the Mini JCW turns on a dime and leaves 11 cents change. The electrohydraulic steering rack is heavy and accurate, and the thick steering wheel fills your hands with a sense of taut control. The car has equal-length half-shafts so that torque steer is virtually nil.”

Wow – I never thought I'd see the phrase “like Snoop on a fatty” used in a national newspaper. Regardless this is probably one of the more compentent reviews of the car and it's pros and cons that I've seen in the mainstream press. In fact it deals wth the whole MINI safety question surprisingly well:

“I am surprised how many people, cowered by the truck-frame leviathans loose in the land, ask me whether the Mini is safe. Well, in a head-on with a Suburban, no, but that's certainly the worst-case scenario. The Cooper won top marks in crash testing from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The car is replete with air bags and inflatable side curtains, multiple brake systems (anti-lock, corner brake control and electronic brake-force distribution) and traction and stability controls. But my philosophy is they can't hit what they can't catch, so I think the Mini JCW is pretty darn safe.”

You can check out the entire article here.