I picked up my 2017 Melting Silver/Black John Cooper Works Mini back in October and have been enjoying it so far. I am coming from high-performance cars, a 2008 Porsche 997.1 turbo 6MT and 2004 BMW M3 6MT (pictured in the first picture behind my Mini). This Mini has a 6-speed auto transmission so this is also my very first auto.

So far with my limited experience in this car, I feel like this is going to be a much more fun driving car compared to my other two cars. The Mini being a slower car than my Porsche, I can drive it fast but not nearly as fast as my Porsche and it would be more likely to be overlooked. It has been my choice for local as well as daily driving duties. Until owning one, I have never realized just how much enjoyment I can get from driving a slower car although my JCW is not much slower than my M3.

This is how my JCW looked when I took possession of it in October:





I have been told that I should name my car as it is a Mini thing to do so I named my JCW "Ms. Moneypenny" as I have poured a lot of money into her since my acquisition to get everything up to par and have all her critical maintenance and "preventive maintenance" caught up. I tend to go over everything and replace what does not meet up to my expectation when picking up a car without any maintenance history or baseline so that in the long run I have a car that is in perfect condition - maintenance wise. I also like to upgrade/mod my cars so that they are different from the others. Sort of like adding my unique touches to the car.

The paddle shifters the previous owner put on were cheap aluminum "press on" type of paddle shifters that looked out of place so I ordered a set of MMR aluminum paddle shifters to swap in and they made a huge difference in feel when engaging my shifters. I also changed out the infotainment system the car came with (iDrive 4 system) for the 8.8" touchscreen (iDrive 6 system) with wireless CarPlay and the digital gauge cluster to bring the electronics more up to date. I also wrapped the dash trim in Alcantara to clean things up and to make the cockpit look nicer.


I also changed the external lighting for LED lighting with LED corner lights, OEM LED side marker and OEM UK Flag LED tail lights for a cleaner look.



I then added these JCW door flood lights to add an additional touch to this car...



I have also done some performance mods since purchasing my Mini and plan to do more as time goes on focusing on improving both the looks as well as the performance and reliability of this car. I hope to gain a lot of knowledge in how to better set this amazing and fun ride up.

 

Welcome and congrats! Looks great!

"my JCW is not much slower than my M3." lol

With a couple mods it could be faster, and with lots of mods it can be faster then your Porsche

 

Welcome to forums! Awesome car and nice touches!

 

My JCW has Weistec ECU tune, an Armytrix down pipe and eventuri cold air intake. I know I can do more performance upgrades if I want to go faster but what I now have is more than enough with 17” OEM wheels and tires installed. Before I will consider going with more upgrades that will get me much more power, I will be looking to upgrade the suspension, chassis, and wheel/tire setup on this car first.

 

I’m loving this car so far, thanks for your compliments!