Really nice subtle upgrade on the stripes. Amd thanks for the description of the sound.

 

I gotta admit , I actually LIKE the chrome trim with that hyper blue.. the white accents are the icing on top...
looking good !

 

Reposted below

 

did you get jcw r56 skirts ??? I took been wanting to do that but wasnt sure how they adapt...

 

Yeah man - they came in the mail with some spacers to adapt (ECS). The length is the same but the edge that lines with the fender trim is about a quarter inch wider - I think i can round off with sandpaper to match. These skirts look amazing I can't wait to see how they look on the car. Also bought hyper blue and clear to lay on them as they just came primed. Hope to use that paint to correct some shitty orange peel, overspray, and drips on what must have been repair to the rear quarter panel as well. May get to this weekend if weather cooperates- I'll share pics!

 

It's been a while but I've been busy on the Mini! With the weather so unseasonably nice I started with paint and bodywork before going in the motor. I managed to remove/repair nearly every scratch and took the aged clearcoat to a showroom smooth finish with high grit wet sanding, polish, and wax. I added cowl scoops for a soon-to-be cold air intake and R56 aero side skirts. Finally, added sweet union jack taillights and painted the chrome hatch handle body color, as it didn't go with the new look. Here are some pics!

Putting my pint of PPG to good use. Besides skirt inserts and the hatch handle, the cowl scoops came glossy black and didn't match at all:




Finished product! Wasn't sure whether to go with black or chrome fins for skirts but happy with my choice. I have a GP style spoiler coming and that'll be it for the body.



Beyond the taillights, I also bought fake grill stickers for the bumper off Etsy and IMO they actually look really nice. They were glossy and reflective, accentuating their "fake-ness", but I covered them with a matte clearcoat that both protects them better and makes all the difference:

 

Looks great and liking the "sleeper" concept too!

Mine appears stock, other than TD wheels and AP Racing brakes...

 

Alright friends - I have a decision to make. I ordered that GP spoiler and spent the weekend painting the thing to match, getting the factory wing unstuck from the strongest double sided tape ever invented, and working with the tabs and some heat to clear the hatch of my car (fitment wasn't great and it took some work). Now that it's done, I'm not sure its the look I want to go for. I really didn't like it in black but throught the repaint to roof color would help. With sleeper in mind I may go back to the factory spoiler which IMO looks pretty good. Regardless, here's what I came up with - thoughts welcome... And one final thought - what if I painted the sides hyper blue and left the wing in white?

 

oh, and here's my cold air intake. Last thing to do before getting into the motor. Nice cold air coming in through the cowl scoop through the hole I cut, and it sounds great. My butt dyno tells me it's faster too, but could be in my head! I used a megan racing intake and covered it with headsheilding that I had leftover from a wrap for hot water and furnace pipes. That custom lid on top is from a cut up storage bin! I'll get a "Sterilite performance" sticker for the back of my ride :-) Judge if you want but I'm out less than $100 for the whole setup, K&N and all. Show car under the hood it is not, but so far it's doing the job just fine.

 

I really dig the wing, and all the exterior mods, but sadly it does not scream sleeper. It draws attention. (at least to me it does)

If you want sleeper, the stock wing and less fancy outsides are in order. Take a look at my car that is basically all stock appearing - (and dirty too). This is more sleeper IMO. That said, I've been thinking about adding the wing as it adds a little more aggressive appearance to the car. Either way, I really dig what you've done so far!

 

I used SEM trim black in a rattle can for the uprights and a white blade with a white roof. That should make it stand out less. A black roof and all black wing should hide it even more. My wing had separate side fin covers for the uprights but I preferred the look without them. Eventually I’ll get around to blacking out the heads of the blade adjusting bolts. The silver fins covering the original spoiler holes are the factory covers for the accessory carbon JCW wing.




For more of a sleeper I would probably go with a non-S cover panel/wing, non-aero side skirts, black non-S side vents, no stripes, a body color non-S or cabrio fuel door, and possibly a black roof and mirrors. A custom single sided exhaust and rear bumper trim would also make make it look more like a regular Cooper that had its hood replaced with an S hood.

 

^ true. But your car still looks great as it is-- sleeper or not.

I really like the 2-tone on the wing. Where did you source the wing?

 

I really like the trim color you used on the side. Mine came glossy black originally, which with my color scheme didn't work IMO. I'll give it a go - that looks great. And I've looked into those spoiler hole covers by they are discontinued and hard to find - do you have a source? I'm using plastic push fastners painted to match sealed with an rtv seal underneath - hides them pretty well but I like yours better.

And I love my aero side skirts - guess I'm departing from sleeper after all. Just want to avoid overtly boy racer ricey!

 

Thanks man. I've fallen in love with Aliexpress. SOOO cheap so long as your willing to wait a bit: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804210430567.html. Carbon fiber too for ~$100 more.

