The plane is brimful of English, German and Scandinavian holidaymakers en route to their annual vacation on the beaches of Mallorca. But, oh no — we're picking up a brand new MINI John Cooper Works and heading via a scenic coastal pass road to Circuito Mallorca Renarana — today we'll leave the beaches for the tourists while we enjoy that brilliant little road racer.

JCW isn't new — we had one in the previous supercharged version of MINI — but now that there's a cool new turbo-powered Cooper S, it's time at last to meet the big cojones version. And it's been a brilliant day so far…

The new JCW once again focuses on peak performance before anything else, but this time as a ready-to-drive-off-the-showroom-floor model rather than a kit car cobbled together somewhere between the bond store and the dealer floor. And as MINI Cooper Works Product Manager Dr. Ralf Hoffmann pointed out in the briefing before we were set free on the twisty little track, JCW is a race car for the road. Or was that a road car for the racetrack?

Available right away in both the traditional MINI three-door and the new Clubman, John Cooper Works is derived directly from the Mini JCW racer — its 155kW twin-scroll turbocharged direct petrol injection four-pot comes straight out of the racecars that compete on many grand prix weekends. The only differences beyond the suspension and safety changes are a slightly more road-oriented exhaust system and a more civilized gearshift.

That newly developed four-cylinder lump is based on the Mini Cooper S, but with pistons, valves, turbochargers, intake and exhaust system optimised for motorsport and boasting a stonking 132bhp per litre specific output while still fulfilling all future EU 5 emissions requirements

All that power is transmitted to the front wheels and controlled by a tweaked and tuned McPherson spring strut sports suspension set-up specifically for each of the Clubman and hatchback. A specific John Cooper Works suspension with lower ride height, and electromechanical power steering with a sports button varying the gas pedal control map and steering response, are available as options.

Another JCW option is Dynamic Stability Control including Dynamic Traction Control unique to this model and to the front-wheel-drive market. That comes complete with Brake Assistant and Uphill Set-Off Assistant, sports braking system with anti-lock brakes, Electronic Brake Force Distribution and Cornering Brake Control, all designed to fully complement a 'sporting, ambitious driving style'.

That is enhanced via the individual intervention of the brakes through electronic Differential Lock Control, quite strangely only when the Dynamic Stability Control is switched off…

So, on the road, JCW is a brilliant little package as was played out on those deserted Med island roads not unlike one would expect on the Corsican or Sardinian rallies. The super MINI pulls like a bastard, sounds awesome — a guttural drone punctuated by popping and banging out the pipe — brakes dramatically and does precisely what you want it to when and how you want it to.

Well it should — the MINI is a marvelous piece of kit all on its own and now in double-enhanced JCW form, it's blinding. If Alfa Romeo wants Mito GTA to compete with this thing, it's going to have to be bloody awesome because this thing is just that and then some…

But that is then and this is now and once off the passes — where it drove not unlike a purebred rally machine — and into the traffic and the urban beat, JCW has the grunt, ability and peacefulness to be the perfect city partner. And that ride is creamy too — no bone-jarring pseudo-racer here, this one your mother will drive and never know that she’s pedaling a race-bred runabout.

Onto the track and with wild abandon, John Cooper Works really comes into its own.

Predictable, confidence inspiring and forgiving if you take it too far; its racer genes come fully to the fore on track. The Mallorca circuit is a tight, twisty and sinuous thing with enough fast bits — and a long-long righthand sweep in particular — to test the mettle of the best of chassis.

Sadly the run up to that sweeper is a tad too short and JCW has more than adequate rubber, but I couldn't quite get it to drift all the way through. I was quite satisfied however, when afterward Ruano Aaltonen — the man who won the Monte Carlo rally in an original Mini in the '60s and was on hand to oversee the trackday activities — confided that he too, had not been able to get that right all week…

Anyway, in closing the rest of the detail you may want to know about Mini John Cooper Works: it boasts a crash-optimised passenger cell with six airbags as standard kit; three-point inertia-reel seat belts on all seats; belt latch tensioners and belt force limiter at the front; it has a belt-off warning and a standard ISOFIX child seat fastening system at the back.

A leather three-spoke multifunction sports steering, anthracite finishes and piano black trim, a model-specific speedometer are standard, while there are a wide range of customisation options available outside and in. Those include top-end audio and navigation systems as well as mobile communication interfaces including the option to completely integrate an Apple iPhone and other smartphones for parallel use of communication and entertainment functions.

In finer detail also, the 1598cc four cylinder produces 155kW at 6000rpm with peak torque of 260Nm available between a very broad 1850 and 5600rpm. An overboost facility ups that to 280Nm from 2000 to 5300rpm for a 6.5 second 0-100km/h dash and 238km/h top speed. JCW manages an EU average fuel consumption of 6.9 litres per 100km and CO2 emissions of 165 g/km.

Now we head back to Munich leaving all those holidaymakers we flew in with to enjoy their jolly. And now I'm jealous of them, too…