I already paid for a pait matched hood..just waiting for it to be shipped..
And noooooo. I like the body colored roof. My other mini has a black roof and it ties in well with the black trim and flares.. but this aero , I wanna keep it mostly body color , that's why I didn't paint the spoiler black either..

 

I think it looks great all Pepper White, except that god awful bra… If the new bonnet is already on order, pull that thing off already!

 

imo the dent under the bra and how it folded the hood in near the hood scoop looks worse... I'm still waiting for dude to ship out the hood.. idk what the delay is but it not like it a small thing that easily dropped off so I'm being patient..
This car is gonna be gaining so decent power soon.. I got a catcam 464 rally/race cam for my other r53 sooo I will be removing its ns1 cam and installing that ns1 cam onto this car. I also got a 340lph fuelpump and new filter ect. It will also probably be back on stock ic because i sold the grs so idk if it will gain any boost or not because in my grey car with the sprintex the grs ic vs stock ic ran the same boost levels so I'd assume this car would too.. though I swear last time I had it on stock ic I was seeing 19psi . When I had the grs , as the car sat rite befor I sold it I was seeing 17lb max.. so I will see if it goes back upto 19psi or if I was seeing 19psi because of the 65mm tbody I had on then too , I did go back to stock ported tbody so it does loose a little boost with oem tbody..
anyways. So it will be getting an ns1 cam , 340lph fuelpump and i will be upping the injectors to 440cc and have adriancl custom tune it then and dial in the cam so the idle is as smooth as it can be because it is an aftermarket cam and it does have abit more chop at idle and if they're not tuned rite , you gotta blip the throttle while at stops n stuff if you font want it to stall sometimes if it starts getting too choppy at idle.. but it's just an ns1 cam so it's not that aggressive and we got it to idle very well in my other mini so I'm sure we can in this mini too..
aaaaaand depending on how efficient my watercooled ic is on my other car , if it's stupidly efficient I will probably be swapping it's methanol kit then onto this white car too.. though sofar my iat's are very very acceptable so time will tell..

 

Soooooo it's building 18.5psi now on stock ic. Idk , it seems the same as with the grs. No quicker but not slower.. the iats are abit warmer by 15-20degrees all around..
the 340lph fuelpump and new fuel filter kit has arrived so I gotta run down the gas tomorrow and then Monday I will probably swap in the larger fuelpump.
the aftermarket intake should be here aby day now and the guy who sold me the hood said it should he getting picked up and enroute the 9th..
idk if it will be getting the ns1 cam now because the cam id ordered i thought was 1x step under the 469 BUT its 1x step ABOVE . It's one of the most aggressive Cams. I was told tuning it on stock ecu can be very difficult and it drops alot of vacuum at idle so idk if I'm going to use it or try and trade it fir a less aggressive one..but I'm gonna talk with Adrian and see what we can do. Maybe I just say F it and do it , then IF I can't get it to hold idle it aftermarket ecu time...
here's the fuelpump I got , lol it's 35$ for a reliable 340lph oem fit pump. Its hard to find this exact model that comes with the new screen but there's another model # that's identical just without the screen. Aaaaaand I got the attachments for the davies craig water pump so now I cam run an electric waterpump and delete the shadt driven pump and free up some parasitic drain off the sc

 

Well , that went smooth.. other than when I removed the fuelline on the pump side and taking a facial full of gas but other than that , it went smoothly.
I cleaned up the retainers and antirust coated them and they went on alot easier so itle be easier to service if i ever have to fir any reason.
I cleaned under and the sides of the seat cushion very well too befor i put it back.
I then took it around the block and everything seemed OK. I got into partial boost too with 0 issues. I will take it for a full shakedown later because I gotta run some errands so itle be the perfect time..
if you guys are on the market to upgrade your fuel system or even just refresh it , I HIGHLY recommend this pump. Its no different other than color and brand name than my 200$ 340lph pump in the other mini. So new filter and performance pump for under 60$ , you can't go wrong ! The pump ALSO is quieter than stock too so that's another plus. Either its quieter or the new filter and cleaning is making it run smoother than the oem one..
Theres 1x pump left available if anybody is considering this mod too.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/275974130997?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=_ejDSLVoTGe&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=At-wg-DKQu2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

