Riding the rocket
There is a cartoon image everyone knows. The coyote lights the fuse on a rocket far too big for him, wraps both arms around it and gets fired across the desert with his ears pinned flat.
That is the first ten seconds in the Aceman JCW.
It is a MINI in every sense of the word. It is small. It is lovely to look at. Nobody would mistake it for anything else on the road. Then you sit down, press the accelerator, and discover that somebody has strapped a rocket to it.
I went in expecting a quick MINI. I came out convinced it is something more than that: a car built with one purpose, which is to make driving fun again.
The drive
This is a driver's car, full stop. The acceleration is brutal for something this size, the steering is precise, and the car stays flat and poised when you lean on it. The brakes are superb, which matters, because the car keeps egging you on.
The suspension is set up to make you feel the road, and you feel all of it. Every turn, every ridge in the tarmac. If you want to waft, this is the wrong car. If you want the connected feel of the best petrol hot hatches, it is exactly the right one.
Then there is the boost paddle. Pull it and the car unlocks an extra 27 horsepower for ten seconds, with a countdown on the display like the nitrous button in a racing game. Where in Singapore you would need 27 more horsepower is anybody's guess.
I pressed it anyway.
Yes, it is an EV. It feels like the best petrol cars I have driven, and I did not expect to write that sentence.
The cabin
The interior is unique and it is purposeful. Below the screen sits a bank of real toggles, including a power switch shaped like a key. Volume is a physical control. The aircon has actual buttons. The controls on the steering wheel click under your thumb. In a market where everything gets buried in a touchscreen, this feels close to a luxury.
The steering wheel itself is the right size, comfortable and properly sporty to hold. The dash is wrapped in a knitted fabric with neat stitching. There are hard plastics down low, but everywhere your hands actually go, it looks and feels special.
The 10-speaker Harman Kardon system wears a gold finish on the door speakers and sounds superb. Noise insulation is excellent for a car this small. Put on some Initial D Eurobeat and you will start looking for a mountain pass. Singapore does not have one.
The sport seats look the part and are more comfortable than they appear. The aircon is strong. A wireless charging tray and four USB ports cover the basics.
Your MINI will not be the same car as the next person's MINI. That is the whole trick, and nobody else does it like this.
Tech and the modes
The 9.4-inch round OLED is crisp and high definition, one of the few car screens that has made me stop and look at it. It is not big, though. Run Android Auto and the map gets small. That is where the head-up display earns its keep: it is one of the best I have used, and it carries the directions so the screen does not have to.
MINI's own navigation is decent, and the AR mode that overlays arrows on a live camera feed is a neat trick on a screen this size. I still defaulted to Android Auto and CarPlay, both wireless, both connected without fuss.
The big idea is Experience Modes. You do not customise individual settings. You pick a whole mood. Core is the teal-blue default. Green calms everything down. Vivid borrows its colours from whatever album is playing. Timeless gives you a classic cream dial. Trail adds a compass for the off-roading you will never do. And JCW turns everything red. Anyone who has painted a Warhammer army will tell you why. Red ones go faster. MINI clearly agrees.
Each mode changes the colours and the synthetic drive sounds, the same idea as the iX3's and just as silly. It even changes the temperament of the digital assistant, a little animated MINI that bounces around the screen. The assistant itself is good. It handles the temperature and the small stuff without getting in the way.
It is bonkers. I have not seen another manufacturer go this far. And it means your MINI ends up feeling like yours. I suspect that is why people who own one tend to buy another.
Living with it in Singapore
A full charge showed between 306 and 325 km of indicated range depending on the mode, against a claimed 355. The trip computer settled at 19.2 kWh/100 km against an official 16.9. That is not efficient, and the car's eagerness has a lot to do with it. At 49.2 kWh usable, the pack is small.
DC charging peaks at 95 kW, and MINI quotes about 30 minutes for 10 to 80%. Because the battery is small, that is only around 34 kWh added, so a top-up is quick in absolute terms. AC is 11 kW.
This is not a drive-to-Malaysia car. For everyday Singapore driving, it was never a problem.
Space is the real compromise. The back is tight. If you have kids, this will be a hard sell. The boot is 300 litres and, oddly at this price, the tailgate is manual. The glovebox appears to have been designed for a single glove. Storage is scarce everywhere.
You are not buying a MINI for the space. But you should know.
The money
S$303,888 with COE on the August 2026 price list, Cat B, VES Band A. That is a lot of money, and from the Chinese brands it buys a lot more range and a lot more room. If you are cross-shopping on a spreadsheet, the MINI loses.
I do not think anyone buys this car from a spreadsheet.
The verdict
Nothing else I have driven looks or goes like this. It was built with one purpose, and it never stops delivering on it. If you want a MINI, only a MINI will do.
This is the best one I have driven.