First, a little background...

My girlfriend and I have a 2003 Cooper and we've convinced her Dad to get one too. After convincing him to get a Cooper, I managed to convince him to get an S. He actually didn't take to much convincing because he's driven our car on backroads around his area!!

He has ordered the following...

2006 MCS
Pepper White/Black
Multi-function wheel
17" S-heavys
Fog lights
LSD
Armrest

He's selling his 3 motorcycles (KTM, BMW, Honda) and his fuel economy car ('01 Civic) to get the MCS. As he is going from 2 wheels to 4, I know he is interested in performance. I think he's ordered a great base car to go mod out, in fact I'm hoping to buy it off him when he's done with it!

Now for the what do you think part...

Knowing what you've done/want to do to your MCS, what would you do to his car?

I don't have a Cooper S, but these are the must haves, in my opinion...

-reduction pulley 15% or 16% (comments)
-intake, likely Alta
-H-Sport springs
-H-sport rear sway bar
-Exhaust...not sure which (comments)

Bryan

 

Hello,

Great job on pursuading her Dad to buy an MCS.

Good Selection on the car, not crazy about pepper wht(very personal)
1.Pulley, 15% not 16%
2.CAI, ALTA, can't beat it
3.Exhaust, Miltek, this is a very open question, overall, Miltek is the best package.
4.I am not big on aftermarket springs on stock suspension, rear sway bar, hmmmm, for auto-cross purposes maybe, other than that, really does not need it.

My best suggestion is to start with the stock MCS and over the time period modify it on areas where you guys think it would/should perform better. For me, I started cosmetic(first added aero grill, then came the rest of the kit, tint), and added ALTA CAI(what-a-difference), now going to focus on brakes a little bit (here in S.Texas, in summer time, on a Sunday run, the brakes tend to fade very quickly, need some slight inexpensive mods). Just to give an extra edge.

Sorry about the bikes he sold, I feel for him, had to sell a Ducati 999, to convince wife for the MCS (she found the best way to get rid off the bike).

Good Luck

Berk

 

great choice... even on color....

I have an 05 MCS and coming from an 03 MC, this car was a rocket.. now after the 15% pulley (courtesy of the one and only Randy Webb), my little pocket rocket is even more rockety....

 

Asaulo,

I agree about the colour, I wanted Pepper White for my Cooper, but my local dealer did a deal on the last one they had right before we walked in to buy!!

Your car looks great, any other mods or just the pulley?

and Berk,

Thanks for the input, good advice on taking it slow too. I'd love to see him have the car exactly as he wants it right out of the box, but he'll have to figure that out himself...needless to say I'll there to help out.

Sorry about your bike, but fun on 4 wheels is safer than fun on 2, right?

B

 

nice, seems like u live in vancouver
where u got your mini at?

 

I'd say your girlfriend's dad is in midlife crisis mode

He did the same thing I did. Like him, I started out looking for a replacement commuter car and ended up getting the full on (okay...budget dictated that I not get the JCW option) version.

Lots of MINIs in the Vancouver area. Pepper white's a great colour. Is he getting bonnet stripes too? I like the way stripes enhance the look of PW.

Maybe I'll see it motoring around sometime.

 

Lets just say, ordering a new MINI puts one in a "MINI" life crisis!

 

Any reason he's getting the S-Lites? I don't see the sport pkg on there so I'm wondering if he's just getting them as a seperate option? I'd skip those and just replace whatever stock wheels at some point with lighter more unique wheels (as a customizing and performance mod :smile

Also, two things that I would not do without now are heated seats and the rear fog light - both very handy

PS: I'd rethink the armrest too - have read some not so great stuff about it, plus you can always add it, or an aftermarket one, later if you find you need one.

 

Cupoftea - got mine at Mini Yaletown on October 22 2003.

Beken - We won't be seeing much of his car around these parts, he lives in Eugene, Oregon. No dout he'll be driving it up here when he comes to visit us though.

Eval - He likes the S-lites for some reason, he can't be swayed. He decided to take them as a stand-alone option (not possible in Canada) because they're only $600 with rubber!! I told him that they are in fact S-heavys, but he's cool with that. He decided not to get the Sport Package because he didn't want DSC, just the wheels and fogs.

I too agree about the arm rest, but again, he's set on that one.

B

 

I was talking to a respescted vendor at this year's Dragon about exhaust options for the '05 and newer cars. He said any aftermarket system would yield little in power gains and, heck, it already sounds great out of the box.

Whew, got a post out there......

 

Ah, but it is easy to drop some weight by changing out the stock exhaust and thus improve performance. The OEM does sound okay but I think the JCW sounds better (and there are other options with varying changes to the sound), and you can improve the flow a bit as well as the looks too if you want