<<< FS: BADazz MINI in south FL >>>
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<<< FS: BADazz MINI in south FL >>>
FOR SALE
this beauty is Garaged Daily
Awesome combination of parts make this little Mini a LOTTA fun to drive...
2006 Mini Cooper S (11/06 build date)
Pepper white with smoothed and painted wheel arches/rockers/bumpers with a John Cooper Works front bumper/grills
14,000 miles, with the following modifications:
Alta 15% pulley
Alta 2.5 in. exhaust
OBX header with stock cat.
Alta direct flow intercooler w/water spray
Alta cold air intake
Alta adjustable short throw shifter
Polished heavyweight Razo' shifter ****
KW variant 1 coilovers
Ireland Engineering Fixed camber plates
Ireland Engineering rear control arms (upper and lower)
M7 front strut brace
Stoptech Big Brake kit w/steel lines front and rear
14mm stud kit
Team Dynamics lightweight wheels with Khumo ECSTA SPT tires 75% left on tires
Prof. wheel alignment done twice, at suspension installation and after 2000 miles once settled.
Final specs are 2.0 negative camber with 0 toe in the front / 1.3 negative camber with .05 toe in the rear.
Car has power windows/locks/mirrors/trunk, keyless entry a/c, CD player, a sunroof, 20% tint, full black leatherette interior with arm rest, stubby antenna and new never used Mini tapered coffee cup.
This car is in 'Like New' condition, garaged since day 1, driven to and from work, highway mostly, 30mpg being the norm.
All the modifications on this car were done with one thing in mind: To keep the car as reliable as stock but with better handling, better braking and better performance.
Staying with a 15% supercharger pulley keeps the motor at safe levels. Mini's John Cooper Works comes out of the box with a 15% pulley, so that is indeed the optimum pulley without sacrificing longevity or reliability.
Swapping the stock intercooler with Alta's direct flow IC only cools things more efficiently and rids heat soak which plague top mounted intercooler equipped cars. The Direct Flow design passed air through the front and out the back as opposed to the stock IC which passes air from Top to Bottom
Alta's Cold Air Intake draws air from both, the front and rear, by the cowl where air doesn't get a chance to heat up, feeding the car fresh cold air which is always a good thing. In the process, it also allows the car to breathe much easier, with Hissing and Whooshing sounds that's music to your ears.
Replacing the factory exhaust with an Alta exhaust only makes the car exhale as good as it inhales, ridding the super restrictive header and replacing it with a 4 into 2 into 1 header design, which usually adds more torque than most 4 into 1 headers, yet keeping the stock catalytic converter instead of going with a 'high flow' aftermarket one...why you ask? Longevity.
Again, getting back to keeping in mind, longevity and reliability. Yes, it's fun to modify your car, but the right modifications make all the difference in the world, the wrong ones will only keep you busy spending time and money more often than you should.
The Alta exhaust is a 2.5 inch Stainless Steel system meaning it will never rust. It incorporates 2 mufflers which keeps things fairly quiet as opposed to some other exhaust systems out there. The header is also stainless steel and while it does add to the sound of the car, the sound is as sweet as honey, not raspy but definitely healthy.
The suspension has also been upgraded to the German built KW v.1 Coilovers, which come pre-adjusted from the factory, no dampening or rebound settings to adjust, most people including myself, don't know enough about suspension setups to make any improvements over stock, so buying the Variant 1 KW's takes care of that for you. Pre-set and adjusted for maximum performance and ride quality by those German engineers who build them.
The ride is almost as soft as stock, yet much better planted and feels almost telepathic, you just think you want to turn and the car turns, without any wobble or lean.
The car rides 1 inch lower than stock, keeping the geometry within safe levels doing so.
Most cars won't benefit from being lowered...but adding camber plates on a lowered car brings the Good Geometry back.