I need an extra hand to safely remove and install the replacement hood , then it will get a good wash and paint correction. I might need to order new fender flare clips BUT I got both side off without breaking 1x tab on the backsides and had one side not been 2x taped on ,I'd probably have had enough clips to put it them back on. Though I bought a side flares kit a few years back and I know I have stuff left in it but I don't think I have the correct ones left that mount the flares to the hood.
I will check tomorrow morning, it's getting late abd it's gotten HOT. So hopefully I get a helper tomorrow and get the hood on. O yea , I will need another grill too now..
here's pics , now you guys will see why I kept the bra on this whole time.
I very much THANK fellow member Arori for getting the hood packaged up well and actually willing to ship such a large item. THANK YOU VERY MUCH Arori !

 

 

So much better! The scoop looks like it need to be Pepper White now, and it need the aero grill…

 

I agree, looks much better now , a project coming along nicely !

 

Stunning! I may need another R53.

 

O man !!!! Screw the aero grills , the r50 style painted black imo looks SO MUCH BETTER on my car. It really ties in with the r50 sidemarkers too then.. I need to go get the bottom piece from my buddy as I don't have one and ille need to paint the lower bumper grill to match.
I'm gonna search for an aftermarket option to better match the grills for the lower bumper but idk if they make one for the aero bumper. So if any of you know of any lower bumper grill options for the aero bumper PLEASE let me know. Then I can sell off mine because I know a few people are looking for this oem grill..
o yea , i painted and put on the front mini logo too.
man , I can't believe how much better just these few things are making this car look. Its really starting to grow on me more..
i will also order blacked headlight surroundings too very soon..
then it's time to look for front splitter and i have an idea how to make my own SWEET rear splitter. Id make the front but i cant find any material at any stores around here to make it from. Id need a big sheet of some type if thinner plastic but I haven't found anything suitable for a decent price.

 

I'm loving it more n more... lol idk if I could trade it for an r56 now..I'm getting pretty far into this car and I'm really falling for it.
I cut the front bumper to help air flow and soon im gonna probably cut the rear bumper too so that too will have venting capability. I will probably mount in the gp rear bumper inserts or maybe the carcraft grills. I still have to decide because once i do , it is what it is.

 

I wish I'd never seen your work! You make me spend more money. These cars looks spectacular. Not sure where you find all the time to do so much stuff.
I guess now you'll need a 3rd mini.

 

lol.. I don't have a life...
iiiiiiiiiiif I had the space , for sure I'd have another 2x minis atleast. Id have a manual n/a and I'd get one of the old redbull promo minis where they chopped out the rear to hold the giant redbull can and it turns it into a tiny ute. Lol that'd be my **** kicker parts runner..

 

I thought about doing that too. Get a decommissioned Red Bull Mini, and do a manual R53 swap, then use it for shop runs. I feel, however, that most of those Red Bull Minis were beat and trashed.

 

I did rear seat delete and use the mini as a ute anyway. (If I need more space I use a larger car/truck but these can hold quite a bit of stuff.)

 

cmon man


Looks friggin stellar! But you might want actual registration :D

 

ahhhhh busted me ! Was waiting to catch a little flack for that , lol.
lol thats why it hasn't been leaving my block lately.. beginning of the month it will be , i was struggling for a min to get the cel off with the catless exhaust because it's required to pass emissions and inspection befor I can register it. And I'd initially bought the car to flip but I've kinda fallen for it so I really don't care to sell it now , though I would still trade for an r56 but I've had a few 5k offers and even 6k but I turned them down.. they were good offers but u know if I sold it for that I'd just be going backwards. I couldn't get back into a mini CLOSE to as nice as this one for that price. Plus I know this car is absolutely rust free and to me , that's HUUUUUUUGE.
lol I've had the local cops stopped behind me a few times already as I'm doing my test drive around my block and every time I thought " dang it , here it comes ".. but surprisingly nope ! One day too I was on it pretty hard and the cop was parked and I didn't see him so instead of quickly breaking and trying to act like I wasn't speeding excessively, I just let it coat down and down shifted loud n hard too and I think he knew I was testing it because I did have my laptop on the seat and had a hand blocking the sun to read my gauges....
matter fact , BOTH my cars need to be registered..the grey one has expired too

 

I also would love one of the Red Bull mini utes, with r53 &manual swap. They actually have really good proportions.

