I didn't see a new member section on here but I've been interested in Minis for a few years now so I've been lurking a good bit. I just sold my wife's '10 justa and gave her my most recent daily driver. I appreciate the wealth of knowlege on here and what seems to be a pretty drama free forum. With that said, I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself along with a few of my more recent cars.

Rewind to 2007, a Soldier in Iraq is thinking about buying a Lotus Elise when he returns to the great state of TX! He owned an '89 BMW 525i e34 back in High School and loved it but was forced to sell it due to the insurance cost after a few speeding tickets :( So he finds out BMW is bringing the 1 series to the states and starts comparing the 135i to the Elise. Common sense prevailed as he's 6'2" and wanted a fast fun daily driver. He spec'd out a nice '08 "year one of the 1" 135i and took delivery in June '08. He has what some of you know as the "mod bug" and goes nuts with it.



Fast forward to 2010, BMW "1M"??? YESSIR! Let's do it! Waits patiently for details and pricing...WHAT? for that much money he could get a clean low mileage Porsche 996TT! (911 turbo was his childhood dream car, afterall).



So 135i is sold, 996TT purchased! but didn't want to daily the Pcar. What to do? he had an e30 sitting around that he had been reviving...



e30 keeps breaking down :( what to do? mod a Passat wagon!!!



e30 is fixed! what to do? sell Passat wagon


e30 catches on fire



no daily again (getting ready to deploy again, so really just an excuse to get another e30 but shhh, don't tell wifey) what to do? another e30 of course!


e30 needs a lot of love and not really ready to daily (also modding this but keeping it subtle)
link if interested: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...ht=quicksilver

enter: Project Clean Daily!
Was shopping for a BMW wagon (while still deployed in the Afghan mountains) and bought a pretty clean '09 Alpine White 328i. Modded it slightly, of course.



When I purchased this car I was not planning on moving as far away from my job as I did. I was driving 80-90 miles a day at an average of 23mpg with AC and 25mpg with no AC. This ended up being $350-$400 per month just to drive to work.

So I sold my bimmer wagon and purchased a 2011 tdi sportwagen which I left alone completely (except debadging it). This is now Wifey's daily driver.


Now onto my next daily, the F56 MCS ordered May 23rd:

-White/Silver
-Black roof/mirrors/bonnet stripes/wheels (17" cosmos)
-Sport pack with cornering LEDs
-Cold Weather Pack
-Media Pack
-Auto with JCW steering wheel/paddle shifters
-Sport Suspension
-HK audio
-Comfort Access
-Auto dimming inside/outside mirrors
-Storage Pack

Thanks for reading my story, updates will surely follow!

 

Very cool, can't wait to see how the Mini gets modded!

Thank you for your service!

 

Thanks, I will definitely mod it, just not sure to the extent. Probably wheels, coilovers, and a tune at the top of the list.

 

MA said the car comes in tomorrow

 

I had the E92 bug and lots of fun with it (FBO and E85+meth). Mostly returned to stock now waiting for funds to convert to a big single.

Bought the F56 for work AND bc it came with the B48 engine....hoping the Vishnu, Burger, Cobb, etc of the tuning world would add this car to their lineup since it is SOOOOOO detuned.

Looking forward to watching your progress!

 

Well I picked up RahXephon today. My plan is to put 1k miles on it at under 4k rpm. Then install BMS stage I and wait for more aftermarket support.

 

Keeping it under 4k for the first 1000 miles was hard for me, good luck. Looking forward to seeing how you like the tune. Now, where are those pictures?

 

dark and rainy, no pics yet

 

Yeah, we like pictures!

 

this is the only place I cleaned so far. the rest of the car is filthy...oh, and I debadged it and will get it tinted tomorrow if I can squeeze it in at my shop of choice. Going to do 30% ceramic all around.

 

Debadge ftw

 

broken links. Don't remember what I posted here.

 

anyone else on board with wanting a normal gas cap cover???

