Bought a used r53 last year.. great car... love it! However I probably could have waited/spent a little more on the right r53 JCW. I almost bought a nice one but it was overpriced, 5k more than the S I bought. But now upgrading my car I'm just thinking damn, a JCW would already have a nice exhaust, intake, supercharger etc. all STOCK. Now I'm stuck making a Frankenstein car that probably will never be as good of a performer as the works I was looking at. Its like getting a V4 and stringing/ricing it out with bolt on parts vs getting a naturally powerful V8.

I dunno why the idea of something being 'stock' is so appealing, even if its really just an aftermarket package installed by the dealer.

Love those JCW door sills too

 

Hah! No!

I can dump like $1,500 into my car and have it perform just as good if not better than a JCW and throw another $1000 for a cam, injectors and a tune and you're way ahead at half the price difference. I don't see it as being a frankenstein car since most of the mods done to the S are the same ones the factory did to the JCW to make it faster.

 

Except for the already ported head...

 

It really boils down to your modding desires, basiclly if if you're the kind of person who doesn't want to fiddle with things, just wants it done & forget it, then a JCW is prob. for you.

But if not, then yes, you can get the same or more out of changing things on your own for about 50% less or more. Personally I wish now I hadn't bought one, would have saved me a bundle over all, the only thing I've kept is the exhaust, I'd be willing to bet I'm not alone either.

 

Ya, but it's not All just about the engine...

Your also paying for the aero kit, sometimes they come with larger tires, usually come with LSD, think they almost all come with leather, and most prolly have upgraded sound kits, oh, and already upgraded brakes.

Then factor in the time and effort to obtain and install all the necessary engine parts to get to / above the JCW, and you may be at the $5k difference...

Plus a badge ;-)

 

The JCW's were ala carte.

 

Naw. Any JCWs I drove were beat. Maybe it's just timing/selection that I ran into. But I happened upon Trillian, and never looked back.

 

I sold my S R52 and picked up a same year but lower mileage JCW R52 with nav. I paid a very small difference between the two and could not be happier. Bigger brakes, LSD and the exhaust alone were worth the difference to me.

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The first R52 I test drove was 2007 JCW with every option. It also had a factory rebuilt engine, I just didn't like the color. To this day I wish I had gotten it but the guy selling it sold it in two days.
I was not into MINI's and wasn't aware who rare JCW R52's are.
Who knows maybe one day I'll find another one I can afford

 

At the time, I did not realize the rarity. I am glad I made it happen. I can't recall seeing seeing another JCW R52 at any events. I have done a lot of work to mine and I love it! Zero regrets.

 

Prob. more of a difference in years than anything, my '05 JCW option was nothing more than engine & exhaust upgrade, suspension & LSD were a seperate pkg, as well as brakes & aero.

 

Mine was the factory pkg but did not include aero or the red springs(not an option for cabrio). I added Koni FSD's with the Red JCW Springs earlier this year and really love the ride quality now (did also add IE Fixed camber plates at the same time too). I am ready for MOTD now!

 

true for the pre-factory JCWs. My '06 came with the engine kit, big brakes (front only in '06), exhaust, LSD.. all of it was spec'd out in the JCW option. There was more I could have added ala carte though - other than 18" wheels and the strut bar, most of the alacarte stuff was cosmetic

as to strapping on a pulley and doing your own mods, it's just not the same. NFW. don't see how the head mods could be replicated.

 

Just a little info. The JCW head was barely massaged as some tuners have found out. A good head like RMW or Thumper will trump the JCW head when taking the mods further.

 

Yeah saw that thread. I can definitely believe it. Just takes $$$ and tuning time. It's not just a bolt on thing though, and by the end of the day people thinking they can get the same results for $3k or less are probably kidding themselves. I'd really love to see a complete apples-apples comparison on all aspects, not just dyno.

