Hey guys, glad to be here.
I recently acquired a R53.
Its a car ive been wanting to get for years and now I finally have it. I'm completely in love with the car.
Ive already hooked up with the local San Diego Mini's club here and went on a canyon run with them. Was great fun learning the cars great handling and speed.

I am working on modding it aswell. Ive already ordered some parts.
So far I have exchanged the original spark plugs with new Cold Beru Ultra X and Beru Kingsborne Hot Wires.
This is in anticipation of my Alta -15% SC pulley and Alta CAI ive ordered aswell.
Im planning on installing those sometime soon aswell.
Then im going to get an exhaust. Most likely from Alta aswell.

Here's some picks









^I purchased some official MINI center caps to make my wheels look abit more matching.



































As you can see im enjoying my Mini already!
And hopefully you guys can see im planing on being a regular member here. Ill be asking for advice on all sorts of things as I progress with the car.
Good to be here!

 

Nice! Welcome to NAM!

 

Thanks

 

I need to do a couple of the things you're doing. Top of my list is a new serpentine belt and 15% pulley + belt tensioner stop.

 

Ya im probably gonna put in my Alta CAI tomorrow

 

Nice! Easy to do and a few hp in gains. I have the typhoon from K&N.

 

Cool.
Any history of Check Engine lights appearing with any of the intakes? Ive herd not. I guess I should be fine but it would be annoying if that happened.

 

Not that I know of. Mine is fine.

 

Awesome.
Well here I go with the install then!

 

Its been a great past couple car days for me.
A few days ago I decided to go ahead and install my CAI from Alta. I had it there ready and waiting so I went for it.
Took a few hours to get the job done. The mini has such a small amount of space to work with so re-tightening things were hard to manage sometimes. But it was still fairly easy. I feel more familiarized with the engine bay now and confident to get other things done in the future with it.

Before:


After:




After that I decided to go for a run up the mountains and through the woods.
Had a great time. The CAI sounds and performs great. I'll make a video of it later on sometime.

Once I finished my run I decided to get back home.. but then suddenly as I was just about to leave the route an amazing thing happened. A Nissan Skyline GT-R showed up and went down the trail to where I just was.

As he passed my car he smiled at me and I at him. He stopped parallel to my car and revved up and then so did I. He then burnt out in front of me and took off. So ofcourse I did a U and chased after him.
For miles I was chasing this guy in the GTR and it was crazy how fast it was. By the time I U'ed it was off and out of sight. So I had to really be on my game going around the trails and canyons to catch up to him.

Eventually I did. I can attribute that to the great handling that is the MINI.
Once I caught up to him I caught him off guard and passed him up. Then he passed me up and it was like this for awhile. Id catch up to him around the corners and then on the strait aways he gunned it and I would have to floor it to keep up. These were also one lane roads so we had be to careful of on coming cars at the same time and only go out of lane when we could see what was ahead.
This was a great time for me. I did use up some tread on my tires screatching around corners but it was well worth it. :P






And today I decided to give it a wash and go for a photo shoot. 8)

 

Nice pics! It's coming along. Have you named it yet?

 

Thanks man! And might I say, your Mini is pretty sweet two. Love the black on black and the rims you got going on

 

Thanks!

Here are some pics of my baby. His name is MCTipsy William.

 

Nice pics. Especially like the first one. Where you from? Looks like Colorado or a northern state. Must have some good views.

 

Calgary, Alberta. In Canada. So definitely North. Thanks!

 

Welcome AXM!

Great looking MINI