 

I'm not sure what you've won. I've never understood the point of debadging. In Germany people pay extra for factory debadging. I find it weird, especially on the Cooper. You still obviously have a Cooper S, even without badges.

 

I'm looking forward to learning why folks debadge because I've never understood it either.

A few years ago in a GTI forum a few people were saying the first thing they did was remove the circular VW badge. When asked why they said it was a GTI tradition. Didn't make sense to me.

I'm not judging. It's your car, do what you want with it. Doesn't affect me. I'm just curious. If it's a cool reason I may pry the logos off myself!

 

I debadge to keep the car clean. Detailing around badges is a mess. Our X1 had 'xDrive 35i' on each door. I know what I bought, I don't really care what other people think, or notice.

Having worked in Germany, debadging is actually a little different. If you drive a BMW 550i and your boss has a 520d, it's best not to flaunt that, so nearly all cars are debadged.

 

Well captain obvious, clearly I haven't won anything. Merely an expression stating I like cars debadged.

I personally like the clean symmetrical look of debadging a car. I don't care if other people know what type of car I drive, and I think lettering on cars looks dumb.

For what it's worth I always thought cars in Germany debadged bc speeding ticket prices were a function of horsepower..... But the more I think about that the sillier it sounds.

 

Ha! Germany actually has a flat rate for tickets. I learned quickly that they're billed directly to your credit card after failing to slow down for a traffic camera in Stuttgart.

Some countries like Switzerland charge based on your income. A colleague was coming back to Germany from Italy and got a €3,000 ticket for doing 220 km/h in a 120 zone. Ouch.

 

looking forward to seeing more pictures! should be a sharp car!

I usually partially debadge my cars:
-on my WRX, i removed the "Subaru" "Impreza" and "symmetrical AWD" badges leaving only WRX. much cleaner.
-on my VW, I removed the "GOLF" and left "TDI"

I haven't decided yet if i'll debadge my MINI or not.

 

Update: windows tinted with Formula One Pinnacle 30% all around. Again, dark and the car is dirty so no good pics yet. I'll be out of town over the weekend so hopefully next week the weather will cooperate and I can clean it up and get some good photos!

I'm with ya here

as others mentioned I like the symmetric appearance and it's much easier to keep clean. I've mentioned before I am a detailer on the side and I can't stand working around lettering and badges.

answered above, since the car is new I literally did it in 10 min with nothing but a piece of dental floss and my fingers as the adhesive came off in nearly whole pieces.

far more common in Europe for sure

hadn't heard anything about the speeding but agreed on not caring what car people THINK I drive.

I debadged the "jetta tdi" wagon which is now my wife's car as soon as we got it. I'm already glad I debadged the mini, looks better IMO.

 

so here are my initial impressions in no particular order after 500 miles in 4 days:

-sport suspension is great!

-runcrap tires although decent grip are too noisy and stiff

-the fish in green mode is cool at first but once you get your stars there's nothing to look forward to

-the driving excitement mode is cool but i'd rather see different data...like directional g-force or turbo boost pressure for example

-the iphone integration with the basic usb is quite good, although I don't like how if you're using pandora you can't multitask. *note you CAN multitask if you stream the audio via bluetooth

-HK audio is WELL worth the extra cost

-the visual boost 6.5" screen is more than good enough if you don't need nav or cameras and such

-mpg is good in green mode with AC 100% of the time (high 30's), although I expect low 40's after the engine is broken in more

-seats are very comfortable but I wish they had adjustable lumbar support

-the led headlights are fantastic, better than the HIDs in my previous bimmers

-at this point I have no regrets with how I optioned it and can't wait to mod it a bit!

 

I don't have my car yet so I may be off base but isn't there a **** to adjust the lumbar support on the right side of the driver's seat?

 

after a quick feel around the seat I didn't find one...I'll investigate further!

 

It depends on the seat. Cloth-No. Standard-No. And I think the standard sport seat does not have it either. Have to have pearl, leather or plaid.

 

yeah, I have the standard leatherette sport seats. No lumbar I could find.