It was yesterday, but I drove my MINI 650 miles. About 200 of that was on the mountain roads in the southern part of Big Sur. That includes my first time on the rightly famous Nacimiento-Ferguson "Highway". Whoowee, that road ain't for the timid! 16mi. of tight curves right over the Coastal Range. I think I remember 2 straights that could have been as much as 150yds long. As always, my MINI ran like a champ, but did he ever get dirty. Even had mud on the roof at one point! Right now he looks like a happy grey/brown piggy, LoL.

 

Now I relax in my mini and only post from my laptop when im relaxing in my baby
Yes I have.. And even with all the faults from the dealer I still love every single thing about it

Yay I couldn't figure out how to flip the picture.. Now I know

Best first mod you can do. You don't want your car looking remote control lol

 

simply awesome....

 

..wow, I hadn't even noticed all the posts..till Albie pointed it out.

..post numbers may go down now with all the time spent motoring & modding ..have fun, that's a really sweet looking Mini.
_____________________________________
..and today, did this: ..no more orange dot.
(before & after)
J

 

Liking your mod I was surprised when I saw that mine where white..

 

Had a bad front wheel bearing in '02 MCS that created an incredible drone @ highway speeds. Really surprised on how bad it was since I only have 80K on it. I replaced both front wheel bearings this afternoon and all is nice an quiet now. Changing them out was really easy, only took ~2.5 hours to do both sides. Can't wait for the drive to work tomorrow.

 

Took off this 1' big sticker of a chicken wearing sunglasses with 2 thumbs (feathers?) up on my hatch glass A friend asked us to put them on our cars during his chicken resto's grand opening

 

Love that stretch of "highway"! Did you get a chance to see the mudslide damaged section?



Or did you see it, then hit the gas and jump over it?

 

I had to leave my car parked out of the garage for about 30 minutes while the resin cured on my windshield (fixing another "bullet hole" I got from a rock). The area I live in kind of sucks and 30 minutes is all it took for some jack a$$ to slap a "Hello my name is" sticker on my hatch glass. I was pretty ticked as I had just spent the last hour detailing my car. But whatever, 2 more minutes of elbow grease and it was back to sparkling clean again. I try not to let little things bother me, but why do people have to hate so much?

 

That musta been the spot where he got the mud on the roof

 

Thankfully no. I turned inland just a few miles south of that thrill ride. However, the surf was so massive that in one spot it was breaking onto Highway 1! Found out you can surf a MINI, but you gotta be real careful, LoL. The site of Big Sur with a storm coming in is ASTONISHING!!

 

See, after reading your twisty adventure, all I can think about is getting to Nurburgring. Hope to hit it in May.

 

"New" tail lights to replace the original with one fogged lens....

I just need to find the proper turn signal bulbs - 7506, IIRC, but with the "A" suffix to get the legal amber signal light color. I have a pair of 1156A in there now, but at 27.9W vs. 21W, the extra half amp current draw worries me, considering the horror stories that I've seen regarding the BCM and extra current draw when adding the unused rear fogs to the brake light circuit (which doubles the current draw). Hopefully the turn signal circuitry can handle the ~25%-30% increase from using the wrong bulb....

C ya,
Dutch

PS: look for an announcement regarding an exhaust upgrade soon....

 

Well, haven't "done" it yet, but went ahead and ordered some new wheels and tires this morning from Discount Tire Direct. I went a bit outside my comfort zone on the wheels on purpose. It seems that I always buy wheels that are of the same style, no matter which car I have (usually a 5 - 7 spoke in black with a polished lip, or all black). I felt like the all black would be too stark on this white MINI, plus I've been buying black wheels for 10 years. So time for something else... These are 16x7 Konig Zero-In's with a machined face, and black inner spokes along with a red line (figured I could play off the red "S" of the car but also the black decals and shiny bits all over the place).



For the tires, I went with Hankook's this time. I've had a couple of sets of their Dynapro ATM RF10's on my 4x4 trucks, and have been completely impressed with them. These are Hankook Ventus V4 ES H105's which are considered a "ultra high performance all-season" in 205/50/16:



I'm having them install all new TPMS sensors for simplicity, so total price shipped to my door was $1084. Could have been worse. Now I have to figure out how to jack this car up and whether I can use my low-profile standard floor jack or not. And also, if I have to go to the dealer to have the TPMS sensors calibrated (Tire Rack seemed to think it could be done somehow myself -- will have to research that too).

 

Those wheels look really nice! Can't wait to see pics of them on your car.

 

Those are NICE!'

 

Thanks guys, as usual choosing wheels was an agonizing process between Tire Rack and Discount, and what they had in stock in which sizes, etc etc. I found these and thought "thats the one", and pulled the trigger.

 

MINI11 you can reset the tpm sensors yourself, check your owners manual, very easy, nice wheels .

 

Cool thanks! Yeah I need to go grab it from the car, but I've been lazy.

 

MINI11 - I also look forward to seeing pics posted when you get em' on.

...have seen those wheels listed on there, & always thought they'd look good on a Mini...have searched..but so far haven't come across any pics.

..seems like some wheels even look better on car than in the ads.

..was also wonderin...are those gonna be single lug pattern...or a multi lug pattern? I see them listed as 4-100/108
J

 

The ones I got are listed as 4-100/114, so I'm going to guess they are a multi-lug pattern since it seemed to be lumping available stock in those 2 categories. I picked the ones I did strictly based on what was showing in inventory, the specs seemed the same overall.

Most of the aftermarket 4-bolt pattern wheels I've ever bought in the past were multi-lug pattern. I'm sure its much cheaper to sell them that way. I got those for $99.50/each after the $50 web-only rebate. I've seen reports that they weigh 16-17 lbs, but I can't find anything "official" on that. They certainly don't look too heavy anyway...

 

those wheels are going to look fresh... man i cant wait to get new wheels.. so much i want to do but not enough money haha i should make a spread sheet with pros,cons, cost, and bang for your buck columns...

 

Some quickie mods my Eclipse Gray MiniCooper S (name pending)



bumper guard



Seat pulls and a 2nd cargo net (thanks for cheaping out on us 2011 owners with only one vertical net)



Cover up those hideous air bag waring labels.

 

Got this via UPS today. Can't wait until I can get my car back and put it on!

 

Well I just recently bought my 2006 Cooper S. It has 50,000 miles on it and I went ahead and replaced the spark plugs today, did the airbox modification, dropped in a K&N filter (which NO stores stock and had to be ordered), and a seafoam treatment. Going this weekend to get the windows tinted, and changing all the speakers in the car and installing an amp. Then saving up for exhaust, pulleys, etc...!!!!