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after a ten year absence due to me letting my ex wife talk me into getting rid of my 2006 mini pictured in my sig. I’ve bought another os r53 as a project car for weekends and a few track events.
I traded in my last r53 that I modded to 224whp and 202wtq for an 08 sti hatchback because my ex always complained how hard it was to put my son in the car seat in the back.
even after modding the sti to 330whp and 332wtq it was nowhere near as fun to drive as the mini and I’ve regretted getting rid of the mini every day since.
fast forward to almost seven years after my divorce I’ve recovered financially for the divorce and went to VIR. To spend the weekend at the track with my best friend as he ran his corvette during the three day event. I let the weekend wanting to get a car that I could track. There were tons of miatas and bmw e30s and my friend was telling me I should get one of those but my heart has been with minis since I saw the original Italian job movie many many many years ago.
so I started looking for a r53 as l love the throttle response of supercharged cars to make a street/ track car. I’ll admit that I’m an impatient type of person and it backfires on me sometimes. In this case I was looking every day at all kinds of car listing sites and came across a 06 r53 with 73k and I jumped on it so Nostradamus of taking my time to see what else was out there. The interior pics showed the car was in mint condition, no sun roof(bonus) and the crono pack(not a fan but,growing on me) and the video that was sent show the the whole car from about 5 feet away as he walked around the car. It looked to be in perfect condition as the add said.
I bought the car and had it shipped from NY to Md and then I saw the real condition of the car. What I could see in the video was about five small dents(3 on the hood and 1 on each quarter panel. They were small but there none the less. Then there was deep scratches on the hood that looked like something was set on the hood and then dragged off instead of lifting it off. I contacted the seller and had a discussion with him and he agreed to refund me 500.00.
Since I got the car I have been asking lots of questions on here and ordering parts and doing some minor things to the car as I wait for parts. So far I’ve had the dents removed by a local paintless dent repair guy, replaced the upper motor mount as it was shot and leaking, removed all of the crappy tint on the windows and installed an m7 strut tower brace after flattening my strut towers with a block of wood and hammer😛.
almost all of my parts are in and I’m going to be taking it to helix13 in philly to have a lot of the main things I don’t have the tools on space to do myself like new clutch, lsd,all fluids replaced, sc service, belt tensioner, Idler pully, ati damper,, crank sensor o-ring as they did a lot of work on my last r53. I know that I could do some of these things but my 1st track day is March 18th and it’s going to be better for me time wise to pay the have the small things done while the clutch and lsd are installed.
im going to install the wilwood breaks and adjustable control arms and such myself. Here’s what’s come in so far
oh and the tires arrived today. Well that’s the background and story so far . If this thread gets any interest, I’ll post updated progress as it happens: I’ll have the paint corrected after the track day and then have some type of paint protection film installed. Cheers
Agreed on all! Those Konig wheels look quite like the Team Dynamics (UK) on mine. Would be nice to know if they'd clear AP Racing front calipers as chosen for mine in 2006.
Also agreed on Jeep as former 2000 TJ owner (factory ordered 1999, then subsequently highly modded for serious trails and owned 22 yrs until a year ago) plus 2017 JK 2-door Rubicon 6-spd manual since new (9k miles now) moderately modded as lighter terrain alternative vs my Can-Am Maverick Sport Xrc rock crawler model. Point being, I get it on off-pavement stuff as that being my primary recreation.
I too just bought an 06 MCS, I'll be interested in seeing how your performance mods come out and maybe I'll follow in your footsteps. Looks good brotha
Got it back from Helix and installed the lug conversion bolts and wheels. Test fit the hood scoop today. I think it will look great after it’s painted
I also use a restorer to make my black trim actually be black again
