Hey everyone!

Not sure if this is the right place for this. But first time poster here so bare with me! I just wanted to say hello to the community and introduce myself. First, my name is Zach. I've been looking for a place to chat and learn about Mini's for awhile but haven't found a place to call "home". I've been doing a fair amount of research for my car for parts and what not and find myself continuously coming back to this site. You guys really have a lot going on here and its great.

I've been a Mini owner for a while now. Had a '04 Mini Cooper S that I kept stock and Now I have a 2010 Camden Mini Cooper S that I'm starting to work on and hoping to get into Autocross.

Anyone have suggestions on what aftermarket upgrades would be good to start off with? Most of my changes have been aesthetic, but just bought an Alta Short-shifter, NM front end strut and NM High Performance intake that I'm installing this week.

Also anyone know of some Mini clubs in New York?

Nice to meet you all!

zKryT

 

Welcome. This is thee place to be for your MINI. I don't have much mods but one I would vouch for is NM torque a inserts. Cheap and effective. Maybe I would suggest suspension work since you are autocrossing!

 

Thanks for the advice and the welcome, MiniBOL. I'm checking out those inserts now. Are these something that you could install yourself easily or better to bring to a professional to have them do it?

 

Definitely torque arm inserts. Waymotorworks.com for $59.99 i think. Very easy install with a couple wrenches and a jack. I would suggest some Koni Yellow shocks with NM lowering springs personally if you don't wanna spend big money on coil overs. And definitely a rear sway bar..
Anyway welcome. I'm from the Indiana Ohio area

 

Agree. It comes with instructions on what tools you'll need (torque wrench, jacks/ramps, ratchet wrench with 16mm socket). Should take you 20-30 mins the most. Also handy to search the forum prior to install since there are some pics with tips for ease.

I'm definitely going get Koni Yellows base on your set-up and others I've read here. I'll have to save up for them but how long would you recommend I go without replacing the OEM shocks 6sppedwtneed? There's just so much modding to do!

 

Haha! seriously! 1 new idea unlocks 10 others and so on and so forth. The rear sway bar (was thinking about going with NM) is definitely on my short list of things to do - torque inserts added to that as well. Might just have to add shocks and springs also. So...save up for bachelor party or work on the Mini...I'm really leaning towards the car.

I also just realized that I posted my "introduction" thread in the wrong category. Whoops.

 

MiniBOL - I don't have the Koni Yellows yet but they are definitely on my list from what I have read, and I love my NM springs. I bottomed out on some hard V spots in the track this past weekend, so I'm definitely looking for new struts by next summer. And the OEM struts seem to last forever in these cars. At least a 100,000. I'm up to 65,000. Only been lowered for 4,000 miles.