The MINI Club of Ireland

Hey All,

So I thought it was about time I did a proper member's car post. Disclaimer: some of the pictures will have been posted in my other posts.

I have a black MINI One, 2003 plate:


I have had a vinyl wrap put on the roof, as it was all black and had my logo added to it:


The first thing I did to the car was to rip out the cassette player and install a new head unit. (90€ from Halfords of all places, must be the first and probably only bargain there ever has been from them). It is actually a DVD player and has a small screen and the ability to output to a TV, but I mainly bought that one as it had a line in for my iPod on the front and output for a sub.

Next I bought a Bluefin to upgrade the engine management. If I had heard about this site before I bought it, I would have had Ger remap it for me. I have previously had a mini cooper and I had a pipercross induction kit for that, so I also installed that. Now there is a really nice roar when you go for it.

I changed the front seats from the all cloth and installed some half leather ones that I bought from Ger.


I have taken out the back seats and made (all by myself) a custom fit enclosure for a small sub I have had from previous cars. The cloth isn't much of a match, but it was the best I could find. Hopefully the smell of the fiberglass will go away soon too



Finally I have replaced the exhausts back box to a Scorpion stainless one.


That's it for now. I have ordered some new wheels, hopefully they will arrive before the 2011 motorfest.

Nice one...had a black R53 S before, cleaning it broke my heart though.

My wheels arrived today!

Before:


After:

Sweet!!!
Which ones did you go for in the end Michael?
Team Dynamics Tornado's?

17" x 7.5 Rota Torque's. The delivery guy thought they were just tyres they are so light

Wow those wheels look fantastic mate, a definite improvement over the originals!

Masterbiker wrote:17" x 7.5 Rota Torque's. The delivery guy thought they were just tyres they are so light

Wow!!! Delighted you went for the Rota's

Wow they really do bring the car together, great stuff!

Looks well mate, personally I would move on that bluefin and get a better map.

I'm going to reserve the proper remap until I have a stainless manifold and sports cat.

I have installed an exhaust wrap on the manifold. I wish that I had known that stuff would make the car look like it had gone on fire for the first few miles, then I wouldn't have shat a brick when I saw smoke billowing out of the engine bay!

I didn't think I would notice a difference with how the car would feel after sitting at the lights for a few minutes and the acceleration when they go green, but it definitely isn't as sluggish as it used to be.

Oh look what appeared!



Thanks for selling it to me Adrian!

[quote="Masterbiker"]Oh look what appeared!



Thanks for selling it to me Adrian![/quote]

Sweet!!! Looks brilliant

I made a camera mount! So this isn't technically a mod for the car, but will be pretty cool for the track day:





I am hoping it doesn't vibrate too much, for the camcorder, so I get some decent video.

It is the end of an era (at least for me). My MINI is back as mostly stock. Even the cassette radio is back in.



It's sad how it took me just over an hour to remove my induction kit, re-install the old air box, remove strut brace, remove DVD player, sub-woofer, all the wiring for them and put the back seats back in. When it took hours to put it all in. Only things left to do is remove my sticker from the roof, find the box for the bluefin, clean the old wheels so they don't dirty the interior (as they are being included in the sale) and locate the registration documents.

Why you ask am I selling my MINI and how could it be the end of an era? Well you will have to wait and see