After extensive research and making myself aware of the issues I'll be facing, I finally took the plunge! It ended up being a bit of a pickle of a decision, since she has some cosmetic damage on the front I plan on fixing very soon along with some age...but they were helpful bargaining chips in her purchase.

I landed myself in a mechanically well-kept 2004 MCS JCW :D





Aaand (reluctantly) here are her battle scars. =( The previous owner had run her into the back of a mustang at around 5-10 mph, so the damage is purely cosmetic. Although I'm certain the hood is bent a bit. I have few friends who say they may be able to help with a majority of it. Additionally, I may use this as an excuse to pick up Aero Grilles or the like since I think they look a thousand times better. She should (hopefully) be back to normal in no time. However, this hasn't held me back from already having a BLAST in this car. :D Any suggestions of course would be appreciated. Being a 21 year old engineering student (Senior year! YAY!), I'm definitely not afraid to get my hands dirty!



I've proactively begun to keep an eye out for the number of infamous issues with R53s, but wow is this car worth it!

 

CONGRATS!

where, in Arkansas, are you from?

 

Thanks

I'm actually down in Little Rock, but grew up in Cabot. I'm guessing you used to live here?

 

Welcome, let the fun begin.

 

Stationed at Blytheville back in 1986-1989. We called it the armpit of America but the rest of the State is OK and Little Rock is very nice!!

 

Yeah, we get a lot of crap down here in Arkansas but it could always be worse... I love it here because we have a little bit of everything... farmlands (get you some wheat and soy!), rolling hills (Ouachita Mountains), and best of all, the Ozarks! Its a BLAST to drive around up there! I love making trips to see friends in Mountain Home and Fayetteville because, if you mark your route right, you WILL be in for a treat.

I may move in a little while, but I'm still tied down here for school. We'll see what happens in the next year, hopefully my Mini (or newer Mini by then o.O) will be still along for the ride!

Also, thank you Way! You people are terrible about making me want to buy all of the things!

 

Nice find! Enjoy! 2004's ROCK!

Arkansas is one of the best secrets west of the Mississippi River. Great roads, friendly people and good food. I enjoy it so much I'll be going on my second visit to Arkansas this year. Fourth trip in 3 years...LOL!

 

Ooh, Nebraska eh? Lots of corn! I have relatives up there baha. And you are correct on that. My family is mostly from Denver so southern living was a bit of an adjustment. Luckily (I guess luckily?) I had Tennessee to break me in before I moved to Arkansas.

What's the occasion if you don't mind me asking? Funny thing about Arkansas.. you don't move here.. you just.. kind of end up here? Outside of the cities it gets pretty darn rural pretty quick, but like you said, people are almost always friendly. Southern hospitality is a real thing.

ALSO, I was a little scared at first because nobody warned me that if you see another Mini, you MUST wave at them. I heard this isn't as common in the northeast, but down here in Arkansas, its a very very very common occurrence and it makes me stupidly giddy anytime I'm out driving and see one!

 

A motoring weekend in May with a few other midwest MINI owners has brought me down the past few years. In October my wife and I are attending 'MINIs in the Ozarks' hosted by AMOK, Arkansas MINI Owner Klub.

http://ozarkmini.com/

We don't have roads in Nebraska that compare to Arkansas roads, unless they're gravel. Arkansas is also closer to me than Colorado also.

Tips: lose the stock rims, very heavy. lose the runflat tires if it has them, replace lower rear control arms so you can adjust the rear tires flatter, lose teh stock shocks also. Throw the damn rear seats out, and drop the resonator box on the right rear of teh car, and shed 70lbs of junk.

 

Oh yeah I saw that that was coming up.. I actually haven't tried to get a hold of any of the local clubs yet at least but my limbs are of course torn because I have friends in the civic/mustang/bmw communities too.

And yeah, luckily its already on all-season tires which are just fine for me. I plan on getting rid of the stock rims soon too... Back seat MAYBE, I usually like to keep the interior near 'stock' on my cars... Yeah the shocks right now feel super duper stiff and while I like it, every bump feels like it throws absolutely everything off. I have a guy at work who has an '11 clubman and wants to drive mine to see what its like without runflats. He's been griping up and down about how much he hates them.

I'll see what I want to do in the near future. I'd like to get the cosmetic damage I have up front fixed before a lot of the other "fun" tweaks hehe. I'm already replacing the passenger motor mount since it just started springing a bit of oil. I even had to debate on whether I wanted to just go OEM on them again or go for poly mounts and "enjoy" the extra vibration.