No, in my case, I didn't get the adjustable camber plates for the same reasons I didn't get the adjustable coilovers...to align and adjust camber plates correctly, one must know their stuff. Good thing we're living in the new technology age where Fixed Camber Plates exist...cutting out all that needed knowledge and pre-setting the camber for us with a Fixed Camber Plate. Basically putting the coil overs in the proper position, once lowered.
In the rear of the car, the car acts the same when lowered, it needs to be put back to 'normal' specs, and that's where the Adjustable control arms come in. The standard upper and lower rear control arms are removed and adjustable ones installed, for the same reasons as with the front camber plates, to bring the geometry of the rear suspension within specs. Also allowing for adjustment of toe and camber which the factory control arms won't do, being that they're fixed.
Once lowered, the rear adjustable control arms are then adjusted to give a modest amount of camber in the rear and with a proper toe, meaning pointing the tires as accurately as possible. Again, something you couldn't do by keeping the stock control arms.
The rear and front is simply adjusted by rolling the car on a modern, All Wheel Alignment machine, as i have done twice, once upon adding all the suspension mods and a second time once all the suspension bits were well broken in and settled (coilovers won't settle for 1000-2000 miles, giving you a different reading once fully settled).
The car ended up with a -2.0 camber in the front and -1.3 camber in the rear, with 0 toe up front and .05 toe in the rear to keep a scalpel sharp feel to the car.
After roughly 5000 miles on this setup a tire rotation was done and we found that this is a perfect setup, tire wear is as minimal as possible, actually, there's no visible tire wear noted in the 5000 miles driven on this setup.
Few cars handle like this...while keeping a quality ride characteristic.
Brakes...
Well, the Mini truly doesn't 'need' a brake upgrade, it's light enough that the stock brakes do a fine job as they are.
But those 13 inch Stoptech free floating slotted rotors sure do look nice! As do the massive Stoptech Calipers.
Suddenly, Panic Stops have become FUN!
Brake fade is gone since there's so much more mass to absorb heat and friction. Street pads are used, so the driver doesn't hear anything different, no squeaks or anything as such, all he feels is the massive stopping force when applying the brakes harder than normal.
Stainless Steel brake lines for both front and rear were also added, to rid the flexing associated with the factory rubber brake hoses under pressure. No sponginess feel no brake fade and Damn Good Looks! Not to mention, even though the brake assembly is larger looking, IT IS LIGHTER than stock, and lowering rotational mass only does good things for the car.
The wheels used are Team Dynamics alloy 17 inch wheels, which weigh a mere 17.2 lbs each! Factory wheels weighed in at at least 5 lbs. more each!
To understand how that affects your car, next time you go for a bicycle ride, strap on a 5 lb. weight onto your wheel and see how much fun that is.
Tires - we went with Khumo ECSTA 215/45/17's
Nice sticky tire with long wear life.
Again, lower rotational mass only adds to the fun, less weight to turn is always a good thing!
Sure there are lighter wheels out there, problem is, any lighter than that and you're sacrificing those two things i mentioned at the beginning of this long description: Reliability and longevity.
Super light wheels bend easily, yes, even forged wheels WILL bend given the right pothole.
Keeping the modifications within reason is key here, not overdoing it as you modify.
Where am i going with all of this?
Showing that the modifications on this car are not to be feared, but to be Welcomed. None are excessive, none of them hurt or take away from the very things that make this car a great car.
Me personally, if I were looking for a used Mini, I’d stay away from those 17% or 19% supercharger pulley equipped Minis, they are more headache than they're worth.
Anything larger than 15% and you're spinning the supercharger faster than it wants to, shortening the life of the motor and causing a overheating condition at the sake of 3-5 more horsepower.
Keep your eyes open for Minis equipped with 'lowering springs' in lieu of Coilovers...they only make the car handle worse, with simple and cheap ways to lower for looks. You are looking at premature tire wear, possible broken swaybar links and hearing many rattles and squeaks in the process.
The shifter was replaced with an Alta adjustable height/throw shifter and currently sits at a 20% reduction, where it is light to shift and short enough. It can be adjusted to a very low height and a very short shift feel if so desired.
