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MINI JOHN COOPER WORKS CONVERTIBLE – CôTE D’AZUR, COCKPIT UP, HAIR DOWN!

Published: 2025-05-20 11:20:17 Last Updated: 2025-05-20 11:36:40

Before Cannes polishes the red carpet and tourists swarm the sun-soaked beaches, the French Riviera slowly shakes off its winter coat. The first golden rays of sunshine tease the coastline, turning sleepy seaside towns into living postcards. And cutting through it all with the roar of a twin-turbo four-pot and the roof flung open? The MINI John Cooper Works Convertible - in full ‘Always Open’ mode. This isn’t your average coastal cruiser. It’s a 170 kW, 380 Nm go-kart for grown-ups. One minute you’re carving up mountain passes lined with olive trees and whispering pines, the next you’re cruising promenades with the wind in your hair and the engine burbling like a champ. The MINI JCW Convertible is a sensory overload - from the bark of the exhaust to the rush of open-air freedom. The drivetrain is a snarling little turbocharged 2.0-litre 4-cylinder petrol lump dialled into the kind of madness that sees 0-100 km/h disappear in 6.4 seconds. Flat out, it'll crack 245 km/h – assuming you’ve got the coastline to match. MINI’s dual-clutch 7-speed auto keeps the rhythm sharp, fast, and fluid, with shift paddles right where you want them when it’s time to play. Sure, there are faster cars around, but in a JCW things are more about the drive and enjoyment, and few cars can elicit a face-cramping smile like one of these very chuckable things Drop the fabric roof - black or Union Jack-patterned, thank you very much - in just 18 seconds, even on the move at speeds up to 30 km/h. Need just a smidge of sky? You can slide it back 40 cm like a sunroof at any speed. And thanks to a clever windscreen deflector and minimal turbulence, you get all the open-air drama without the hair salon aftermath. Driving through this slice of Mediterranean heaven, the MINI JCW Convertible owns the view. British Racing Green paint. Chili Red accents. Gloss black trim. Those horizontal JCW LED daytime runners and body-colour rear diffuser say it’s business up front, party out back. Add bonnet stripes and 18-inch alloy swagger and you’ve got a proper nod to MINI’s racing bloodline.

Inside, it's a perfect balance of hardcore and high-end. JCW sports seats finished in black and red hug you in all the right places, while a flat-bottomed JCW steering wheel lets you dial into every apex. Crank up the soundtrack through the standard Harman Kardon surround system - because every drive needs a proper playlist. Everything else is handled through the high-res OLED centre display, which puts climate, nav, media and more at your fingertips or on voice command. Simple. Smart. Sorted. Need a little help in tight Riviera back alleys? No sweat. Twelve ultrasonic sensors and four surround-view cameras do the heavy lifting, leaving you to soak up the vibes and stay focused on the drive. Because in a MINI, driving is always the point. And with seven MINI Experience Modes on tap, you can match your mood to the road ahead. Go-kart Mode dials up the red-and-black race theme with crisp analogue graphics, while Green Mode keeps things chill and efficient when you're just soaking in that coastal air. The MINI John Cooper Works Convertible delivers one thing above all else: that unfiltered, wide-open, all-systems-go feeling. Côte d’Azur might provide the view - but MINI provides the vibe. It’s always cool to see that the convertible version of a fun hot hatch can offer up the exact same drive and feel. We’d 100% rock one of these things, it’s just that R750,000 price tag we’re not fond of.

Take a look at the YouTube video from a month back where the SytnerTV crew got their hands on the latest open-top version of the much-loved and highly checkable MINI JCW Convertible. These are always rad things, especially when they're in the proper MINI size, not that massive Countryman size: The NEW 2025 MINI John Cooper Works Convertible | First Look (4K) | SytnerTV

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Article Tags: Cars #SXdrv #DropTop #Convertible #John Cooper Works #MINI #JCW