 

well once I install my NS1 and 450cc injectors and get it tuned by Jan this spring I'l have a fresh dyno sheet for comparison. Between the megan header, custom catback (will probably need to replace in a few years due to cheaping out here, but my stock exhaust fell off so I didn't have much choice) , alta intake, pulley, cam, injectors and tune I'll have spent roughly $2K, but we'll call it $2,250 just for human errors sake.

Granted, I did cheap out on the exhaust and header a bit, but even when you figure spending another 600 on the header and another 250 on the exhaust to get really high quality stuff that will last I'd still be right around $3K and I would probably have more power than I will with my current setup.

The JCW is a very good package for those who don't want to do the work their own and want the peace of mind of factory tuning, but aftermarket can still bring a considerable amount more power to the table for the money while still being fairly reliable.

 

That's a kickass R52. Kinda looks like an R52 GP if they ever made one

 

Nope...
JCW cars were a-la-cart!! You added what you wanted, either at the time of purchase of after....
all comes down to $$.
The ONE advantage JCW had was it MATAINED the factory warrenty....
one tip...to get the FACTORY feel when done modding your car, get a custom tune....car will run better, smoother, and more powerful than a jcw!! For a fraction of the cost.
best of all...you can take a lightly use used S, driven by a bluehaired oldlady/etc, and mod it, rather than buying an used JCW that was run hard, tracked, and beat on...

 

The HEAD WORK on the gen1 JCW is a VERY mild cnc exhaust port...makes a slight diff..
and when compraring jcw kits, remember the pre2005 kits were 200 hp, the 2005+ ones were 210...and that is to the CRANK...dyno's measure to the wheels....so a 200hp s is making more power than EITHER JCW....slightly different tq band due to porting.

 

Correct, most of the dyno figures you see on the forums are WHP that the owners have actually had their car's dyno'd, all the factory #'s are at the crank.

Just for reference sake, my factory '05 JCW "pre-modded" completely stock only made 168whp on a DynaPack dyno, which will read 12-13% higher than a Dynojet or Mustang dyno. So you can see how even a mildly modded and properly tuned S can out power a factory JCW car.

Also as a reference, my '05 R52 JCW option, (engine & exhaust) was an additional 6k, so for the person who wants the wants a JCW car, buying a used one with a 2k or so bump in price is actually a decent deal.

 

again that's absolutely true up to 2005. the factory JCW came with most of the performance bits except the front strut bar and 18" wheels. I know because I ordered and still have one.

A tune is definitely mandatory and is absolutely key to matching the smoothness of the factory kit.

There's alot of truth to this I'll definitely admit that. A project like that would be an absolute blast. But people shouldn't kid themselves about the cost, resale value etc of making mods like that. If I had an R53 cooper S I would certainly mod it with as many JCW like perf bits as I could - no question. But I would also be careful about expectations and investment. Telling myself "I can get the performance and function of a JCW for alot less" is just misleading. Figure at least $3000 by the time you're done

 

The other option to maintain warranty back then was DINAN. Beautifully crafted and great seat of the pants results. Granted my upgrades are rather mild compared to others but no regrets on the DINAN bits whatsoever.

 

Yep I can definitely see that, esp with me being unable to do any real work by myself.

My pulley/plug install was 400
Intake - 200

Now if I want to go further:

Cam - 600
Catback - 700
Injectors - 400
Tune - 400
Header - 800

Brakes - ???
Suspension - ???

I guess ideally with the 5k I saved on my S (11k vs 16k) this path would let me actually LEARN about this stuff and work on my car and have fun doing it. But this isn't like... building a computer in my office... I don't have a garage or lift or 2 grand worth of tools so I basically just have to bring my car to Helix and say 'Do this for me'

 

I suspect not too many of us have the lift...but on the plus side you have Helix as your go to guys. That's a major PLUS in my opinion, wish I had a reputable and knowledgeable company like that in my SoCal backyard.

 

It is wonderful and invaluable experience to do a full upgrade of engine, lsd, suspension, brakes... absolutely no question about it. just takes time and money. the lift is definitely optional trust me.