And 2nd countryman, just picked her up today @ Mini of Dallas!

2013 cms MT, light white, black roof, black gravity leather, piano black everywhere!, nav, moonroof and all the goodies!

Matte black sport stripes to replace bonnet stripes...white roof stripes, and other basic aesthetic upgrades to come. Not too keen on doing much mechanically, maybe in the future, but I'm pretty happy how she is now...the 200 mile trip back to Austin was a ton of fun, oh how I missed a manual tranny.

Btw...had the c o u n t r y m a n letters removed...not my cup o tea.

 

Very nice! Congrats!

 

Congrats! DFW here also.

 

Very nice! Congrats!

 

I picked up my CM from MoD yesterday too! A manual S Blazing Red with black roof/mirrors/bonnet stripes. My first MINI and I love her! Congrats on yours!

 

Would love to see a pic of all three of your MINIs together... awesome !!

 

Congrats...looks great!

 

It's just the two now...the Grey one was a lease so I turned it in. Nevertheless, I intend on getting some cool photos of our rides together, if only I can convince the girl I'm not crazy for taking pics of our cars. She loves her Mini but also makes a little fun of me for the time I spend lurking on these forums.

And thanks everyone...I haven't had a manual since my '08 Sidewalk Cabrio and I'd forgotten how much fun it is to actually DRIVE a car!

 

Sweet! I wonder if we crossed paths! Congrats!

 

like ur Black roof rack so muCH

 

@Sidewalker: Congrats on your third Mini! I noticed your roof rack appears to be the stock Mini set but they're black. Were they painted or did they come like that? Also did you move the Cooper S boot badge higher or do 2013s come like that?

 

My CMS, also my third, has the higher rear emblem/latch. Or rather, same placement. Don't know of it actually changed position. No point if reference.

 

Interesting. Here's the badge placement for my 2012.

 

Interesting...you're the fourth person that's made reference to my roof racks being black. In all honesty, I didn't know they were special until recently. Story about that...while this is my third Mini personally, not only does my GF have one that's about two months old, but my dad and step mom both have one, so between all of us, this is the 10th in the family since the 1st Gen. These particular roof racks came off a CMSALL4 that my dad purchased off the showroom floor...I then hijacked the rails because I needed them for something. Since then, I've kept them because I've used them more than he ever would. However, now that I have a moonroof, the noise is virtually unbearable...I might just be giving them back to him soon.

As for the emblem...I also didn't notice until today that it's higher...probably to make room for the awful c o u n t r y m a n letters that formerly adorned the boot lid.

 

Hmm, thanks for the info. I guess if the noise is unbearable even with the Thule fairing, it wouldn't do much for me either as I also have the panoramic sunroof. Your black roof rack makes me want to paint mine though!

 

I don't have the thule fairing...it's just the rails. I'm going to play with the positioning of them...maybe placed further forward or backward will help.

 

Oops, my mistake. I had a brain fart and was thinking of someone else's CM that had fairing when asking about yours.


I installed my rack according to the manual and it still whistles at around 50 mph. I'm pretty sure I have the stickers facing the right way as well. I'll play with the positioning and update if I find any improvement.

 

what is the noise everyone is saying with their roof rack on??
i dont hear any noise ??? just trun up the radio and u never hear anything hahaha

 

I didn't have a moonroof on my last CM, and with the forward rail positioned directly overhead there was quite a bit of wind noise up past a certain speed, so I moved the rail back to about the b pillar and it reduced the noise significantly. That's where I put it this time, but with the moonroof it's so much more noticable, not to mention, when the roof is open, it's very loud! Will be working that out eventually, or I'll just remove them until I actually need them for something.

 

I'm the one with the thule fairing. The whistling harmonics are down, though there's still some noise up there. Some additional mitigation will be returning the rubber t strips to the rails: I'm waiting on that until I am convinced on the bike tray mounting locations. It affects how you Vig those strips.

How is it that you guys are adjusting the rack mount position? The instructions were explicit about placement down to the millimeter (ze chermans)

 

I didn't follow the instructions, all I did is just put it on the way I think it looks good.... and I really don't hear much noise even with my bike rack on ( which I never put a bike on it ) on the highway.

 

@thirdraildesignlabs: Thank you for the info. I'll be looking into fairing soon.

As for the recommended measurements, they're the intended load points for safety under any capacity. Otherwise it shouldn't matter where you attach the rails as long as they're not in use.

 

@scalpel
Yep, that's why I'd be wary of setting the cross rails farther back than specifically on those points.

I'm going to do a test with the bars, the trays and the fairing. Different configurations, testing sound and mileage. It'll take a few weeks, because I'll need to check actual mileage changes in each config. I'll update here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ing-tests.html