.....you had been driving your "stock" r53s for a while, hearing and/or reading about all the potential that could be unleashed in your little 3 door demon. You had pushed the envelope of standard with your car in its "oem" form, but your taste buds yearned for the extra ooomph that so many who had gone before you now boasted and bragged about. You've reached your threshold and finally, your tolerance for the "norm" has been over exceeded, so you pull the trigger and buy a smaller pulley, new plugs, injectors and full exhaust and plan to tune the car post installation (let's presume you've already done the CAI because it was an easy do-it your-selfer task). Parts in hand, you drop the car off, salivating at the thought picking it and immediately feeling like you've just bought a new race car. You wonder all day long how much more beautiful the growl and whine will sound; how much more the pull of the newly unleashed torque and horsepower will drive your back deep into that bucket seat. A grin won't leave your face, even after you learn your dog died, your mom has cancer, your wife is cheating on your with your ugly cousin and you can't taste ice cream anymore. Then the phone rings! Your heart beat increases and if you were attached to an electrocardiograph, it would detect a tachyarrythmia. You expect the voice on the other line to tell you your precious machine is ready, waiting and just needs a pilot. But, instead your trusty mechanic breaks some overwhelmingly disturbing news...your r53s already has these parts installed and has been previously tuned. Your car has already achieved its max potential!!!!! What would you do? Would you be able to recover? Would you still be happy with your mcs?

 

you could sell me your pully. Anywho, i would die of shock.

 

I'd wonder how I missed that shiny aftermarket pulley on my supercharger all this time!!! I haven't seen one that looks anything like the plain black stocker.

Eric

 

alta's is black.

 

I stand corrected...and will be checking mine this weekend as well!!

Eric

 

Did that happen to you?

 

I perosnally would take back/sell on the bit i had bought and start looking at the next leval of mods.

 

So is my Cravenspeed 15%

 

I would call Jan a RMW and find out how to get the performance I had wanted. We keep seeing RMW and WMW develop cars with more and more.
You just need to shift your direction and start with a new level.

 

it hasn't (yet) - but i decided to start this thread because i've had the little feeling, "what if", almost for as long as i've owned my mcs. a little back story - mine is an 05. i bought it november 07 from a leasing agency that was selling it for the orig owner. the car had only 6500 miles on it and was pretty unique because of the ac schnitzer kit (interior/exterior), wheels, full exhaust and as the story went from the leasing agency, the owner bought the car at the SEMA show. i've put an alta cai and a craven speed short shifter and can tell by the height (and ride) of the car it has oem suspension. however, it's been an interesting thought to ponder how i might change the opinion of my little road rocket if i suddenly had to abandon the notion of further potential and accept it as is. in other words, is our satisfaction found not in the daily drive, but in the dream of more and more...of what could be???

 

I've come to the realization that while I love the way my car drives and looks, I must be into it for the potential I see. For years I was very into modding old turbo Saabs, then one day I became uninterested. It was because I'd done all I could reasonably do to my old car. A few years later, I have my 'fresh' r53, and the modding is back with a vengeance. I've got little projects in the works as we speak, but I'm already saving and researching whatever's next. It's fun, but in a way- it kind of sucks.

 

interesting, so you'd fall into the category that you love the car (or the idea of the car) so much that in learning your car had been affordably modded to its max, you'd dive in the more expensive route and possibly rebuild the car into a whole new demon of driving, eh?

would you (have you) do (done) this only if the car is not your daily driver? you know what i mean - if it was the only car in your garage, needed for daily driving (in addition to weekend fun) would you rebuild the entire engine/drivetrain?

 

My R53 is my only car, and had that happened to me when I went to install my pulley, I would have sold it and started looking at cams/heads and more.

In all honesty, Im 20 and have had 10 or 11 cars so far. I get bored with cars very easily. The mini is the first car, that I can look into the future and see me keeping. So with it being my daily driver, I guess I wouldnt be afraid to tear it all down and rebuild everything.

 

i'd say that the modding bug is not much unlike the unrelenting desire to go under the knife over and over for women (or men) addicted to plastic surgery.

 

Probably not 'love' the car. I look at it more as incremental improvements in place of payments on another car.
I tend to get bored and need to be doing something. So for me this is actually a more economical than stepping up in cars.
The mini is a simi-daily driver but not the only car I have available.