Rumor: The New F66 MINI Cooper JCW to Debut at the Nurburgring 24 Hours

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The clues are adding up and we feel confident in saying it; MINI will debut the all new petrol powered MINI Cooper JCW at the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Here’s a look at the clues and why this will be such a big deal

With the official news last week, Charlie Cooper’s recent Instagram post and some other rumblings, it feels obvious to us that we’ll see the new F66 MINI Cooper JCW debut at the Nurburgring. But it won’t just debut. The plan appears to have Bulldog Racing campaign the all new car in the grueling 24 Hours of the Nurburgring.

Based on the timing of the race (June 2nd), we’d expect the car to be camouflaged via wrap to hide various styling bits. And as we can see in Charlie Cooper’s recent Instagram post, that’s exactly what appears to be shown.

However there is a wrinkle here. The actual car shown in the Instagram post has exposed washer jets which the new F66 does not. And even the JCW test mules we’ve seen follow this design move. This could mean a lot of things. For one it could mean the car will be more of test mule which might utilize parts from the F56 race cars that Bulldog Racing has been campaigning for a few years. Or could it mean the new JCW variant will have a different hood, perhaps with a scoop? We don’t think so given the pre-production cars we’ve seen.

Either way we’ll know soon.

What We Know about the F66 MINI JCW

The design of the new JCW will closely follow the optional JCW Trim we’ve already seen on the F66 MINI Cooper. In the real JCW however, the front bumper will have real ducts due to the need to cool the JCW B48 engine and we’re told the brake ducts also remain.

In fact the JCW front bumper is quite close to what we’ve seen previously on the F56 as you can see below. Elsewhere you can clearly see MINI has moved to gloss black side skirts on the JCW along with gloss black fender flares. This follows the trends towards gloss black we’ve seen elsewhere. Time to get your polishing cloths out.

The Revised MINI Cooper JCW Engine

In what will be seen as a major disappointment, the 2025 MINI Cooper JCW will not see an increase in horsepower. Unlike the Cooper or the Cooper S, MINI is holding the line on power output and instead bringing some upgrades elsewhere.

Model	F56 Cooper JCW	F66 Cooper JCW
Power	231 hp	231 hp
Torque	235 lb-ft/1450 rpm	258 lb-ft/1,250 rpm
Transmission	Manual/Auto	7 speed DCT
Drivetrain	front-wheel	front-wheel
Length (mm/in)	3863mm/152.1 in	3876mm/152.6 in
Height (mm/in)	1414mm/55.66 in	1432mm / 56.38 in
Wheelbase (mm/in)	2495mm/98.23 in	2495mm/98.23
Curb weight (kg/lbs)	1295 kg / 2855 lbs	TBA

Shortly after the F66 will be the F67 JCW Convertible

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any performance upgrades. The F66 JCW will have a slightly revised B48 engine under the hood – more specifically the B48A20O2.

The big performance update will be torque which increases from 236 to 258 ft lbs giving the car a bit more grunt. Perhaps just important, it peaks lower in the rev range as. Previously in the F56 JCW torque maxed-out at 1,450. The B48A20O2 sees this change to 1,250 rpm meaning maximum power is even more immediate. These are small but subtle differences that point to a slightly quicker or more responsive B48 engine.

MINI and Bulldog Racing at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring

Bulldog Racing is bringing back last year’s podium winner, the black #126 MINI John Cooper Works 1to6 Edition along with the undisclosed new JCW. Both are are said to pay homage to this year’s 60th anniversary of the first Rallye Monte Carlo victory for MINI.

We’ll have much more on the race and that second, new JCW poised to join last years 1to6 Edition. Until check out how the team did in 2023 and 2022.

Bulldog Racing and MINI Finished 2nd in Class at the Nurburgring 24 Hours in a Manual JCW 1to6!

The 24 Hours of Nurburgring- Experiencing the Ultimate Race For the 1st Time (VIDEO)

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