2009 Mini Cooper Clubman S Automatic 3-door Wagon on 2040-cars

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2020 Mini John Cooper Works GP laps the 'Ring in under 8 minutes

Mini used the occasion of the Nurburgring 24 Hours race to show off a preproduction version of its upcoming John Cooper Works GP. That's fitting, because the GP — the hottest of Mini's hot hatch offerings — has been honed specifically to conquer the Nordschleife of the famous German track. In fact, Mini says it has already lapped the North Loop in under eight minutes. An official lap time will come later because testing is apparently still underway. But to put that time into perspective, the last version of the JCW GP lapped the 'Ring in 8:23, so the new version could be half a minute faster. That's impressive, even if track performance isn't always the ideal measuring stick for street cars like the GP. We know that the GP will have more than 300 horsepower, but exact power figures have yet to be released. As you can see in the image gallery above, it will have some crazy aerodynamic additions, but probably won't wear a Nurburgring-inspired camouflage wrap when it goes into production in 2020 with a limited run of 3,000 units. And now we know that it will be much faster round the 'Ring than the previous GP — but will it be faster than the lap time of 7 minutes and 43.8 seconds recorded by the Honda Civic Type R? We'll see, but we wouldn't be surprised.

Mini Clubvan axed after just 50 sales

Well, that didn't last long. According to Green Car Reports, Mini has discontinued the Clubvan from its model range in the United States.
Nathalie Bauters, Mini's US communications manager, cited "relatively low demand and the effect of an excessive 25-percent tax on vehicles for commercial use (known as 'the Chicken Tax')" as the key reasons for axing the Clubman from our market, GCR reports. The 2013 Clubvan launched in the US earlier this year, and to date roughly 50 examples have been sold.
The Clubvan, based on the Clubman model, features a flat load floor behind the two front seats, with blacked-out (well, body-colored) side windows. This nifty little cargo wagon could carry up to 33 cubic feet of goods, which while useful, pales in comparison to more capacious offerings like the Ford Transit Connect van.

China’s Great Wall looking to partner with BMW to sell cars in the West

The Chinese automaker Great Wall seems to have moved on from courting Fiat Chrysler. According to Reuters, the company announced in a stock exchange filing that it's looking to collaborate with BMW's Mini brand in some way. Reuters also reports that BMW is open to discussion. We reached out to a BMW representative, and he provided us with an official statement regarding the news. The company didn't specifically say it is talking with Great Wall. What it did say is that it has had success with its current partnership with another Chinese automaker Brilliance, but also that the company is interested in expanding the Mini brand worldwide and in China. The statement says that Mini's future strategy and expansion will include "diversification of partnerships and new cooperation models." It also said that expanding in China "is only possible with a local partner." That sounds to us like BMW is pretty interested in working with Great Wall. This move comes about a month and a half after Great Wall attempted to purchase parts of Fiat Chrysler. The company was reported to be talking to FCA to purchase the Jeep brand, and it later confirmed that it was interested in that brand, a few, or the whole company. But things seemed to fall apart when Fiat Chrysler's CEO Sergio Marchionne announced it hadn't received any offers and wasn't working on any kind of deal with another company. Now it may seem a little odd that Great Wall would shift from trying to buy an SUV brand, or a company that is beginning to concentrate on crossovers and trucks, to one that specializes in compact cars. After all, they're fairly different segments. Our theory is that Great Wall isn't necessarily interested in the specific products, but more that it's looking for a gateway to Western car markets. It's not something new for the company. As far back as 2013, the company made it clear it was looking to start selling cars in America. It also started looking into a manufacturing facility in Mexico earlier this year, which would supposedly supply vehicles to both Mexico and the U.S. Now when Great Wall announced its American sales intentions, it was targeting a date of 2015. That obviously didn't happen, and it probably has something to do with the company's products. Most of the cars under the Great Wall and Haval brands bear an uncanny appearance to discontinued models from other companies that compete in the West.