(for posterity, I also captured it as a downloadable Quicktime movie)

UPDATE:
Here’s another GP-on-the-ring video, presumably GP1966 annoying a BMW M3 on all the corners …

And a whole pile more, Flash’ed together over at MotoringFile

Now, three years later, some of those GPs have moved on to new owners, but many have been kept – the GP is a hard car to say goodbye to!
GP0032 – Charlie (his GP “lives upstairs“)
GP0056 – Joel
GP0076 – Gary (though his fabulously modded GP may soon be for sale)
GP0083 – Todd (from WRR)
GP0102 – Steve
GP0154 – George (one of three he now owns!)
GP0179 – Teddy (a great pic of his GP)
GP0203 – Ian (GBMINI)
GP0216 – Dean & Tammy

I believe there are others still with their original owner – if you’re one of them, let me know …

Of course, there’s an argument that this is a GP, and whatever comes next is something else …

UPDATE:
If it turns out to be this car, it’s very disappointing

Gabe’s review is well worth reading, if only for for surprising (to me) comments where he favourably compares the GP to this new “fastest MINI”. It’s also interesting to read his comments about the new car’s brakes, and electronic EDLC (in lew of an LSD). Here’s a few choice quotes:
… It feels every bit as fast as the 2006 JCW GP was with an enormous amount of torque (206 ft lbs of it) available almost instantly in the rev range … while the GP may have had similar numbers, it’s the new JCW’s power delivery that really sets it apart …
.. four-pot Brembo brakes … live up to the hype in that they are better than the single-pot set-up on the stock MCS or the previous JCW GP MCS. However more than one of us who drove the JCW and an R56 MCS back to back felt that the stock braking set-up actually had more feel …
… the EDLC is different enough from the feel of a traditional LSD that some might miss the mechanical quality of the latter. Limited Slip always had a feel of pulling and shooting you out of corners in a satisfying way …
… make no mistake, the new factory JCW MINI goes and stops better than any factory MINI yet … Yet doesn’t offer any of the distinction that an M Car would much less what the GP had …
… is this car equivilent to a GP? In some ways yes. It’s easily as fast, sounds arguably as good and stops better. However for me I wanted to love this car not only for the way it made every drive feel special but also for the sacrifices it demands from the driver – While it does have many of the attributes you’d hope for, it just never really moved me like the GP …

I know which car I prefer

Head over to the MINI World Challenge 2008 website for write-up and loads more pictures

Here is the video, nearly 300 pictures and over 8 minutes of entertainment – and at the beginning, a few never-before-shots of the first GP I ever saw (which MINI USA asked me not to post online back in August 2006!):

If you prefer, click here to download a high resolution version (80MB, MP4 format)