New MINI JCW Anniversary Edition celebrates 60 years of Mini Cooper

The MINI John Cooper Works Anniversary Edition arrives to celebrate 60 years since John Cooper first ‘Cooper-fied’ the original Mini.

The original Sir Alec Issigonis Mini arrived in 1959 and was pretty much a classless icon from the start, and it caught the eye of John Cooper who saw its potential to be more of a performance model than Issigonis and BMC (which badged the Minis as both Austin and Morris) originally intended.

In 1961 John Cooper produced the first Mini Cooper – upping the Mini’s power from 34bhp to 55bhp and capacity from 848cc to 997cc – and went on to deliver the Mini Cooper S with 1071 cc two years later.

With MINI‘s predilection for a ‘special’ model or two, it’s no surprise that MINI is marking 60 years since that first Mini Cooper with a new ‘special’ – the MINI JCW Anniversary Edition – which, perhaps disappointingly, is just a cosmetic job with no extra power.

But at least MINI has chosen to use the MINI 3-Door Hatch John Cooper Works as the basis for this special edition, complete with 2.0-litre four-pot engine producing 227bhp, good for 0-62mph in 6.3 seconds.

Finished in Rebel Green with a White roof, the JCW Anniversary Edition also get white bonnet stripes, headlight rings and door handles, bits of red detailing, red brake callipers, ‘Classic’ Cooper badges and a ’74’ on the doors and bonnet to commemorate the starting number of the first Mini Cooper to race at Snetterton.

Inside there are more Cooper badges, Piano Black trim and Dinamica upholstery, ‘1 of 74’ script, the signatures of John Cooper, his son John Cooper and his grandson Charlie Cooper in addtion to standard kit like MINI Navigation Pack and MINI Comfort Pack.

MINI is producing 740 units of the JCW Anniversary Edition but just 60 are coming to the UK with prices from £33,800 for the manual and £35,500 for the auto.