Mama's new wheels
 

The wife gets an upgrade to a 2013 JCW Roadster. I bought her a 2009 MCS vert two years ago and she just fell in love with the Mini brand. We stopped by the Mini dealership a few months ago to pick up some parts and she fell in love with the JCW roadster on the showroom floor. I liked the car but not the 42K sticker price so I started testing the used market. There were two for sale fairly close to home but both had automatics and the wife said no. Finally found a manual JCW at a Mercedes dealership in south carolina so after lots of emails and pictures we drove up for a test drive and this was the result.

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Carbon black leather interior,Nav,Sirius,Mini connected,harmon kardon,heated seats,comfort access,xenon lights and auto dimming mirror. I already swapped over the koni FSD shocks from the 2009 which really improved the ride on the run flats. More miles than I would of liked at 42K but after inspection and some haggling the dealer came way down on the price and no dealer fees so I felt I would not be able to find a better deal in the southeast. Happy wife=Happy life.

Nice find! Looks in great shape. 42k miles... heck it's almost broken in! Great color, too. Happy lucky wife!

Koni FSD actually improves the ride? Comments on ride differences, please. Easy swap?

Keep those run-flats up around 41 psi as recommended, makes a world of difference. Mine came home at a more than dead feeling 35-37 psi. Adding pressure actually helped the pseudo tires. Will get rid of mine as soon as I can. Hopefully before the top down season comes back in the Spring. You guys, on the other hand, are in a perfect spot for top down driving this time of year! Enjoy! :thumbsup:

The FSD shocks are much more forgiving of small bumps and expansion joints etc. Depends on what you want the car to do I guess, if you are going to go on long road trips and want a more compliant ride the FSD shocks are a great but pricey upgrade. If you want to canyon carve or autocross the stock cooper s shocks are very stiff but give lots of feedback. On my 09 I went from run flats to regular michelin 16 inch tires and loved the ride improvement. When I later went with the FSD shocks I thought the ride improvement was just as much as getting rid of the run flats.
Easy to swap out probably depends on your mechanical skills. If you have ever changed out springs/struts on any car in the last 30 years things are not any different. The rear struts are really easy to get off. Just jack up both rear wheels then work on one side at a time. The rear swing arm will be held in place by the strut and roll bar from the other side. Three bolts and the strut is off but if you are going to do the rear strut disassembly forget the youtube/vendor videos saying you can just unscrew the top nut
without spring compressors. If you wrap the end in a blanket you will catch the parts when they fly off but you will never get them back together without using a set of spring compressors so just use them from the start.
The fronts come off by releasing the steering tie rod end from the hub and then taking out the pinch bolt, release the wires from the strut, take off the roll bar end links, then I use a hammmer and 2x4 on the hub carrier at the base of the strut to knock the carrier off the strut. I also spread the hub at the pinch bolt slot with a screw driver and hammer to spread the area around the strut for more clearance. Hammer the carrier frame down until the strut comes clear then remove the top three bolts at the strut top and snake the strut out of the car.
There is a gotcha at the strut top when installing the Koni shocks. The nuts are a different size so I made a special tool to hold the nut and allow a long shank allen wrench to hold the strut shaft from turning when tightening the strut nut to spec. Just be aware you will need a strut socket tool for the different sized nut. You will also have a time getting the Koni strut back in the hub carrier hole because if you look closely the koni strut is about a 1/4 inch longer below the pinch bolt. It will go you just need to work with it a bit. I use a jack at the bottom of the brake rotor to add pressure up once the shock is in the hole. Use just a little jack pressure then grab the top of the brake rotor and shake it in and out with your hands and watch the hub work it's way up the shock making sure the alignment tab on the back of the strut is lined up with the slot in the hub.

Roadster rear springs were .020 thinner than the cooper vert. I assume the heavier springs on the 09 was due to rear seat passenger weight. Front springs were the exact same as far as I could tell.

