Hey all,

I am new to the whole euro tuner world and from what I see and hear I will love all of it. Tomorrow I am purchasing a 2003 Electric Blue MCS thats completely stock other than sound system.

It has 62k miles and they guy is asking 9500 I can't pass it up it is such a bargain from everything I have found.

I am moving from a Jeep Wrangler ha hah..I was previously a Jeep enthusiast and always will have a soft spot for Wranglers as this last one was my second one.

This Mini has heated seats, no sunroof and silver lites on it with an electric blue roof and color matched front fascia grill.

I figured out quite quickly that it's not too costly to modify these little rockets. My shop here on base is making fun of me because I am getting a Mini but I just shrug and laugh to myself because I know these things are like go carts. I am on the way to Korea for a PCS change and Ramstein will be my follow on which I am extremely excited about. Me and my Mini will be at home on the N-ring.

I am originally from Phoenix, Arizona and am stationed up in ND...such fun to be had on these boring straight roads......I am a big bike enthusiast as I own a 2005 SV650 with some light mods.

By the way I am a little weary on the purchase of this certain Mini as the owner said he just replaced the o-rings on the oil cooler? I am not entirely certain what he's talking about I just know it has nothing to do with the heat exchanger.

 

Congrats on your purchase! We look forward to seeing some pics once you bring your new MINI home.

 

Thats a good price so you have some financial wiggle for yourself if there are repairs to do, you know? You can rationalizer the great starting cost for the car for you. Very cool they'll ship the car with you! You'll love the track, I'm sure. I love it... In video games!

 

Welcome to the forum, sounds like a pretty good price, hope you enjoy the car. Wouldn't worry about O-ring replacement sounds like something that needed to be done. With this old a car you need to keep an eye out for little things like leaks, strange noises, loose parts, electrical problems, etc., as they start to creep in after 4 or 5 years with increasing regularity.

 

Electric Blue is my fav color on the MCS! Check out my gallary. The R53 (2002-06), otherwise known as "Gen 1," happens to be my favorite because they are a bit more raw and less refined than Gen 2, just like a British car should be .

Don't let the shop talk bother you either, and it sounds like you aren't. MINI drivers are typically not the kind of people that have to hang a set of ***** on a protruding bumper hitch to prove something. Despite some inherent weaknesses, the MINI is extremely solid with an unprecedented motoring heritage built into every car. Read a bit about this here: http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...-be-surprised/

Moving on to the fun part, here's a link to the forum's many threads on R53 mods: https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/modifications-196/

If you haven't already heard about the "magic switch" on the R53, here's the entire kit for a reasonable price: http://bit.ly/bs5HNA This kit plus a high-volume CAI and new cat-back pipes will help your MCS breath harder. These mods alone will put you around the 200WHP mark with little effort. From here, you'll have to dig into your engine and replace the head, cam and header for the 250WHP mark. If you have more money to burn , you can twin-charge your MINI, but you'll need to rebuild the motor to handle the power which can exceed 300WHP, but that's getting pretty exotic because you'll have to upgrade supporting parts too!

Happy motoring and modding!

 

So that ignition kit does the trick? I figured the pulley would up the boost by a couple lbs with the added benefit of a tune of some sort. I will definitely jump on that kit! My MCS came with an electric blue roof as I have never seen such things. I will post pics tonight, I am overjoyed. I like your comment making fun of trucks as I do share your despised thoughts. The military pays to move just about anything so yes all I have to worry about is passing their version of dot's inspection which is an MOT inspect. I am pretty overjoyed as I already stated. One question though what is the block designation called? Like for the subies they run the EJ series 2.5/2.0l h-4.

I know its an inline I am just wondering where to find an engine rebuild kit, as I would love to delve into the world of rebuilding my internals. I would love to eventually swap out the meesly supercharger for a gt28 or some sort.
I know that swapping from an roots style supercharger to a turbo setup is a big deal but I am single and have no debts so I plan on practicing my tuning abilities with each paycheck haha!

I could ramble on for hours here so I will cut it short. I would also like a little advice on what set of wheels don't bend under circuit racing? I am not into the whole deep dish stuff since its quite useless under stress, as I am wondering about offset's of wheels and how they pertain to the vehicles handling itself. So far my first purchases will be as follows:

Springs to lower .5-1.0 inch front and rear..
Wheels 17x7 x45?
Full exhaust/Header/Cat back/machine my heads along with a tune somehow

Possibly open source if a tactrix type cable is available?

I have browsed the site for quite a while snooping around the different twin charger kits available. I have figured out that helix13's kit is quite cheap in price as they use silicone instead of aluminum piping etc. I will probably build my own in the near future as I am the mechanically inclined type.

Thanks all for the warm welcomes! I am all warm and fuzzy inside.....hah..

By the way is there any events going on in Phoenix AZ in the month of January? I am assuming I just click the events column in the sub forums?

 

I ask one more thing. Where do I find OEM color headlight bezels/electric blue paint? I need to get rid of all this chrome and I don't suppose it would be that pricey at all.