 

Definitely get that chrome headlight trim blacked out, been running mine for a couple years now and it immediately reduced bug splats by 80%, not exaggerating. The angle and brilliance of that trim draws massive insects in broad daylight. You'll still get some splats because of the Xenon chrome inside the lens doing the same thing, but if you slap something like the light-smoke tinted Laminix headlight protection film on there, it'll be more like 90-95% reduction in splats. I don't recommend going too dark on pro-film as it will simply cause another sharp specular reflection to attract bugs. The only guts I get on the MINI now (in the daytime) are from the few that lock on to the reflection of the hood paint and/or the windshield, so they just kinda bounce off the glass and leave a few bug turds as a parting gift. For aftermarket grills, there isn't much out there to choose from, I looked about a year ago and only found OEM replacements, no billet or wire mesh. There were a few places that offered the service of fabricating one from a list of wire mesh material, but you can guess how much that would cost. I DID however find that the wire mesh itself is available in various uncut, bulk sizes; this would require some fastener tabs and a handful of rivets to get your bumpers breathing right, I'm considering doing this for my rear aero which remains solid and uncut (came with grill decals). That bonnet swap made the PW look like it just rolled off the showroom floor, excellent work!

P.S. I just checked M7 Speed to check the whereabouts of their 'ultimate grille' product and it remains unavailable/discontinued (same for the badass spoiler they used to sell). There are still some floating around out there, but good luck finding a motivated seller. That grille replacement package was one of the sexiest front end upgrades ever made for the MINI, I sent them a message asking if they planned to bring the product back since all our stock grilles are now going to s***, if they respond I'll share it here.

 

People who cut holes in their rear bumpers to let air thru don’t understand aerodynamics. So don’t do it.

 

Turns out the folks at M7 Speed have been considering the very things we're talking about here. To save anyone the hassle, I did some searching for the M7 Wing and the site I found (vivid racing) listed the product and it's many variants as "unavailable", I'll search again later to see what I can find. Apparently we need to develop a MINI racing league to get the sort of dynamic parts innovation/production that we crave, anyways, the following is their emailed reply:

 

Far be it from me to go cutting random holes in the MINI aero bumper, the plan is to upgrade the exhaust while modifying the rear clip to act more like a diffuser and reduce the abundant amount of drag created by the blocky hatchback design. My instinct tells me to add a cabrio type spoiler beneath the window to shorten the vacuum pocket, in hopes of making a smoother slip stream back there for highway speeds. The rear end design creates so much drag I legit want to remove the roof spoiler all together to close the vacuum even more.

 

If you're truly interested in drag and how air is moving around/under your car, check out a site called ecomodder... These guys are fanatical and do the math to back it all up. Some get 50+ mpg on regular cars with some mods. Lots of belly pan ideas, duck/boat tails, etc...

 

gp proved the rear bumper with vents does help reduce drag.. they did alot of windtunnel testing when they developed the gp wing , bellypan and bumper vents.
I forgot the exact downforce they said the spoiler added but atleast they test their products 1st..
my other minis carbonfiber adjustable spoiler I think looks cooler imo but I guarantee it was never tested beyond fitment. The gp spoiler gives best of both worlds. Not too much downforce to hinder the vehicle but enough to help plant it yet. Lol that's probably why my other mini gets such worse mileage on the freeway is because of the larger scoop , spoiler and full length side flares..
do I really care if my aero is functional??? Kinda and kinda not , im more for the looks of it. I've always lived the super aerod out ,pikepeak or group b rally type looking cars. And I just DONT LIKE driving and having something everyone else does. Don't get me wrong I'd love a car like a gtr or a lambo or something crazy but could I EVER leave it stock ??? I highly HIGHLY doubt it. It's a big reason I tend to avoid cars like the jcw or cobras and special model type vehicle. I know they're beauty lays in them as they sit but even then. I just wouldn't be content keeping it stock.