The MINI Club of Ireland

I recently picked up my latest MINI, a January 2007 Laser Blue/White roof R56 Cooper S





Spec is as follows :
Chilli pack,
Bi-Xenons,
17" Crown Spoke alloys,
Darkened rear glass,
Double sunroof,
MFSW,
Chrome line interior,
Armrest,
Full Punch Leather interior,
Pacific Blue Colourline.

My first mod was a remap from Ger & Aidan which has transformed a fast MINI into a truly fantastic car !!
The difference in the driveability is great. It pulls in 6th gear from nearly nothing and just goes and goes and goes.
Acceleration is instant and when the sport button is pushed it turns into the devil incarnate !!
The remap brought it from a very good 175bhp to 210bhp and the great thing is that the mpg has also improved !! I got 39.7 mpg on the way home from an impromptu MINI run tonight which is very good. Obviously if you drive it like you stole it the mpg will go down but that's the same as always anyway.
It's not just about the 0-60 times etc etc , its about the day to day drivability

Next mod was a K&N airfilter which has complimented my first mod very well. Car breathes way better and it's a once off purchase, just has to be cleaned, not replaced after 30,000 to 50,000 miles.



I'm glad I checked the condition of the airfilter the car came with...... it was filthy !!
This is due to the 'wonderful TLC servicing package'....... ie: never changed Ever!!
It was stamped 2007 so it was the airfilter that it left the factory with !




I have lots of things planned, most very small changes and mods but first things are cleaning it to My standard and servicing

Great looking car Fergal. Sport button works nice doesn't it.

Thanks Oliver

Yes, the Sport button is The Job

Updated first post with the Spec list

Very nice Ferg.
Can't beat those Xenons. And nice to see you back on Punch Leather, just like your Clubbie!

Health to enjoy.

Thanks Derek

Yeah I finished cleaning the interior today.
It's looking great and I'm really enjoying it and I love the spec.

Here are the long awaited interior photos

Looks great Ferg! Shes some yoke! Health to enjoy

Thanks Mark

I'm loving it

Stunning interior Ferg.

Hope to see for reals real soon!

Would be good to meet up buddy

The standard sound system in the R56/R55 etc is very below par compared to how good the setup in the previous generation R50/R53 MINI is. Obviously the optional HiFi setup is very good but I'm just dealing with the standard setup here.
The reason for the poor quality audio is that MINI have the sound channels back to front !!
The bass Should come from the rear speakers but MINI have the bass coming through the front speakers only !!
The front speakers can't deal with the bass so it sounds very poor and the rear are doing not a lot !
There is a 'fix' for it however.
Mikeythemini from newministuff in the UK has a plug in loom to reverse the channels to the way it should be.
But I found out yesterday that you can do it yourself easily enough and it costs nothing
I'll post a couple of links to the forums where it shows you how to do yourself.
It took me about an hour to do it today but most of that was just working out the best way to do it.
I could do another one in about 20 minutes or less now.
Here are some photos I took to show roughly the block connections and what the pins look like popped out. Basically you unplug the block connections and pop out the pins and put them back in a different place in the block connection and click it back together and job done
You finally have an excellent sound system with great bass coming from the Rear speakers as they should be

I found the best thing to pop out the pins from the block connection is a phase tester screwdriver.

http://northamericanmotoring.com/forums ... -swap.html
http://www.totalmini.com/forum/141-2006 ... hotos.html

But.....how are the rest of the electrics now???????
(Sorry, someone had to ask!)

Haha

I know Derek...in the past my 'electrical skills' have been strongly questioned
But no all is fine

Fitted a brand new JCW gear knob tonight





The old one was very badly scratched on the chrome from the previous owner wearing rings.