Here’s an excerpt from Motortorque
>Demand for the JCW kit — the only MINI-endorsed tuning kit – has never been stronger, particularly in the UK, where one in nine Cooper S hatchback purchasers last year opted to up their MINI’s power output from 170 to 210bhp. Brits now sit atop the international MINI power league, ahead of both the Americans and the Germans in the ratio of JCW kits fitted to cars sold.
>By May this year, four hundred kits had already been sold to UK MINI drivers, more than in the USA, which sells twice as many Cooper S.
>In line with the global popularity of the tuning kits, the growing range of John Cooper Works accessory products is also flying off the shelves. Introduced at the start of the year, seven hundred sets of the new JCW Sports brakes, which will be factory-fitted alongside the JCW tuning kit from October, have already been sold worldwide.
You can read the entire article here:
[ 10,000 John Cooper Works kits sold ] Motortorque
So much for the allure of exclusivity…
Well technically it’s about 20 times more exclusive than a stock MCS. (10k JCW MCS vs 200,000k -/+ MCS)
So from Ian’s sales charts, that is 7.6% of all MINIs, or 15.6% of all MCSes. Not quite as exclusive as we were led to believe. But hey..I sure can’t blame anyone. 🙂
Its not really about exclusivity, its about the POWER! Not that I have any, I drive a normal Cooper 🙂 JCW kit is fun for those who are willing to pay for it, everyone could use more power!
Just to clarify, that’s 10,000 JCW MCS sold worldwide over thhe course of two and a half years.
Actually that article was posted in July, making it 17.3% of all MCSes!!
Oh OK I see now, Ian’s sales are for USA only..sorry Gabe 🙂
Well it is believable seeing as it seems 20% are JCW that I know of.
Ya want exclusivity get a Enzo.
10,000 is fairly exclusive, but many of us didn’t purchase our JCW kits for just the exclusivity. In fact, it really wasn’t a big consideration for me. I wanted the fact that it was a factory kit. Ultimately I wanted the value of the factory kit. I know it isn’t the cheapest, but after a year, I still think it was a good investment, and I would do it again.
I know this is antecdotal, but I have had a number of people, who were not Mini owners, come and talk to me outside of restaurants and the mall about the JCW kit. They see the badges and know enough about it to briefly talk about it. That is the kind of cache the kit has. I never had anyone walk up to me out of the blue and said “Hmmm, that is one of the Mini’s with a 15% reduction pulley isn’t it?” (except for other Mini owners at a meet). I didn’t get the kit so I could talk to strangers about it, but it does carry an interesting perspective on the car.
I know at the 5,000 mark, JCW said that they had not experienced a single failure on any of their kits. I wonder if this still holds true at the 10,000 mark.
Has anyone heard of any problems with the JCW brake kits. According to customers of Nashville MINI, they are currently having Problems, and are not currently selling the kit. I don’t know the nature of the problems, but apparently there are no spare parts for them. Phil Wicks’ car is in for the second time with JCW brake problems.
<blockquote>Phil Wicks’ car is in for the second time with JCW brake problems.</blockquote>
The fact that he’s running the kit with R84 X-lites may have something to do with it. The R84 is specifically not meant for the kit due to cooling problems. That coupled with the amount of track time the car gets can’t be a good thing.
I have the JCW Tuning Kit for my MINI Cooper (not MCS). I’m still trying to find others with this rare kit. I’d also like to know how many of those kits were made (mine is no. 475).
I had the JCW Brake Kit installed on my car in August 2005. I had it removed after three weeks. I had done one track day (HPD) during that time and both JCW rotors warped (no other spirited driving). I had the 18″ JCW Wheels with Proxies 4 tires. (I had done four track days with the stock brakes and never had any warping…)
After contacting MINI USA and JCW I was told that the JCW brakes are designed for “mildly spirited” driving. Not for use for road rallies or high performance driving of any kind.
I put Wilwoods on and have been very happy.
man, its hard to believe they have only sold 10,000 of the kits over the few years its been out.
its weird to think theres only 10,000 of those buggers runnin around the world….
I got the JCW kit because I wanted the performance and am one of those types that will not really add anything to car for the next 10 years. Since I knew I would basically need to order it with what I wanted or forever live without I decided to go for it. I didn’t (and don’t) care about the whole exclusivity thing. I think of JCW like most options, they don’t add a ton to the re-sale value of the car and are more for the person buying it than anyone.
Hmmm . . . Michae, sorry to hear about your bad experience with the JCW brakes. My experience has been the opposite. I’ve done 3 track days with my JCW brake kit so far, 2 with my Stock S-Lites and runflats (1 in the heat of August at Thunderhill, air temp over 100 deg.) with no sign of fading or warping. The last outing was with my new Kosei wheels and Yoko 048’s. My lap times decreased over my 04 JCW, which I attribute to the LSD, sport suspension and JCW brakes on the new car. When I pulled the rear seat and changed into my new track shoes, I dropped another 2 seconds per lap. I can carry more speed into and through the turns than all but a very few highly modified cars on the track because I can brake later. I just put a micrometer on the front brake pads and have used only 3 mm of material in 7200 miles of spirited motoring. I am very happy with my setup.
James,
you have a rare kit indeed. I have never seen another JCW MC. That is pretty cool and if you hold onto it, it will probably be worth something, probably more than the kit cost to put on.
Ceridian,
I may have to beg to differ with you. The JCW kit will add more to the resale of the kit than any other option that you can purchase for the car. You may still not get a 100% back, but you can get pretty close to it.
James must mean the JCW sound kit. I am certain there isn’t a tuning kit from JCG for the Cooper.