Hey guys, brand new here. I bought my 09' Sparkling Silver 1.6L Mini back in February to use it as a simple a-b daily driver. I come from the Land of 240sx's and drifting so I never really saw myself owning a Non-Turbo Mini Persay..

Here she is the Day I brought her home, equipped fresh with Vanillaroma to make her feel like home.

(TL;DR starts here, I got drunk one night and saw a Red and White r53 mini outside the window and managed to set a reminder in my phone to research the cost of minis and their gas mileage. Found one for $9,000 with a dealership warranty and 46,000. Bought her the same day.)



After driving the car for a while I was overjoyed with how amazing the car handled on the stock suspension. Being as it's a non-s, it's not particularly fast in any way shape or form.. In fact I'd say this is the slowest car I've owned to date. That being said, it is the most fun car I've owned to date. From 10 second GST drag queens to fully built s13 240sx's, this is by far my favorite car. The only problem I had when purchasing the car was that I don't like chrome accents.. I even went as far as to remove the chrome rings around my keyfob. So, naturally, the first simple mod I did was to Plastidip all the Chrome on the Mini gloss black.



Although it is a cheap mod (opposed to changing the trim pieces with aftermarket replacements), the results really satisfied me. It rid my beloved Mini of the fiend that is Chrome, and really improved the looks at this point.

Being that I live in Germany, modifying cars can be a bit difficult. The regulations for vehicle modifications are a bit more strict as opposed to stateside, so my options were minimal. I decided to purchase wheels and coilovers. For Wheels, I chose to model a very famous R56 MCS on 16x9 Keskin Kt1's. I simply had to have his stance. Problem being, in Germany the roads are quite awful, and there are MONSTROUS speed bumps to enter post.

I chose to rock BC Coilovers, and went with Varrstoen VT3's in 16x9 running the same 215/40 setup that Mr. Xfactor ran. The results made me fall in love with my mini all over again.

(the initial height setting... I was scared.)





A nice day at the wash..



And the height she sits at now and will remain at until I come back to the States




Unfortunately about a week after the coilover and wheel install, I was on my way home doing about 60MPH and a deer decided it didn't enjoy life anymore. The good news in the Mini won. The bad news is that it destroyed the front bumper, grill, fender, damaged the passenger door, side mirror, killed the a/c condensor, the e-fan, the radiator, the lower radiator hose, and all of the heat shielding for the exhaust is kind of a brownish red tint now. Luckily, my German insurance covers the damage to include a factory engine due to the overheating caused by the damage. She still runs and drives, she just doesn't like traffic.

Thanks for reading guys, and I can't wait to become more of an active member here on NAM!

 

Welcome! Car looks awesome! I really want that rim style on my MINI, but with gold spokes. I found 16's but not 17's, however the 16's look great on yours so I may just step a size down...

 

16s are perfect! The 16x9s are very aggressive and barely fit mind you. I don't see as many people going this low on this setup as I would like though. Mind you I am 16x9et25 with 215/40. Not exactly a track ready setup but she's a looker

 

The one's I have my eye on are 16x8et25. I want that look so bad but I don't want to kill the handling of the car...

 

Looks good

 

The setup that I have definitely ruins the handling brother. The rear is cambered way too much and it's too low to hit any type of "non perfect" road at any high speeds. That lower radiator hose is somewhat fragile I appreciate the love though, guys!