Motoring editor Peter Carroll was among the first journalists to drive the new MINI John Cooper Works at Donington Park. Check out our gallery of pictures and find out what he thought.

The Cooper S used to be as sporty as MINIs got, writes Peter Carroll.

Not anymore. The new sports flagship of the range will be the John Cooper Works, whose launch at the British International Motor Show will herald the arrival of a new breed of performance MINIs.

Owners BMW acquired the rights to sports tuning operation John Cooper Works at the end of 2006 and will now use the JCW moniker to denote the sportiest MINIs – rather like Vauxhall’s ‘VXR’ tag or its own ‘M’ badge.

I got the chance to drive the new car before its international launch at Donington Park – the new home of British Grand Prix racing (assuming everything works out).

As it transpired we only got to try out the new JCW on a one eighth scale replica of the Grand Prix circuit set up in the car park. But even this was enough to give a flavour of what this car can do.