A weighed Razo shift **** was used which simply screws down onto the shifter, the added weight makes for more positive shifts.
As for the looks of the car, well...i could be here another few hours and tell you about what is needed to accomplish what we have done, the hours upon hours of sanding a whole New set of wheel flares, rocker panels and John Cooper Works front bumper prior to painting them the same Pepper White color, how long it takes to remove the factory texture that exists on them before they can be painted. Let's just say that it is very time consuming and NOT cheap!
And well worth the effort. Why Mini decided to leave the arches, rockers and bumper skirts rough black is beyond my imagination, in my opinion, it kills the flow of the car. Painting them turns this car into a whole different car and turns heads in the process.
As i've tried to explain here, in reference to modifying my car, there have been no shortcuts.
Only the highest quality components were used after much research. Modifications that will benefit the car not take away from it.
in case you're wondering there's more than $10,000 in parts alone on this car up and above what this car cost, and that's NOT including Labor!
If you have any questions: zremy007@yahoo.com
Car is being financed so I don't have the Title in hand, I will have to pay off the loan before the title can be released.
I have a positive 113 trader rating on EBAY with 100% satisfactory, I have sold Cars, Motorcycles, jewelry and everything in between...never screwing anyone and describing everything as it appears to be.
Car is located in West Palm Beach FLORIDA and ready to be shown to potential buyers.
I am not a dealer, I am an individual and we are the original owners of this car which was bought NEW at our local Braman Mini Cooper Dealer in WPB FL.
Buy it for $26,500
this beauty is Garaged Daily
Awesome combination of parts make this little Mini a LOTTA fun to drive...
2006 Mini Cooper S (11/06 build date)
Pepper white with smoothed and painted wheel arches/rockers/bumpers with a John Cooper Works front bumper/grills
14,000 miles, with the following modifications:
Alta 15% pulley
Alta 2.5 in. exhaust
OBX header with stock cat.
Alta direct flow intercooler w/water spray
Alta cold air intake
Alta adjustable short throw shifter
Polished heavyweight Razo' shifter ****
KW variant 1 coilovers
Ireland Engineering Fixed camber plates
Ireland Engineering rear control arms (upper and lower)
M7 front strut brace
Stoptech Big Brake kit w/steel lines front and rear
14mm stud kit
Team Dynamics lightweight wheels with Khumo ECSTA SPT tires 75% left on tires
Prof. wheel alignment done twice, at suspension installation and after 2000 miles once settled.
Final specs are 2.0 negative camber with 0 toe in the front / 1.3 negative camber with .05 toe in the rear.
Car has power windows/locks/mirrors/trunk, keyless entry a/c, CD player, a sunroof, 20% tint, full black leatherette interior with arm rest, stubby antenna and new never used Mini tapered coffee cup.
This car is in 'Like New' condition, garaged since day 1, driven to and from work, highway mostly, 30mpg being the norm.
All the modifications on this car were done with one thing in mind: To keep the car as reliable as stock but with better handling, better braking and better performance.
Staying with a 15% supercharger pulley keeps the motor at safe levels. Mini's John Cooper Works comes out of the box with a 15% pulley, so that is indeed the optimum pulley without sacrificing longevity or reliability.
Swapping the stock intercooler with Alta's direct flow IC only cools things more efficiently and rids heat soak which plague top mounted intercooler equipped cars. The Direct Flow design passed air through the front and out the back as opposed to the stock IC which passes air from Top to Bottom
Alta's Cold Air Intake draws air from both, the front and rear, by the cowl where air doesn't get a chance to heat up, feeding the car fresh cold air which is always a good thing. In the process, it also allows the car to breathe much easier, with Hissing and Whooshing sounds that's music to your ears.
Replacing the factory exhaust with an Alta exhaust only makes the car exhale as good as it inhales, ridding the super restrictive header and replacing it with a 4 into 2 into 1 header design, which usually adds more torque than most 4 into 1 headers, yet keeping the stock catalytic converter instead of going with a 'high flow' aftermarket one...why you ask? Longevity.
