Being a new cooper owner I want to know everything about mods. What is a Alta vista cold air intake and do I want one? Will it make my car sound really mean? How about my radio? It's not very good. What type of lights should I get? Pia? I'm just picking up bits and pieces from different forums. What kind of cool stuff did other people do to their cars?
Christina

 

You might want to check out the "Modifications" forum.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...fications-189/

 

Ok smarty
See I don't even know how to use the forum. I'm gonna get in trouble huh?

 

how much modding do you want to do? the cai might give a little more meat to the sound. sky's the limit with the sound system. do you have the hi-fi or regular? you want driving lights?

 

What's your goal, to just look and sound mean, or to be mean? They aren't always the same thing. Also a lot of the results are subjective so It's better to start with a budget then see which mods you want the most to fit said budget
You can upgrade the speakers reasonably however changing the deck/ head without serious dashboard Modding.
As for the lights, are you talking about the driving lights? On that front I really like the look of the OEM ones over aftermarket so I will get those at some point. If you want really bright or fog, etc then aftermarket may be better.

Good luck!

 

You are trouble!!

 

Your best bet is to use the search function (click on the little "search" button in the upper right corner).

You'll find some really in depth discussions (in some case more depth than you'll want) about just about everything.

I've learned a lot by just tooling around with various searches.

 

 

I'm not sure what I mean by mean? I want the car to sound tough when I pull up next to someone or take off in front of them at a light. I would love to race around but my car is red and I have to set a good example for my soon to be driving age kids .
As far is the light on front I'm talking about the round ones that go infront of the grill. I've seen some with four and some with three. I'll check out OME but I don't know what that means.
How much $$ and how many mods? IDK. I just think it's fun to play with my car. Thats why I'm asking what you all think is cool? I do want a chrome scoop for sure!

 

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacture (or something like that). Basically just means anything that's a factory MINI part. OEM driving lights are the two that sit in front of the grille that can come from the factory or be installed at/bought from a dealer.

An aftermarket intake is a good place to start.

 

Be careful getting a chrome hood scoop from BMW/MINI - they have well-known melting problems. Carbon fiber is the way to go.

An aftermarket cold-air intake will give you some sound (turbo scrolling/blow-off, etc). Several manufacturers and discussions are all over the boards. This will run in the $300 range

Best bang for the buck power-wise is to get the car custom tuned. It will run about $600 including dyno time. Not sure where you live, but there are several really good tuners out there (and some do road shows): Jan, Mynes/ABF, WayMotorWorks to name just three.

Threads on getting a new exhaust (for more sound) are as plentiful as fleas on a stray dog. Many really like the JCW exhaust - if you get a JCW Stage 1 upgrade it comes with exhaust, tune and bling but will run you $2-3K depending on the dealer. As it's done by MINI you also keep your warranty safe. Others can chime in on this.

Good luck!

 

Or, you may benefit from just learning to drive it well at first, then modify those things that will provide enhancement to your driving style. It would seem to me that you may not yet know where its limits really are. It also seems that some of the mods you mention will fight with one another. You want a better stereo, and more sound from the motor -- hmmmmm.

Confusing.

 

If you are unsure about the direction of your mods, you should join the local Mini club in your area and attend one of their monthly meetings. You will be able to see many different mods there and be able to talk with the owners about what works and what did not.

Generally you can see beauty mods, sound mods, performance mods and serious track mods.

 

A couple of things...

OEM is an Original Equipment Manufacturer. They could have been the people that made an original Mini part, or part of a part...

OE. Original Equipment. The part that you get when you buy said part at a Mini dealer or original part reseller. It comes in a box or bag with the Mini part and or name. It is made to meet the original specifications. It's the part that comes on your car from the factory.

Example. brake rotors. You can buy a bunch of different brake rotors from a lot of places. Say ATE is the original part supplier for the rotors. (OEM) They may sell replacement brake rotors that fit, but don't have the Mini name or part number on them. They may be the same part, same material, same spec, or they may not be. The part is an OEM part, and may cost less. Maybe it doesn't meet all the specs for an OE part.. You never know.


Anyway, Welcome!

Join a local Mini group, and see what's up.