Pint-sized fun

What we like:

It’s nippy

zippy and all kinds of p. Including powerful.

What we dislike:

Slightly pricey; back seats aren’t really meant for grown adults.

The JCW is powered by the latest generation 2.0l 4 cylinder turbocharged engine that produces 231hp and a healthy 320Nm of torque. The engine features the acclaimed TwinPower Turbo technology perfected by BMW and delivers all that grunt with minimal fuss and turbo lag.

Nought to 100 km/h is dispatched in a decent 6.1 seconds; there’s launch control if you want to make a lot of noise and eat through the front tyres at a set of traffic lights. Where the car really excels though is weaving through moderate traffic. It makes quick work of overtaking and changing lanes to find the clearest path through traffic, owing to the small size of the car and the responsive motor.

Most of the time you’ll find yourself wanting to drive fast, because the car is so capable and packs so much punch. Throw it into a series of quick bends and you’ll see that the JCW is capable of taking them on without body roll with its adaptive dampers in Sport. There is a slight bit of understeer when you push it into corners hard, and the front does lose some grip under fast cornering as is typical of front wheel drive hot hatches. That said it’s still pretty fun to chuck the car around corners quickly with its precise and communicative steering.

It stops quick too; Brembo 4-pot brakes with matching JCW red calipers srub off speed either progressively with positive pedal feel or completely if you stand on the pedal in an emergency stop attempt. Sports exhaust comes as standard, giving you a low growl whenever you depress the accelerator and smile inducing pops once you rev past 4000 rpm.

The JCW is priced similarly to its other hot-hatch rivals, which means it is slightly pricey and for that sort of money you could have some pretty decent executive sedans. Do any of them match the fun you get from this car, or for that matter put a huge grin on your face just about all the time? Probably not.

Credits: Story and Photos by Alvan Sio