I went to a popular annual auto show here in PA and - at the verge of purchasing a MINI - had to look at the '64 Austin Cooper. There is nothing like looking at the original to understand how skillfully MINI has retrained this classic. The chrome grille was especially cool, and that's where my question lies.

I'm going for the S, and my MA suggested that turbo cooling might make adding an aftermarket three-bar chrome grille a bad idea. I realize am swimming against a powerful current of anti-chrome sentiment (I was amazed at the number of posts from those removing or painting over the chrome!) but was wondering what the consensus is on the forum about junking up the S grille with a "standard Cooper" style chrome grille, especially with respect to cooling, etc.

If that is not a problem, is there a recommended vendor/manufacturer?

 

I would not change it for cooling reasons.

Also, the S grille looks like a rover mini grille so it still falls in the "retrained classic" category if that is how you want to label it.

 

If you pull the chrome grille from a straight Cooper, you will be surprised to find that there is very little air flow. Indeed, the top slats of the grille have no air holes or vents at all! The only air space is along the bottom rail of the grille. Having had to drill holes for two grille badges, I was really shocked by this... so the air flow in the 'honeycomb' grille must be much higher.

But I LIKE chrome! The more the better! Maybe you could drill all sorts of holes in it, but then would it be at all strong? Doubt the wisdom of it...