oh, I am so juiced. I finally got my JCW Cross Spoke 506 wheels and tires.

I got them from the dealer, where I purchased my car. Awesome service, and great price. They came from Mini Direct, through Europe. So, the wheels and tires were mounted and installed at the factory.

I prepped the tires, and cleaned them well with rubbing alcohol. The reason you see some white haze. I went ahead and installed some Tire Lettering. What better time to do them, than with super clean virgin rubber.

I have my Car in winter storage, and should be taking it out soon. I am now waiting delivery on some Carpro Cquartz Dlux this week. This stuff is awesome for wheels and tires. Keeps the rubber nice and dark, and more importantly, keeps the rubber clean (never need tire dressing with DLUX)

Cheers

 

I am so happy I have those wheels too, they transform the look I think.

 

Looks awesome!!
Desiring to see the setup installed.

 

They come with the standard Dunlop tires. I only drive on dry roads (I don't take my JCW out in the rain), hence how do they stick and drive over dry roads?

What tire pressures are you using?

Cheers,

 

My 506's came with Pirelli RF's. I've never been a fan of RF's but these are actually pretty decent. Ride quality is much better than any of had before and dry traction is good. They are much less sticky in the wet but you said that's not important. I've been running 36-38psi front and rear since new (lower than factory recommendation) and they work well at that.

PS: just noticed the contradiction...why the Goodyear stickers on Dunlop tires?

 

I ended winning the Good Year Lettering, and for several reasons...

1) Dunlop is owned and run by the Good Year Tire Company.

2) I was a diehard Formula 1 Fan (WAS, is the key word...) back in the day of the Tire Wars (Good Year vs Michelin, Hakinen vs Schumacher, Ferrari vs Mclaren).

3) I had them kicking around, and would look a lot less conspicuous than on my Mercedes.

4) I was DIEing to try them out to see how it would work out as a mod (FYI, if you use fingerprint ID to unlock your Android device, and you get any kind of adhesive onto your finger tips, well LOL, the rest is history )

5) I thought they would look Rad on my JCW (Chili red on Chili red, with Chili Red front and rear headlight and tail light bezels, black out front grille chrome to black, mid blackout trim, jcw fuel cap cover, and of course those Gorgeous JCW cross spoke wheels).


I will have to run close or slightly higher PSI pressures here (montreal, once again, the city with the worst pothole infested roads), in order to survive the spring thaw and pothole festival.

Cheers

 

You should come back as F1 has some pretty cool cars this year with the new regulations....much more competetive! Although I will agree that there really is nothing like the naturally aspirated V-10's of old in F1!

 

Et voila...

I protected and coated the rims and tires with Carpro DLUX.




Up close, Drivers Rear



Rear to Front



Front To Rear



Up close, Drivers Front

 

Looks great. Are you running spacers?

 

Looks real good, I'd be afraid to get that car dirty though.

 

Yeeeup... I am presently running 20mm spacers front and rear, that I purchased from ECS Tuning. I had them on the 17" black spoke Mini Rims, and since the cross spoke 18" run the same offset, have them on them too.

I kid you not, I do not drive my JCW in the rain. So I actually only wash her maybe once a month. I know, but I am pretty **** about keeping my JCW pristine, as one day I will pass her off to my son :D

 

Looks great I think the wheel and tire packages from Europe don't come with the TPMS that MINI has in their kits here.

 

Canada uses a rotational wheel/tire sensor over a TPMS sensor. Hence, one of the reasons it is less expensive, is that it does not require a TPMS sensor per tire.

The bad, you cannot monitor individual tire pressures. The good (not for me anyways, since I store my vehicle in the winter) is that TPMS sensors can be real finicky for those in the cold winter months.

Cheers

 

Yep,

It all started with the firestone/ford tire blow out issues that mandated TPMS inboard for cars in the USA, or a tire system and MINI in ~2008 made it mandatory on all US cars.

 

I had an Acura TL 2006 fully loaded, and it had the TPMS sensors on each wheel on factory 18" wheels and tires. The vehicle had an identical set of winter Tires on Factory 18" wheel and tires. It was a weekly PITA, in the winter. The tires, during the 4 years of warranty would always have issues, setting off one of the 4 wheel tpms pressures during the winter months. Constantly adding air to one or two of the wheels every 12 - 15 days. The dealer never did squat, other than say they detect no leaks. But the on board display would constantly squawk every 5 - 8 minutes while driving, even after acknowledging the pressure drop. So you litteraly had to add air on a constant basis. The summer season would occur, but like once per month, on the summer set of wheels and tires. I solved the problem, when I sold the car.