Mine is an 05, dealer installed version, STILL makes it a "real" JCW, no mater what anyone claimes..! Got the fancy paperwork to prove it.
The car was originally ordered with the limited slip differential, so yea, it's a JCW...with...the oddly designed LSD.

Mike

 

Mine is a 2006.
S15964



I will not delve into the factory vs. dealer debate, however, one thing we can all agree on is that the earlier logo looks much better, yes?

Somehow,
the all uppercase and positioning of the newer logo just doesn't look as good to my eyes...

 

Wow, ours are close together...mine is a 2006 with S16060 ........wonder how close the production dates of our cars are, mine is 9-13-2006

Bryan

 

I like your number better!
Got some cool symmetry!

Mine was made on 9-1-2006.

 

So I wonder if that means in the 2 weeks time between our cars build dates...that there was 96 JCW kits built?

 

Looks like it --- they built quite a good number of them.

At one point I was going through sequential VINs on Bimmer.works and it seemed like every other one was a JCW, mind you that's for the global market too, not just USA.
It's all very interesting and I'm surprised that nobody has really crunched the numbers yet.

:


And, also to add,
as far as the dealer vs. factory debate goes, I reckon I'll delve in a little like devilish and add my 2 pence worth...

...the only reason I value the "factory" version is that it came with the 210hp kit -- airbox and injectors which are easily updated on the earlier version so it's not really that big a deal methinks. Although when I was looking for a good used MCS example, and I was mostly focused on 05-06, a JCW was not top priority because I recognized that an S could easily be modded to outperform a factory JCW, but I ended up with a JCW in the end and much to my chagrin became sort of a fanboy, concerned about emblems and et cetera, so it goes, so it goes.

I think the use of the term "real" in description of factory vs. dealer is rather silly.

If I was impassioned on the topic,
I'd argue with the "factory realists" that theirs ain't really real either because it originated in Oxford as opposed to Sussex where the actual John Cooper Works was situated.

A truly pukka JCW is only an install from Sussex!

 

 

I didn't mean to feed this silly factory vs dealer debate when I said my JCW was special because it was factory installed. I just meant that my car is special to me, not necessarily in general though.

 

They are ALL special! With their own personalities. I guess i take the whole "christine" thing too seriously.

 

I recently got my mid-life crisis hands on an 06 JCW. My kit # is S11636. It has a birth certificate, and I think it said March.
I've got the Mulroney....Malrony.....Bologna...the window sticker that says its got the LSD. Can also confirm JCW was a $6300 option. So is mine a factory JCW?
Has a $34,000 sticker! But no Bluetooth option. Thanks Obama

 

From what I have read & learned, your 2006 was a "factory installed" JCW option, not a dealer installed kit like the earlier versions......

My '06 convertible JCW car also has the factory installed option with the LSD ....... and I did some digging on the price of mine when new, sticker said $39,950 for final price at the bottom with all the added goodies that are on mine

And yes, mine also says "$6,300" for the JCW option

Bryan

 

NICE, keep having those mid life crisises.... added.

 

I've recently purchased S16474, production date 26 Nov 2006 ...must be one of the last cars...not sure how many they produced a day.

​​​​​​

 

Maybe, what was production date of the car? Wiki says 2007 came out in Nov....but it is wiki, not sure how valid it really is.

 

The JCW 1st gen was produced till 2008 in the R52, and you can still even order the Tuning Kit.

 

I called the local..ish...dealer(san diego), the guy said they dont do the 210 flash anymore. Maybe theres still a few that do.

 

Just now reading Graham Robson's book New MINI and came across this tidbit...

I like the early JCW scuttles --- did any of those ever make it over here???

 

Only the JCW Tuning Kit for the R50 included the scuttles ... very few of which were sold in the US.

 

Neat,
thanks for the info.

They show them in the old brochure for the R50 JCW kit:
http://motoringfile.com/files/JCW_Tu...INI_COOPER.pdf

Looks like they were high quality badges just like the other early badging,
found this shot from a classified:



That kit is JCW # 522.
Seen here:
http://www.motoringunderground.com/f...ad.php?t=24791

.

 

I was a 2006 buyer in the fall of 2006 and from what I was told by my MA, MINI was going to produce the R53 cars into sometime in November with orders cutting off in October. At that time they would switch the factory for R56 production (aka the 2007 hardtop) and R52 production (the 2007 convertible). Europe/the UK would get the first R56 cars so the dealer expected to have very limited availability of cars (all 1st gens) until they started getting their R56 allotments in "Spring". My recollection is that they actually didn't start making R56 cars until December so it would be possible to have a late late Nov build date.

So the Wiki is kind of correct, but keep in mind that MINI used to keep the first batches of the "new" cars for the UK and Europe. This is why some R56 cars in the UK are "2006 plate" cars vs. 2007.

 

Going off those numbers it would be >~2100 Kits in the US. I would hope that most have survived over the number of kits/cars that got scrapped for what ever reason. But where are they hiding

 

Well, I know of one '06 R53 JCW that has gone to Mini heaven.... I bought the engine from a wrecking yard to replace the dead engine in my R52 JCW car that I bought a few months ago. I asked them where the car was that I got the engine from, the wrecking yard crushed the car right away after they pulled out the engine

Bryan

 

this hits me in the feels, so does crushing classic cars that are worth a damn.

 

The kits were nothing special you can get a lot more power for less money from rmw. A lot of them went on cars without lsd too

 

i agree that you can get bolt on kits/parts that are more bang for the buck. But, looking at some of the original(and ongoing) discussions about buying a JCW vs Buying a R__ or F__ and tuning it, is the 'specialness' of the JCW.