Mini John Cooper Works review: Mini by name, maxed-out by nature

The Cooper Car company was founded in Surbiton in 1947. Charles Cooper and his son John began building racing cars that eventually changed the face of F1. In 1961, John Cooper conceived the first faster-and-tuned Mini, which dominated rallying in the 1960s. The rest, as they say, is history.

Cooper is a name that became synonymous with Mini, and in 2000, John’s son, Michael Cooper, founded John Cooper Works, which made racing tuning parts for the reborn, BMW-built Mini. In 2008, BMW bought the company outright and now the John Cooper Works Mini is built in the Mini factory in Oxford.

So is the fastest, highest performance stock Mini you can buy worth the extra outlay?