With delivery only a couple days away for some lucky folks, I was curious... what will be the first things you do to personalize or accessorize your R56?

Me personally... I'm doing the following dealor accessories:
-Driving Lights
-JCW Cross-Drilled Rotors (yes, I know they're just "bling", but... )
-Mud Flaps

...and within the first week I plan on doing:
-H&R or Eibach lowering springs
-window tint
-clear bra (of some sort)
-2 new Recaro booster seats for my kids

So what are you doing to your MINI right away?

 

Once I pick mine up I'll be as broke as an old barn door. So, all I plan on doing is slapping a Panerai decal on each of the rear windows.

dean.

 

A gentle, careful break in. In the days before the car arrives my doctor will be giving me injections to lower my testosterone level so I won't get carried away in an unguarded moment of motoring passion.

My antiroll bar will arrive in the boot, so I'll install it. I also plan to read the owner's manual with care. Other than that, I'll pretty well leave the car alone. Once it's broken in I might get a second set of wheels with some autox tires mounted. Other than that, I don't plan to modify the car. It's a slippery slope once you start changing the car and adding after market parts. I already have a 1987 BNW 325is that is much modified for track use. It's great fun on the track, not a lot of power, but you don't have to slow down very much when you come to a corner.

Happy trails, I envy you getting your car so soon. I waiting until May.

Joe

 

I'll get non MINi driving lights -- the MINI ones seem too expensive.

I'll be getting the JCW side skirts and painting the wheel arches body color (Yellow) once the JCW aero kit components become available for purchase or if I can figure out a way to get them shipped from a UK Mini dealer that isn't absolutely ludicrous in price.
Anyone have any shipping ideas or want to gang up an order and see if a combined shipping would be reasonably priced?
please PM me

 

Oh I forgot -- a very good radar detector. My S will not have cruise and I'm sure going over the limit may become a regular occurance whether intended or not.

 

Simonize Paint sealant then two fat white bonnet stripes straight down the middle of the hood.

tint. windows and sunroof.

also, I agree with designer MINI - If you don't have a cruise control (and USE it) a detector is a MUST. It is extremely easy to find yourself going fast enough to get a thread locked without realizing it. 70mph feels like 35-40mph.

 

I've got the dealer doing off-center Sport Stripes for me as below.

 

My 1st and possibly only MOD, snow tires, I'm so lame.....

 

My only anticipated mod: Tie a ribbon to the antenna. Just seems the thing to do. Mudflaps, maybe, probably not right away.

On the tire topic (if I can inject a question), how do people manage rotating alternate tire sets - keep an entire other set of wheels with tires and just swap them themselves, or just purchase an additional set of tires and then...put them in the car and go somewhere to have them mounted???

I agree with break in comments - that'll be a looooong 1000+ miles.

 

getting tires mounted each time sounds like a pain. But another set of nice alloy rims can be expensive. So cheap steel rims, or find a rim on sale at Tire Rack.

 

check to determine whether the factory used that corrosive fluid in the windshield wiper fluid resevioir. that stuff has caused consternation for more than a few of us and our new auto's paint

 

If I ever trade my current MINI in for one, the first two modifications are:


Tint
New Wheels and tires
Lower it with some aftermarket springs

 

Putting on the "Actual Size" decal.. driving it home duh.. and.. getting my radar detector hardwired ... also gonna buy a portable nav and get it hardwired.

 

Maybe a shorty antenna...that's about it.

 

I would get these:

-Amp and sub in the boot
-window tint
-driving lamps, factory ones are expensive but there isn't any aftermarket ones made for the R56 yet

 

At the dealer it's getting driving lights and illum. sills. I've got the Alta stubby antenna ready for it as well. Tint will be a rather quick thing to get, but not at the dealer, I want to have the car a while before I decide how dark to go.

After I get my plates (I'm considering not vanity plates but the different design plates that TX offers, not sure if I can get that through the dealer or not -- I think I'll email my MA and ask) I need to get my TxTag for tolls.

As for any other mods, I'll stay mostly stock, as this will be a daily driver. I might do something about exhaust and maybe intake, but exhaust would be mostly for grins If the exhaust note sounds good to me and the aftermarket stuff tends toward sounding like a riced-up Civic, I'll stay stock. When I drove an F-150, I regretted not replacing the stock exhaust because it just didn't sound like a truck with the stock exhaust. I've toyed with K&N filters on lots of vehicles, and have had mixed results. On the F-150, it seemed to help with low-end responsiveness, but on the 4Runner it didn't seem to, and actually seemed to hurt mileage, so I'll wait for reports from others on such things.

 

Oh -- also considering the radar detector and mud flaps. Not necessarily in that order.

 

Mud flaps sound interesting, anyone know if they fit the S or just the MC? The R53 mud flaps only fit the front on the S.

 

Most definitely tint, and possibly driving lamps.

Within the first month I'll plan a road trip for some quality Mini time.

 

Off topic, but... depending when you get it, there's AMVIV in March:

http://www.amviv.com/

...or in July there's MINI Meet West:

http://www.minimeetwest.com/

Both good road trips... and I can vouch for the roads around the Hood River area. AWSOME!!! BZ Corner is a Holy Grail sportbike road in Washington. I can't wait to drive it in a MINI! Sounds like there's efforts in the works to get a track day at Portland International Raceway, too.

 

As soon as I get my R56:

all around tints
wheels
shorty shorty antenna
coilovers/springs (hopefully they will be out)

ohhhh... i can't wait..

 

My post delivery mods:
1) Mud flaps, definitely.
2) As soon as XM direct available for R56 as in previous models, I'll have that put in.

That's it!

 

Panerai!!! What model do you have?


-My first changes, JCW shift **** and E-brake

 

1) R-compounds
2) tech sticker.

:-)

 

Giant spoiler, fat coffe can muffler, type R sticker, NOS sticker, and lots of fake carbon fiber. I may heat the springs with a torch so the car will ride lower.



not.