Howdy, I'm Depotdan! I own a 2005 R52 Convertible in Liquid Yellow, Its a base model but will be seeing some mods in the coming year. It has the dreaded "CVT" but Im babying it for now. I found this site looking for info on Swapping the auto tranny for a manual 6 speed, there seems to be a few on the frontier who have done it. I am open to body mods, upgrades, to keep er going.
I originally owned a 1974 Mini Innocenti 1001 in Aviano Air Base , Italy (USAF) in 1978-80. I bought it for $400 and the motor was in a 100 pieces, An Admin in my squadron had a mini also and we worked together on it. I purchased a 1967 1275 cc cooper S motor from a salvage yard and we installed it over a weekend. It was the fastest little car I had ever owned . I took it on the autostrada and topped 225 KPH, but the body was shaking so bad I never tried it again. It was great in snow and it used very little fuel to travel anywhere. I wanted to bring it back to the states but import mods were a big $$$ roadblock. If there is anyone out-here who have similar stories please pass them on to me. I would like a classic again someday as modern cars are to complicated to really work on under the shade tree. I'm also interested in events and club events. My occupational interests are Welding, Machine work, Painting, Non destructive testing( PT, MT UT, ET) and what ever I can learn to ad to my re'sume'. Looking forward to being an active member.

 

Welcome to NAM, you came to right place as there are over 85,000 threads here on the Gen1 MINI and many will deal with your R50. If you have not already check out the 1st Generation Mod section that has a separate area for your Justa.

 

Hi and welcome to the NAM family!
Having a R50 is no shame, but the conversion would be on my list too! My sister has a 08 R 50 convertible, with a dead CVT. I hope she has it modded to stick too!
Where's the pics?

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Welcome to the forum neighbor. (I am in New Freedom) I bought a R52 Convertible in November and just joined the forum. There appears to be an active club in Philly and Carlisle but I have not checked them out and I have not found anything closer.

I am going the other direction with my MINI. I want to keep it stock and bring it up to a better than new standard. (I have a long way to go.)

 

Welcome!

I can vouch for PhillyMINI as a great group with lots of events. I know it's a bit of a hike, but the more the merrier!

Got any photos?

 

Welcome, R52 Owner here also but I have the 5-speed manual.

Here some info on the swap.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...trag-swap.html

 

Welcome to NAM.

R52 Loads of fun.

Motor On!

 

Great story! I spent a night or two in our Westfalia camper at Aviano in '78. We were on our way from Bad Toelz, Germany to Venice for a few days. I was USAF assigned to Bad Toelz from 1975 to '79. My Mini affliction was sealed on a 32 day TDY to England in Spring of '79. I was able to take my bicycle, but a super nice Brit allowed me to drive his Mini on several days so I could expand touring distances over the countryside and coastal regions while I was there. An experience I'll not forget. That white roofed orange Mini was incredible fun on the roads around Norfolk and beyond.

Never did get to drive the Alps in a Mini, but I had a close second fun driving car that was nearly a Mini... a 1974 Honda CVCC hatch. I considered that car the Japanese version of a Mini. I loved it over there, the people, mountains, historic cities, the food, the cars and those roads, especially in the Alps.

Glad to see you have a Mini. Took me a while to get one. Enjoy! Hope you can find a Classic to wrench on! Wish I had those talents of yours.