So I got my '03 3 weeks ago and have finished my first "mod". Its kind of sad, but here it is

I have the factory roof rack and wanted to add a fairing. The aero bar and channel made it impossible to use the Yakima or Thule fairing with standard hardware/mounting instructions. I liked the design of the yakima more so i started with a 38" fairing. I got the 32" initially but it seemed to small. (and yes that is an ocean mural in my garage, my house was a model home so the garage was an office at one point.)



It actually didn't take that much effort to get the fairing to fit. I started by drilling holes in the straps. I went to Lowe's and for each strap i bought a bolt, nut, and 2 washers. The washer that is in the channel is a one inch fender washer that fits perfectly in the channel, the washer on the top of the strap is a little smaller. I had to use an open box wrench to hold the nut while i tightened down the bolt. Afterwards I spray painted the bolt and washer flat black.



The paint wore off a little after I had to remove the bolts forgetting I needed to slide the bike racks between the straps.

Here are a couple more pics of the finished product. Just thought I'd share that it can be done since i couldn't find any threads with someone else who did this.

As far as the effectiveness of the fairing I went on a quick drive and didn't notice a reduction in noise, but I don't find the rack to make that much noise anyways. I mostly did it for looks.

 

very nicely done!

 

nice i just got a yakima rack, and wasnt sure how the fairing would look on the mini, i should have bought one

 

I'm going to revive this old thread because I have a related question. My '05 MCS has the factory racks on it (like the ones shown above). I have Yakima snowboarding racks from a Yakima rack I had on my older car. Is there an adapter anywhere that I can use to fit the Yakima snowboard racks onto the Mini factory roof rack? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Can you post some pics of it?

 

looks awesome man! nice job