Hi all,

I introduced myself over in the 1st gear section. I hope I am posting in the right place now, this looks to be the best bet.

Firstly, a little background to the car as I am new to NAM. I bought my car in December 2006, when it was 5months old (5800 miles). The previous owner had bought the car with the intention of keeping it, however she had fallen pregnant so needed to sell the car. It made a perfect buy for me, because she had added some expensive options and the car was virtually brand new.

The MINI is a 2006 ONE D (the Euro4 88bhp model) finished in astro black. The optional extras that the previous owner had gone for were as follows: 17” polished R99 wheels, Pepper Pack, alarm, Harmon/Kardon, zip roof decal, Cooper S steering wheel and sports seats. Overall a nicely specc’d car.

Here is a picture of the car on the day I picked it up. (the other pictures are clickable thumbnails, so click for a bigger picture)



(note that despite it being a face lift model, MINI kept the original bumpers to aid airflow. All other changes were the same, and the engine was upped in power from 75hp to 88bhp as standard. Cooper S bumpers are also standard.)

Initially I just started with basic things such as clear indicator lenses, stubby aerial and some company stickers.



Then after I started properly posting on a few MINI boards (mini2 and miniaddiction) and went to my first event I got the MINI bug seriously and started to add the ‘bigger’ things. First on my list was spotlights and shortly after that I also upgraded the dipped and main beam bulbs to xenon gas items, which greatly improved night driving, along with the addition of the MINI spots. Not a cheap mod at £250 ($490), but I do really like the look of spotlighted MINI’s.



Next came a relatively small mod, body colour mirror caps. BMW wanted £143 ($280) for these. Buck luckily TonyRec took these off his brand new sidewalk convertible and I got them for £40 ($79). Bargain and I personally think they look much better than the standard matt black plastic ones. Around about the same time I also bought a set of spot lamp covers from my local dealer. I don’t use these all the time; just on journeys which might involve stone chips.




In June I was very kindly given a set of Cooper S bumpers for free from a fellow MIN2 member. However after inquiring about having them sprayed up in astro black it became obvious that with numerous quotes hitting the £500 ($1085) mark I might as well go for the full Aero Kit, which also included new side skirts. I also decided to opt for the aero spoiler. So once again the car went off to the folks down at Woodman MINI (my local dealer, and sponsor of MINI2) for the treatment. Thanks to the group buy the value for money was excellent with the full kit plus aero spoiler coming to a few £'s over £1k ($1975). The spoiler however was on back order so it didn’t go on straight away. This by far the best single mod I have made to the car as it really does improve the look of the car so much. The skirts also make it look lower that it originally did with the standard (Cooper S) items.



One small problem remained however. Those of you who have had a look around a ONE D (not many in the US I would imagine?) will notice that unlike any other model MINI make, the rear bumper has no recess for an exhaust. This is because the diesels exhaust is bent downwards and is hidden behind the bumper. Therefore with the big recess on the Aero rear bumper it looked rather stupid, and that’s being polite. The guys at Woodman MINI had originally thought that a Cooper chrome item could have been fitted to the existing back box, but it didn’t work out. To cut a long story short I ended up having a custom back box made up by PowerFlow exhausts (a custom company here in the UK), with a 3” slash cut tail pipe. It cost £150 ($296) but it improved the rear end so much. As a nice side effect it has also given the car a nice burble, fair enough it’s not as nice sounding as a petrol equivalent, but I wanted a diesel car in the first place. Now its bedded in even more it sound so much nicer than the standard ONE D. (my younger brother has a standard ONE D to compare it to)

The pipe as it looked before the custom one (lame!):



The new look:



I then decided to add a cherished number plate. I looked at several and even went to a DVLA (which is the licensing agency here in Britain) auction to bid on JAM 1Y which had a reserve of £900, but ended up selling for over £15k ($29,615) . In the end I went with a much more sensible £250 ($490) plate which reads R99 JOL. My second name is Jolly so it works well and R99 ties in nicely with the MINI side of things.



The Aero Spoiler finally came off back order from Germany and I also opted for a chrome Cooper S fuel cap, which was a Birthday present from my parents for my 20th birthday. Once again the work was carried out at Woodman MINI. The aero spoiler has finished the back end off no end, a great improvement. The fuel cap also looks pretty neat and I’m glad I went for it instead of the standard cap. Shame it couldn't be had any cheaper than £150 ($295)!! Here are some pics of my car as it looks now, I took them up by Lake Windermere. It was raining all day though, so excuse the dirty car! I know it looks lowered in some pics, but its not it was just a very steep corner, in fact the wheel lifted off the ground at one point on that turn!!



Anyway I hope I haven’t bored people with this post, I just fancied showing everyone what I’ve done so far with the car. Any comments are welcome, and I’d appreciate it if anyone could recommend some more mods, but bear in mind I’m poor now, lol!!

Since the pictures I have had all four of my alloys replaced under warranty because they went like this. Its nice to have them all shiny again:



I have also changed the bulbs in the sidelight housing to remove the fried egg look, and to make the sidelights match the headlamps. I also aim to get the car lowered by 30mm in the near future.


Regards,

James.

 

Just a test to see if my signature is working.

 

Your MINI looks great! I love the zipper on the roof.
I do not think that any Diesels are in the U.S. unless they were purchased in EU and brought over privately.
Good Motoring to you!!

 

I sure wish we could have the diesels here. Would make for a nice city commuter.

I love the term "fallen pregnant". . . . I've never heard that one.

 

Nice post, beautiful car. Gotta love that zipper roof vinyl.

 

Very Nice introductions. WELCOME TO NAM!!!
It is always good to have another Brit in here, there are a few on the site, but not as many as I expected.

 

Great work.
I can see you have put a lot of effort and money into your car, and it shows with a very nice outcome.

Love the zipper!

 

Thats awesome!

 

Very nice! Is it really that expensive to have a custom plate???

 

Hmmm, I suppose with petrol prices so cheap over there you really don't have much need for diesels in small cars.

HaHa, a little English term for you there! My car averages about 45mpg (do you guys measure in the same figures?) so its perfect for city runs. If I didn't drive it as hard then mid-high 50's would be possible.

Thanks for the compliment.

Glad to be welcomed, thanks for the kind words.

Thanks a lot. I know I could have spent the money on other things, but I am really pleased with the outcome.

Thanks.

Thanks! With regards to the plate: Unfortunately yes, the cheapest ones start at £250.

The current record in the UK is £331,500 ($654,513) for the plate 'M 1' which is just madness. Another example of how expensive they are is the plate 'VIP 1' which sold for £285,000 ($562,704).

Regards,

James.

 

It's not the gas prices that bother us... it's the fuel consumption that's great. I'd rather have a diesel car getting 50-60mpg, than a Hybrid car getting nearly the same.

 

Great looking MINI! Welcome aboard and I love the zipper, too.

 

thats gorgeous..... love it

 

Those bumpers look great. I love your black paint, it should be called liquid black. This shot is my favorite.

 

Excellent, It would be nice to get the diesel in the U.S.

Nice story, great MINI and very good pictures.

Enjoy NAM and keep us up to date on your adventures with the MINI 1D.

 

Dude your car looks sick. $600,000 for a custom plate?

 

How nice it is to be discussing a ONE D on these pages!!!

 

I wanted a D stupid American rules....

 

Oh right I see. I have to admit that the added economy from my diesel is great at the moment, especially with fuel being £1.07 ($2.09) a litre at the moment

Thanks mate, it seems that the Zip is proving popular on here! I have never seen another MINI in person with it on. Which is what I like about it.

Thanks

Yeh the aero kit might be expensive but it sure is a good look. I took that shot for a member of MINI2 who makes decals for a living. He wanted to see what the OEM decal looked like so he could make a similar one.

I certainly will keep you all updated, especially now I know people are interested in the car

Thanks a lot for the compliment. Yes, some number plates here in Britain are worth serious amounts of cash. We cannot 'choose' our own plates, we must make do with what we can whilst adhering to various rules and regs regarding spacing, and the combo of letters and numbers. For example you could never get a plate which read MINI.

I'm glad you guys are interested in the ONE D, makes a nice change from the rather negative image diesel cars have amongst car enthusiasts over here.

Really, so the D couldn't be sold in America due to rules? Not just the fact that demand would probably be quite low for such a car?

Regards,

James.

 

From what I have heard it was due to the fact that all 50 states do not have the same diesel regulations. Thus, the MINI One D would not meet standards for all 50 states and I believe that BMW doesn't like to sell cars that aren't legal in all 50 states. That being said, if the American consumer demand for such a product was stronger I think that BMW would have addressed that issue we would be able to get a D in the states. Also, (correct me if I'm wrong) the MINI D is not sold on the North American continent so one could not buy one and drive it over. Still, I love my convertible despite originally wanting the more economical D. This thread definitely shows that the D is awesome. Awesome work!

 

do you have any engine bay pics?

 

I'm afraid I don't have any engine bay pictures at the moment. I'm at University currently. I'm at home visiting next weekend, and my car lives at home, so I'll get some up here a week today.

 

SOUND CLIPS of the exhaust please!!! I love the sounds of diesels with exhaust!


Jack

 

Ok just to update this for those who wanted some engine bay pics and a sound clip of the exhaust.

The good news is that I have made a small clip, and taken some pictures.

The bad news is that my memory card reader is rubbish and cant read XD picture cards, so I will have to load them up either tomorrow if I can find a suitable adapter, or on Sunday when I am back at University, where I have the right card reader, :(

 

Beautiful car , and I am jealous of the D