As of yesterday I am a proud owner of a used 2005 R52 S in cool blue. We were looking for a JCW for a long time but they kept slipping away and thought we found one but turns out the dealer had it wrong. Yes, it has a lot of JCW badges but not the goods under the hood. My R52 has pretty much every option and I'm still trying to figure them all out! Looking under the hood my mini has MSD coil pack, upgraded wires (Not sure what brand yet), a reduced size SC pulley (again, not sure what brand), a spectre intake, and inside a JCW carbon fiber shift ****. At first I did not like the shift **** but it's growing on me. They must had done some other work to the engine as this thing is quite a bit faster than other S's Ive driven so looking forward to getting it on a dyno and opening up the engine to see what has been done to it, and removing the Works badges since it's not a JCW.

I'm loving the handling and feel of the Mini. I was a bit aprehensive about the handling as I just sold my Honda S2000 but this is just shy in the handling department and MUCH easier to drive fast. You had the beat on the S2000 to get it to go fast.

First thing I'm planning on changing are the rims as I do not care for the 17" rims that came with my mini. I'm not sure what rims they are yet but they will be going in the Market soon. Then I need to pull off the factory stripes as one side is peeling up a little. What are the best stripes out there? I've been looking at OEM mini, Mighty Stripes and Cooper Flags. I love the Cooper Flags Shelby stripes and the GT500 side stripes. Being cool blue, I'd like to add more black to the car to make it look more blue and not purple as it does in the sunlight. Maybe adding darker rims would help as well.

My daughters keep begging my wife and I to take them out in the mini as they love driving around with the top down so we'll be putting a lot of miles on this car.

Great forum and looking forward to learning more about this amazing vehicle!

 

Sounds like a cool ride!
Welcome to NAM!
Post some pics, I'm sure folks here on NAM can figure out what parts you got.

 

Welcome!!

 

Welcome to the forum Zak!

 

welcome n congrat

 

Welcome to NAM Zak. It sounds like you have gotten yourself a deal! Congrats.

 

upload some photos! especially of parts that you can't identify...
go through and use the search in the R52 forum to learn about your new rocket....

 

Love Cool Blue. Great color!

 

My mini is in the shop already. When I bought it the airbag light was on and the Cadillac dealer I bought it from said they would pay to have that fixed. So I took it to the local Mini dealer and turns out it's not a simple fix. The battery compartment at one point was filled with water and destroyed the airbag module back there along with most of the cables and fuse box. The tool kit is even covered in rust. The dealer wants $3000 to fix it so the Caddy dealer is looking it over before they pay for the fix. So after only a week of driving my mini I now have a Nissan Rogue as a loaner. :(

 

That really sucks, but good finding the problem so soon.

Buck

 

How did the water get in there?