MINI Countryman JCW teased - heading for Geneva 2012

MINI Countryman JCW teased

MINI has started the tease for the most powerful Countryman – the MINI Countryman JCW – which will debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.

It’s not exactly a surprise that the MINI Countryman JCW is on the way. After all, MINI will never knowingly miss a niche sale, so producing a John Cooper Works version of the MINI SUV was always going to be highly likely.

MINI has been out playing in the snow in Austria to sort and fettle the Countryman JCW and, very thoughtfully, they took their SLR with them. The Countryman is disguised with small panels of yellow and black camouflage but, to all intents and purposes, what you see is what you get.

That means a butched-up Countryman with a chunk more power under the bonnet. MINI are giving no detail at this stage, but it’s reasonable to assume the Countryman JCW will deliver the same sort of power and performance as the regular MINI JCW.

That will mean 211bhp and 192lb/ft of torque and, although the extra bulk of the Countryman will dull the performance a little, we’d expect to see the 0-60mph comfortably under 7 seconds. The suspension will be reworked with bigger anti-roll bars and drop 10mm from the Cooper S, and bigger brakes are a given.

Always a sensible move after MINI took the Countryman off to WRC with Prodrive, the Countryman WRC is the perfect way to cash in on the MINI Countryman’s first full year in WRC in 2012.

We expect the MINI COuntryman JCW to debut at Geneva 2012 and go on sale by the Summer.