Again, getting back to keeping in mind, longevity and reliability. Yes, it's fun to modify your car, but the right modifications make all the difference in the world, the wrong ones will only keep you busy spending time and money more often than you should.
The Alta exhaust is a 2.5 inch Stainless Steel system meaning it will never rust. It incorporates 2 mufflers which keeps things fairly quiet as opposed to some other exhaust systems out there. The header is also stainless steel and while it does add to the sound of the car, the sound is as sweet as honey, not raspy but definitely healthy.
The suspension has also been upgraded to the German built KW v.1 Coilovers, which come pre-adjusted from the factory, no dampening or rebound settings to adjust, most people including myself, don't know enough about suspension setups to make any improvements over stock, so buying the Variant 1 KW's takes care of that for you. Pre-set and adjusted for maximum performance and ride quality by those German engineers who build them.
The ride is almost as soft as stock, yet much better planted and feels almost telepathic, you just think you want to turn and the car turns, without any wobble or lean.
The car rides 1 inch lower than stock, keeping the geometry within safe levels doing so.
Most cars won't benefit from being lowered...but adding camber plates on a lowered car brings the Good Geometry back.
No, in my case, I didn't get the adjustable camber plates for the same reasons I didn't get the adjustable coilovers...to align and adjust camber plates correctly, one must know their stuff. Good thing we're living in the new technology age where Fixed Camber Plates exist...cutting out all that needed knowledge and pre-setting the camber for us with a Fixed Camber Plate. Basically putting the coil overs in the proper position, once lowered.
In the rear of the car, the car acts the same when lowered, it needs to be put back to 'normal' specs, and that's where the Adjustable control arms come in. The standard upper and lower rear control arms are removed and adjustable ones installed, for the same reasons as with the front camber plates, to bring the geometry of the rear suspension within specs. Also allowing for adjustment of toe and camber which the factory control arms won't do, being that they're fixed.
Once lowered, the rear adjustable control arms are then adjusted to give a modest amount of camber in the rear and with a proper toe, meaning pointing the tires as accurately as possible. Again, something you couldn't do by keeping the stock control arms.
The rear and front is simply adjusted by rolling the car on a modern, All Wheel Alignment machine, as i have done twice, once upon adding all the suspension mods and a second time once all the suspension bits were well broken in and settled (coilovers won't settle for 1000-2000 miles, giving you a different reading once fully settled).
The car ended up with a -2.0 camber in the front and -1.3 camber in the rear, with 0 toe up front and .05 toe in the rear to keep a scalpel sharp feel to the car.
After roughly 5000 miles on this setup a tire rotation was done and we found that this is a perfect setup, tire wear is as minimal as possible, actually, there's no visible tire wear noted in the 5000 miles driven on this setup.
Few cars handle like this...while keeping a quality ride characteristic.
Brakes...
Well, the Mini truly doesn't 'need' a brake upgrade, it's light enough that the stock brakes do a fine job as they are.
But those 13 inch Stoptech free floating slotted rotors sure do look nice! As do the massive Stoptech Calipers.
Suddenly, Panic Stops have become FUN!
Brake fade is gone since there's so much more mass to absorb heat and friction. Street pads are used, so the driver doesn't hear anything different, no squeaks or anything as such, all he feels is the massive stopping force when applying the brakes harder than normal.
Stainless Steel brake lines for both front and rear were also added, to rid the flexing associated with the factory rubber brake hoses under pressure. No sponginess feel no brake fade and Damn Good Looks! Not to mention, even though the brake assembly is larger looking, IT IS LIGHTER than stock, and lowering rotational mass only does good things for the car.
The wheels used are Team Dynamics alloy 17 inch wheels, which weigh a mere 17.2 lbs each! Factory wheels weighed in at at least 5 lbs. more each!
To understand how that affects your car, next time you go for a bicycle ride, strap on a 5 lb. weight onto your wheel and see how much fun that is.
