What's all this about?

This is the MINI John Cooper Works GP, or the GP3 in more common parlance, and if you're wondering why it's the '3' then cast your minds back to both the MINI Cooper S with John Cooper Works GP Kit of 2006 (now retrospectively known as the GP1) and then the MINI John Cooper Works GP of 2013, which is... go on, guess? That's right, the GP2.

How limited are we talking, here?

Both of the two older GPs were built in limited numbers of 2,000 examples each, whereas the GP3 - inbound for 2020 - will gain 33 per cent more opportunity with 3,000 cars scheduled to be produced.

And what's the purpose of a MINI GP?

It's a faster, lighter, more hardcore MINI, and the GP3 has already debuted to crowds ahead of this year's Nürburgring 24-hour race held at the weekend just gone. This camouflaged prototype shows off the big wheels/intakes/wings that will denote the GP3's exterior aesthetic, while it is also said to get round the Nordschleife in less than eight minutes - hugely impressive, given its immediate predecessor (itself no slouch) could only clock 8m 23s... and that there's more development work on the GP3's chassis to come.

How much grunt will it have?

We're not 100 per cent sure but, so far, MINI is happy to say that power will come from a TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder engine said to have 'more than 300hp'. This is the motor from the BMW X2 M35i and it has already been confirmed for MINI-World in the form of non-GP versions of the Countryman John Cooper Works and the equivalent Clubman. In all three of these applications, it develops 306hp, but there's the intriguing possibility that the GP3 might have 320hp or more. We look forward to finding out.

Matt Robinson - 24 Jun 2019