You should also check out the all LED interior lighting kit for our ride and the LED side marker lights. They're such a bargain. Got my union jack taillights there too, and spent less than $10 to replace the batteries on both my key fobs. We'll see if this stuff stands the test of time but everything comes from China anyway - seems to just bypass the middleman.

For the record, I've clearly departed from sleeper - couldn't be helped with all the fun I've had on exterior mods. So be it.

 

The JCW fins were purchased from ECS before they went NLA and the wing was from FUbrication. It was NLA at the time but there was enough demand that the maker did a couple of short run indiegogo offerings since his family was in the manufacturing business overseas. Used ones pop up every so often in the NAM marketplace, but if you want a good quality GP style wing I would go with the Orranje G wing. I think it’s the best quality replica, but I specifically wanted smooth sided uprights instead of the protruding blade look through the sides along with the decorative triangle debossings, plus the Orranje was double the price before overseas shipping and customs fees.

With the graphics on my car, there’s no avoiding the boy racer look but I tried to keep it clean with no aftermarket looking add-ons like splitters, canards, carbon fiber (real or fake), tow hooks, extra scoops/vents, etc. Everything on the exterior is factory/stock except for the replica GP wing and an optional set of OZ wheels for when I don’t want to run the heavy, but better looking, R90’s.

 

That’s a great price for a GP style wing. How’s the quality? The mounting brackets look similar to the Orranje. The FUbrication brackets look like angle iron embedded in the uprights. They also recommended washers as spacers but I used some nylon bushings until I can reshape the brackets so they look less homemade and fabricate some custom spacers that fill in the entire gap.

Funky generic brackets with about 3/8” gaps

 

Looks like the install is exactly the same as the Orranje, and I wanted that wing - bought my soon-to-be-installed cam from those guys and they are great - but the shipping costs killed the deal. The build quality on the knock off is solid and @MiniManAdam has used one on both his rides for a while now with zero issues. And based on your photo the gap issues are the same - I love the idea of using those plastic racheting clamps to close the gap a bit further - it's the biggest challenge I had with clearance and fitment.

Another challenge I faced was that the provided push-in threaded inserts, even snugly mounted into the drilled holes on the hatch popped loose once I scewed on the wing. I applied some JB weld on the edges which has kept them in place, but perhaps a better setup comes with the Orranje version.

 

This looks awesome; it keeps the agressive wing without it drawing all the attention. Thanks for the tip - next step is tint the glass and that puts a pin on exterior mods.

 

I generally don't go for wings like that but this R53 is a looker!

 

So one setback of working on an 18 year old car is that it seems if it's been done already it's been posted. Then again, the upside is I can find about anything here. In this case, I "upgraded" from those heavy AF 17" seven spoke wheels to 16" factory x-lites, and between the exhaust, intake, and this it's had by far and away the best performance improvement to date, from noticable acceleration gain to a much more comfortable ride to superior turn-in, and I've even gain an MPG on fuel ecomony. In the transition however, I lost the runflats but I'll keep a compressor, patch kit, and can of fix-at-flat at the ready instead.

But seriously, just look at the weight difference - around 12lbs a side for 48lbs less unsprung weight!! Downside is they don't look nearly as nice IMO but a tradeoff I'm willing to make. They have crappy Kelly all-season 195s at the moment so next here are 205s that grip.

 

To keep my thread connected, questions on my engine mods here. Advice appreciated! https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-guidance.html

 

^^ If you really want to feel a difference try the 15" "holey" R81. I think they are like 11 lbs bare.

I have them on Red Thunder- Car feels even lighter and more nimble. Catch is you can't run bigger R56 brakes...

 

I like those 15's for the weight but also want R56 brakes, and as an update I just found Roto Grids pretending to be Volks for a deal, particularly as I don't have a track car so selling the two Toyo Proxies that came with them for more cash back. These are 14lbs, and I'll use these for performance summer rubber and the x-lites with their all seaons in Chicago winter. They are 16x7 as well, so room for wider tires - i.e. 225's - if I decide to go that route. Do you have issues with traction given everything you've done to the motor?

I think these white and blue wheels will work great on a blue and white car! And I laugh at my initial posts thinking I'd keep this a sleeper.

 

@Onizukachan Coming back to my early comments on the Invidia + header exhaust, it is pretty loud at throttle and while there's spark of juvenile joy every time it pops and burbles, as a daily driver around town I'm starting to feel the noise on heavy acceleration and high revs can be a bit much. However my bigger worry is once I add all the ported stuff to my engine and more boost it'll be even louder. Once the rest of the setup is done, I'll see how it turns out but may look into a Milltek and sell what I have...

 

As it pertains to exhaust and noise: We found we always had the rear seats folded down since no actual person could ever sit back there so we decided on a cheapie delete- removed the rear seats/belts and put a carpeted board. The noise level went up especially with the header/exhaust. We pulled back the carpet and rear sill and hit it with some sound deadener (we use the Silas brand found on Amazon- way cheaper than the big names and just as good. we order several cases at a time). That helped significantly. So, if you are inclined to do the delete, it's something to consider.