Wow, thanks for the tutorial! Part simple, part not so simple. Hmm. Sounds like a lot of fun up front.

Have only changed out one set of shocks. Put a set of Konis on a 1979 German built Golf Diesel that I converted to look like a GTI, since we couldn't get the GTI version here in the States back then. Fooled a lot of people, including a bunch of German engineers out on a desert test run. I found myself surrounded by a bunch of Westmoreland, Pa Rabbits signalling me to pull over. I did, and had to pop the hood so they would believe that it really was a diesel. My German was a lot better back then. Was a memorable and interesting afternoon in Arizona for me. They took a bunch of pictures of the fake "Golf".

If I decide to stick a set of FSDs on the Roadster, I'll definitely have to pass by your place! Sounds like you have the method and special tools. It's only about a 20 hour drive from here to northern Florida!:)

I'm going to dump the run-flats as soon as I can. Snow season's just around the corner, and hopefully will have a set of real tires under the car before it rolls out of hibernation in the Spring. That might do the trick. Everyone I've talked to who changed out the run-flats say the same thing... total ride improvement and way more satisfying to drive.

We did a little exploratory top up (it was 44 degrees) Roadster drive this afternoon to look at an alternate road for a long, hilly bicycle ride route next year and found some rough pavement for about 5-6 miles. The car handled it OK. I did reduce the speed. Pressures all the way around were down to 39-40 psi, and yes I should have added 1 or 2 psi before we left. I've noticed that any pressure less that 41 psi make these tires even more sluggish feeling than normal.

Will keep those FSD's in mind, for sure. Really appreciate your input, blackcreek!

I'm looking at going to FSDs when it's time to replace my shocks too. I'm reading in some places that there is a small lowering from going to them. Any truth in that? I wouldn't mind 10 or 15mm drop. Any more would turn me into a snow plow though!

No lowering as far as I could tell. I did not take before and after measurements but the ride height looked the exact same before and after.

I think what your recalling is the FSDs can only be used with factory springs.

If you lowered your car the shorter springs will damage the FSDs.

The FSDs make the car more "passenger friendly" without sacrificing handling; when compared to stock.

FSDs are going on my R59 next year.

OP, great find. Used R59s are rare, especially in JCW trim.

I know you can't use shorter springs with the FSDs. I could have sworn I saw someone claiming a few mm drop with the FSDs and factory springs, but I'm getting old... All the lowering options I can find (coilovers, NM springs, etc.) all seem to have a minimum of 30mm drop which will be too much for me in the winter. As it's a daily driver all year round in Boston pounding through a few inches of snow is a pretty regular occurrence, so I have been looking for a few mm drop to maintain most of my clearance. Guess FSDs are not going to do it for me, but the other benefits are definitely something I'm looking for so I'll still probably go that way.

Taller snow tires! :thumbsup: Or a taller Mini!

Congratulations! Great find. Love that color.

I looked at three JCW roadsters locally and they were all black with red stripes. The wife thinks the spice orange metallic looks perfect with the black trim/stripes. Thinking about going with the black headlight and grill trim.

Congrats it looks great and the FSDs are a great option for daily use to improve the ride.

I would, since it already has the black Challenge wheels and black stripes. Would really look good on that JCW.

I really like them.

Nice Spice Orange, original Hot Orange owner here. Love the orange. Congrats :thumbsup::thumbsup:

The spice orange is very rare on a Coupe' or Roadster.


Also the black trim is here and would look great with the black wheels combo.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...line-look.html


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I'm not completely sure, but I think that Orange is still the new Black! And rare. I've only seen one Orange Roadster, and just briefly. I was headed south on I-95 in North Carolina, and the Orange Roadster was headed north. Stood out on a sunny day.

I agree! For the grille: 51130417135 here (upper portion) is the black trim for the grille, also called the "air inlet finisher." 51130442011 here is the lower portion of the grille. Or you could change it all together and go with the M7 Speed Ultimate Grille for a much cleaner look. :thumbsup: