My R50 recently got into a little accident and I am going to be purchasing some replacement parts for it. Right now it is a pretty stock R50. I have to buy a new hood for it, so I am thinking about buying an R53 hood. Aside from the hood itself, and the scoop, are there any other parts that I must buy to make the swap sucessful?

Also, I plan on buying the full Aero kit for my car. But again, I think it would look nice if I got the R53 kit. I think the kit is essentially the same, aside from the center exhaust on the rear bumper on the R53 kit, so fitment doesn't seem to be a problem (correct me if I am wrong). But what do I have to do to get my exhaust into the middle? I assume I would have to remove the spare tire and put some heat sheilding. What would be the easiest way to go about doing this? Do R53 exhausts fit R50s if a center exhaust is what is desired? And if so, does anyone sell a reasonably priced R53 exhaust I can bolt on to my R50?

Sorry for the newbness, and yes, I did search, but the search results never seem to be what I am looking for.

 

I haven't looked at the R50s, but i have an R53. with the exhaust, I think you've got it about right. you will probably need new mounting brackets(or re-positioning the stock ones), but you probably don't want a regular R53 exhaust b/c you would be able to do a straight through exhaust (i'm assuming)
I would recommend keeping the pipe from your stock exhaust and getting it cut before it bends, and a muffler welded in, and then you can choose any tips you want and it should still be significantly cheaper, but basically the same as a good aftermarket exhaust
just my thoughts, I haven't actually looked at them
unfortunately my MINI is in a shop and I can't put up a pic of the underside, but I would imagine you could find one fairly easy.
here's a thread about straight through exhausts on R53s
hope this helps
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...=138698&page=3

 

everything is a direct swap all you need is the new bonnet and the scoop parts for the hood as far as i know

the bumpers are easy the front needs nothing, you can use the old pre facelift cooper rear valance on the bottom of the cooper s rear bumper to have the single exit side exhaust if you want

if not the cooper s exhuast only requires the mount brackets as the all the holes etc are already there a better option would be to get a single silencer cooper s box such as the alta or the ireland engineering as they use the cooper side mountings and wont require a second set of hangers for the other side

 

We installed a MCSc rear bumper on our Cooper Sidewalk and can confirm that with the older valance trim, it fits well.

The front bumper cover and side skirts are the same for all R50/52/53 models. The aero-kit we bought was for an MCS (coupe), hence the need for a different rear bumper.

Installing an R53 exhaust would be tricky due to the spare tire. Personally, it seems like more trouble than it would be worth.

 

Talk to Justintime. He has an R50 with R53 parts on his.

 

I think you are right. At first, I thought it would be best to swap in a cooper s exhuast, but since I have the ability to run a straight through (once the spare is removed), I should take advantage of that. Not to mention, it would be much cheaper, like you mentioned. Do you know of any nice looking mufflers and tips I can have welded in? I saw this pic on Alta's site http://usminiclub.org/images/Alta_R5...ckExhaust1.jpg, although it looks to be on a R56, it is pretty much what I want. A nice cheap polished muffler, straight through, with two single or double walled tips.

This is the same R56 exhaust as above, from Alta
http://www.altaminiperformance.com/s.../954_large.jpg
http://www.altaminiperformance.com/s.../955_large.jpg
If I can find a generic version of that, I think I would be set.


Keep the info comin' guys

 

Hmm...

Well after searching ebay, apparenly cheap cooper s exhausts do exist. For roughly $300, I can bolt this on myself, correct?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/02-06...Q5fAccessories

Would an exhaust like this allow me to keep my spare?

 

I don't think it would fit around the spare. exhausts like that barely fit around the battery box an a R53.
also with this exhaust you would need the mounting brackets for the driver's side. I think that the Alta R53 exhaust might "fit" around the spare tire, and it would probably work with your existing mounting brackets. but then you have the problem of dealing with the heat...