Mini flashes its extreme John Cooper Works GP at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring

Car manufacturer Mini has demonstrated its upcoming fastest-and-greatest hot hatchback, the John Cooper Works GP, at the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring race last weekend. The car wore a thick test mule wrap, but its primary features had been revealed before, anyway.

Compared to its cousins, the Mini John Cooper Works GP flaunts a sophisticated aerodynamic kit including an enormous two-tier rear wing, a rear diffuser, a front splitter, and bulky side blades reportedly necessary to stabilize the air flow.

While the pre-facelift Mini John Cooper Works shipped with an engine only good for 231 hp (172 kW), the new GP packs north of 300 hp (224 kW). We suspect that it might ship with the same turbocharged engine as the Mini JCW Clubman and Countryman (306 hp / 228 kW).

The souped-up hot hatch should prove to be drastically better in terms of track performance, too. While the previous generation took 8 minutes 23 seconds to finish the North Loop, the next-gen prototype has already managed the entire course in 8 minutes flat. The tests are still underway, and it is possible that the result will improve with time.

The Mini John Cooper Works GP series will include only 3,000 cars and will arrive on the market in 2020.

Photos: Mini