Well hello there,
Hope you don't mind a self indulgent post as I am now a proud pappa of an 06 JCW in BRG with a mere 16K miles on the odometer. Plus I've been watching Petrolicious You Tube videos and I'm inspired.
After trading in an 04 E39 530i m-sport 2 years ago (a wonderful car but it didn't scratch my nostalgia itch for something close to the feel of my old VW Mk1 GTI) for an 06 R53 Auto, my excitement for MINI R53's turned real...quickly.
While that "new to me" 06 auto R53 was well sorted (with decent milage, a great service history, a pulley, air box , exhaust etc,), it was after all an auto. I knew the R53 was the right feel for what I was after so I started to hunt for a manual R53 to really scratch that Mk1 itch. After quickly selling the auto R53, I started to search locally then spread my search nationally in hopes of stumbling onto a decent 06 with 3 pedals.
What I found made me read the ad a few times to ensure what I was reading was in fact the real deal.
- 06
- JCW Tuning kit
- LSD
- 16K miles
- BBS
- Customized interior leather wrapped bits along with the JCW carbon dash and wheel inset
- JCW exhaust
- 3 pedals
- BRG
So I reached out to the seller and got a reply in 10 mins. Yes still for sale. A bit pricey but thats to be expected. Located about 3000kms away from me. I went to work to try to make a deal via txt that I could handle in order to get the car transported to me before winter set in in the Canadian Rockies. I took a few days of back and forth talks (the seller was a legit car guy who really appreciated what this car was all about) to get a deal done but it got done and a couple weeks later the car was in my garage.
To drive this car is like driving an 06 JCW that feels like it would have the day it rolled off the lot. Its spectacular. Tight, firm, darty, noisy.....you all know what I mean. I got 2 solid weeks with this car to get to know it but now its time to put it into hibernation as winter in Alberta is here and the thought of making this gem suffer on winter roads makes me cringe. It'll be treated to a perfect life from this point.
It took a bit of time, but I found the car I knew fit what I really wanted in a weekend car....a car that is the closest thing to my old VW Mk1 GTi that I have ever experienced.
Cant wait for summer??!!
Cheers.

 

Nice looking car, well optioned.

Dude, it is October.

 

It is a great looking R53 JCW. The miles are unbelievable and great news. I hunted close to a year for mine and as I remember it had 132K miles on it, but it was what I was looking for. The body was perfect as was the interior. It was clean under the hood, but had a few mechanical issues that needed to be corrected, but it ran well and still runs as strong at 160K miles. Power is smooth and makes the twisties totally controllable. I smile every day I drive it. We have fairly decent weather in southern Oregon, so I drive most of the year with it.
I use mine as a daily driver!
I bet you are wishing for spring already!
Put Redline MTL in the transmission. It take 1.7 quarts. Only use full synthetic engine oil and change the filter each time you change it. It is important to only use premium fuel ( I am sure you know this, as you owned a GTI!)
Check to make sure the low speed cooling fan is working, as it is a typical failure. I replaced mine with the factory controller and it died in one year. I am using an aftermarket one now and it is still working well.
The crank pulley fails 100% of the time. You car is low mileage, as they go out at around 100K miles, but the rubber is just as old and I would consider replacing it with one of the good ones out there. Nothing sucks worse than a great drive, brought to an end in the worst place with a broken one!
Again, Congrats on your R53 JCW!