Tires - we went with Khumo ECSTA 215/45/17's
Nice sticky tire with long wear life.
Again, lower rotational mass only adds to the fun, less weight to turn is always a good thing!
Sure there are lighter wheels out there, problem is, any lighter than that and you're sacrificing those two things i mentioned at the beginning of this long description: Reliability and longevity.
Super light wheels bend easily, yes, even forged wheels WILL bend given the right pothole.
Keeping the modifications within reason is key here, not overdoing it as you modify.
Where am i going with all of this?
Showing that the modifications on this car are not to be feared, but to be Welcomed. None are excessive, none of them hurt or take away from the very things that make this car a great car.
Me personally, if I were looking for a used Mini, I’d stay away from those 17% or 19% supercharger pulley equipped Minis, they are more headache than they're worth.
Anything larger than 15% and you're spinning the supercharger faster than it wants to, shortening the life of the motor and causing a overheating condition at the sake of 3-5 more horsepower.
Keep your eyes open for Minis equipped with 'lowering springs' in lieu of Coilovers...they only make the car handle worse, with simple and cheap ways to lower for looks. You are looking at premature tire wear, possible broken swaybar links and hearing many rattles and squeaks in the process.
The shifter was replaced with an Alta adjustable height/throw shifter and currently sits at a 20% reduction, where it is light to shift and short enough. It can be adjusted to a very low height and a very short shift feel if so desired.
A weighed Razo shift **** was used which simply screws down onto the shifter, the added weight makes for more positive shifts.
As for the looks of the car, well...i could be here another few hours and tell you about what is needed to accomplish what we have done, the hours upon hours of sanding a whole New set of wheel flares, rocker panels and John Cooper Works front bumper prior to painting them the same Pepper White color, how long it takes to remove the factory texture that exists on them before they can be painted. Let's just say that it is very time consuming and NOT cheap!
And well worth the effort. Why Mini decided to leave the arches, rockers and bumper skirts rough black is beyond my imagination, in my opinion, it kills the flow of the car. Painting them turns this car into a whole different car and turns heads in the process.
As i've tried to explain here, in reference to modifying my car, there have been no shortcuts.
Only the highest quality components were used after much research. Modifications that will benefit the car not take away from it.
in case you're wondering there's more than $10,000 in parts alone on this car up and above what this car cost, and that's NOT including Labor!
If you have any questions: zremy007@yahoo.com
Car is being financed so I don't have the Title in hand, I will have to pay off the loan before the title can be released.
I have a positive 113 trader rating on EBAY with 100% satisfactory, I have sold Cars, Motorcycles, jewelry and everything in between...never screwing anyone and describing everything as it appears to be.
Car is located in West Palm Beach FLORIDA and ready to be shown to potential buyers.
I am not a dealer, I am an individual and we are the original owners of this car which was bought NEW at our local Braman Mini Cooper Dealer in WPB FL.
Buy it for $26,500
Last edited by JustJAY; Oct 16, 2007 at 09:21 AM. Reason: added price from post #2
2nd Gear
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 102
Likes: 1
From: Orlando, FL
price?
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4th Gear
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i'm not looking to part anything, the car will be f/s as you see it.
in fact, i'm contemplating sending it to way eastern europe where i can get about 28,000-30,000 EURO for it.
a shot of the interior, some have been asking for one...a couple are grainy, done with my phone camera showing the new shifter/****
here's one with the Alta ****...(the Razo **** weighs more and makes shifts feel much nicer than Alta's)
some of the exhaust...
in fact, i'm contemplating sending it to way eastern europe where i can get about 28,000-30,000 EURO for it.
a shot of the interior, some have been asking for one...a couple are grainy, done with my phone camera showing the new shifter/****
here's one with the Alta ****...(the Razo **** weighs more and makes shifts feel much nicer than Alta's)
some of the exhaust...
Last edited by robino; Oct 16, 2007 at 05:44 PM.
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