I'm still on the hunt for a used MCS. Anyway, I see some with roof racks, are those removable? It just seems like they have to put holes in the roof to instal the rack? If so, do they make caps to cover the holes?

 

yup, there be holes in them there roofs. they have roof colored covers to cover up the metal doodads that the rack screws into. or you could probably go to a body shop and have them filled in, but that is mulla, you should just keep the rack on, i think they look pretty cheeky!

 

You can remove the racks quickly and easily, but there will be eight 'saucers' that remain permanently. MINI thoughtfully provides 'saucer covers' in both white and black, though these have been known to eject at speed.

 

Have the dealer-installed roof rack on my '03 MCS and have loved it. The rack assembly unbolts quickly and easily, leaving the small, permanent roof-mounted posts. You can get add'l covers for the posts and I recommend buying a dozen or so. Not only do they tend to fly off w/road vibration and speed, but if your roof is white, the white plastic ones discolor/yellow w/ sun exposure.

 

Right on! Thanks for all the into, I swear, this place is better than Britanica...LOL!

 

I can't seem to find any good pictures of these "holes" in the roof or the covers for them. Does anybody have a pic?

 

When I bought my MINI from Classic, the MA advised me to avoid the factory rack because of the holes in the roof. I had a Yakima rack left over from my other car, and I simply bought the proper attachments (feet and clips that hook over the rain gutter) for the MINI. Voila! Roof rack w/o holes! I think Thule and Montblanc also make roof racks and attachments for MINI's. One caveat- the stated load capacity isn't that great (well under under 100 lbs, I think). I'm not sure if the factory setup can handle greater weight.

 

The mounting points, without the plastic covers, can be seen in this picture of my car:

http://www.daveguertin.net/gallery2/...geViewsIndex=3

I take the covers off when I go to the track because they have been known to blow off, and losing parts on the track is frowned upon.

The pictures of my car (the velvet red / white one) in my flickr pool will all have either the roof rack, the bolts, or the covers in place as the rack was on the car when I picked it up at the dealership... look around here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snid