Hi, I'm new to minis, I just purchased what I thought was a 2009 mcs. Upon closer inspection I have john cooper works plates in my doorsills. Also the wheel arches are body colored (chili red) which seems relatively uncommon judging by the pictures I see. There is not any other badges or anything anywhere, nor is there the big red break calipers. I was just wondering if anyone could help me determine if this thing is actually a JCW or not, or point me on the right way. Thanks!

 

Sorry bout the upside down pic

 

Look under the hood, on the inter-cooler cover there should be a JCW plaque with another plaque with a number on it. That is the tuning number for the JCW kit

 

No plaques under the hood, pretty sure it's a standard mcs with some jcw parts on it. It has a steptronic also, and I don't believe jcws are available with anything other than a manual

 

and u got the aero kit too, which is quite rare.

 

Sounds like the previous owner may have been working towards building a JCW.

 

Just thought that you were in Australia...

 

I have an all chili red 2008 MCS with the jcw tune and areo kits. The one you have has a different front bumper and the black trim has been painted the body color. The jcw side skirts have four little plastic fins on the back yours seem to be painted standard trim. I could not see the rear bumper, but a jcw rear has two black panels on each side. I'm not putting your car down. I think it's nice. You need some mini challenge stripes down the boot and bonnet.

 

Thanks for the answers. I thought it was odd to have the body colored wheel arches, maybe the previous owner had the color matched. I definitely don't have the jcw side skirts. Here's a shot of the rear.

 

Damn picks keep getting flipped! Must do more research!

 

The back bumper is not like mine. There are a couple of companies that make aftermarket body parts. Or maybe what the previous owner may have done is adapted a 1st gen (R53) JCW kit on a second gen (R56) Either way that makes your mini more unique. do a google image search for a R56 jcw that might help a little.

 

It appears you have a MCS with the JCW Aero kit. These are rare as they were only made for a couple years. Since your car is a 2nd gen there is not an intercooler cover like Mib4840 suggested. He has mistaken yours for a 1st Gen that has an intercooler on top of the engine for the super charger. What you have is a genuine JCW exterior appearance package. But it is indeed a MCS.

 

I'm so used to seeing these cars with the black arches and different colored roof, that yours looks really different. Different is good... enjoy the car. If you are friends with someone at a MINI dealer, they can tell you what options your car was built with based on the key or VIN. There are other online places that can do that, but I don't know where they are.

Have fun,
Mike

 

Plug in your VIN here, will tell you what you've got from the factory -

http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html

 

Thanks for all the help. I'm glad I ended up with a somewhat rare combination of stuff, I was trying to buy a Mercedes CLA but the dealership was all out, came across this thing in the used lot and an hour later was driving it home. 2009 with only 13k miles on it, and got a decent price to boot. Wife is (un) patiently awaiting her CLA in the meantime while I have all the fun. Thanks for all the help! I ran the vin number, and a lot of the options came up in German only. Something called an aerodynamikpaket, I'm guessing that's the aero kit I have, either that or the dealer installed it after the fact. Doesn't seem to have any additional performance options on the build sheet, so I guess that will be my job, hope to have some wheels, tires, suspension and ecu tune in the next couple of months. Here's the report http://www.bmwarchive.org/vin/bmw-vin-decoder.html thanks again!

 

Just run them thru google translate -

https://translate.google.com/

For example, aerodynamikpaket = aerodynamics package

 

very cool find! welcome to the madness!

 

You've got a Cooper S with the factory hypersport aero kit which cannot be ordered or retrofitted any longer. So of all the exterior packages available over the years from MINI, you definitely have the rarest kit, along with the factory painted arches, since you could get the factory hypersport kit with and without painted arches (usually without from pics I've seen).

 

Now that I know that it's the hyper sport aero kit, I've been looking it up, and seems that people didn't like it much. It's a pretty subtle design if you ask me, and the fact that their is so many haters makes me like it more!

 

I think it's very cool, nice find!!

 

Haters gotta hate! But seriously, it's rare, and maybe not as "cool" as the Aero II kit, but with those painted arches, you'll be hard pressed to find another like it!

and 13k on a 2009!?! You lucky dog! Thats awesome!

 

The factory aero kit, just as Grizld700 mentioned, is pretty rare. I actually really like them and because you don't see them as often, I'd opt for this one over the JCW aero kit. Makes the car stand out from the rest...in a good way!

 

+1 its Sport Aero kit with painted arches. You can still get the parts, just not an option ordered from MINI anymore. I have seen these painted arches and unpainted arches, think looks better with painted. Hard to find anymore. They have a unique grille also.
Nice Find. ::

 

Painted arches are definitely the way to go

 

I have the only painted arches on my island that I can see...I get a lot of comments about them...
IMHO painted is way to go...