MINI John Cooper F1 50th Anniversary Edition

The MINI John Cooper F1 will get a custom British Racing Green paint job.

We have moaned a fair bit about the endless iterations of the MINI marque. From basic MINI Ones to MINI Cabriolets, to MINI Crossovers to the MINI Speedster et al. And now there is another to add to the list – The MINI John Cooper F1 50th Anniversary Edition.

But perhaps this one is a little more forgiveable. John Cooper was the man who made the ‘Cooper’ in MINI Cooper possible. And this year, apart from being the 50th Anniversary of the MINI, is also the 50th anniversary of John Cooper’s first Formula 1 car.

So how special will the John Cooper F1 be? Cosmetically different is the truth. Apparently there will be no power or mechanical modifications. Which sort of misses the point. After all, aren’t Coopers about MINI performance? To issue a simple cosmetic job seems to be missing the point.

The big thing with the John Cooper F1 will be the paint job. MINI enthusiasts have long bemoaned that the traditional Cooper British Racing Green is not a MINI option. So that’s exactly what the JCW F1 gets – a BRG paint job. To complement it gets Pepper White roof and door mirrors, and perhaps a nifty set of new alloys. But that’s it.

It’s reckoned there will be just 100 MINI John Cooper F1s made. The car will be launched at Siverstone next month at the MINI Festival and will probably be UK specific.

But it seems like a half-hearted effort to cash in on the 50th anniversary to me.