Ross' R56 FJCW

[Fluoxetine]

At Ferg's suggestion, I've started this thread to catalogue some of the slight modifications I've made / I'm making to my Mini.

Having been down the homebrew turbo charging route with an old MX5, I've realised I don't have the time & patience to cobble some random parts together and attempt to make them work in an OEM fashion.

Therefore the intention with the Mini is to stick to genuine BMW / Mini parts, as they're guaranteed to fit, and won't require constant fettling.

Also, not too interested in performance mods at the moment - The obvious route is to fit a bigger intercooler / remap for 250-260bhp, but the lack of super unleaded in ROI would put me off doing this, and the performance at present is fine for road use. (Plus the car's still under extended BMW warranty).

Below's a bit of a cut & paste from my newbie intro, but I'll try and keep it up to date as time passes.

My FJCW, as bought in May:









Enjoying it so far - It's pretty well spec'd from new, with full heated leather, visibility pack (auto lights / wipers / heated front screen & washers), full bluetooth, auto climate, and multifunction steering wheel with cruise etc...



...despite all this, the big kid in me wanted daylight running lights, and BMW / MINI helpfully launched a dealer retrofit kit at the end of April.





DRL's



Side lights



Fogs



Was happy with my lot, till I spotted a very rare secondhand set of the dealer option JCW Recaros come up for sale - Beauty of these are that they retain the heating elements, and have the side airbags as per OEM.... Will be fitting them, along with a rear diffuser from the R56 GP2, next month.



Future plans are to powdercoat the wheels in gloss black next month - The silver wheels are a nightmare to keep clean, and the previous owner has kerbed a couple of them, so they could do with a refurb.

Have a couple of slight additions to the interior - I fitted an iPhone 4 cradle in the armrest last month, but have still to fit the facelifted steering wheel controls.

Being a Sept 2009, my car has the old style silver controls:



I bought the controls / cover from a facelifted 2010 car, which are finished in matt black, so I'll swap them over when I fit the GP2 diffuser.

Will have the car over in Scotland in August, where all my parts are lying in the garage of my folks place, so will update the thread after then.

[MiniMpi]

Sounds like some great plans there Ross !

Thanks for posting buddy
We have a MINI Specialist in the club (Irlmin), he's based in Ballincollig in Cork and has full dealer facilities etc and does Proper re-mapping too by one of the best tuning map companies. They are specific to your car and not generic.
I have my R56 S at 210bhp and loads of torque

[irlmin]

Hi Ross and welcome , keep the pics coming , as regards fuel here in Ireland Maxol E5 is listed at 99.0 octane so no major problem these .
G

[Fluoxetine]

Not much happening on the modification front, but the JCW Recaros are going in on Monday - Can't wait!

Had a great day out at the IFOS, where I enjoyed meeting a few of the forum members on the Mini Club Ireland stand.

Then off to Mondello for the Open Track Day on the bank holiday Monday.

Was a bit daunting, as I am fairly track-rusty, it was a new track to me, and I've never driven a FWD car on track...(Racing driver's book of excuses out already! )

Did enjoy it though - Just steered clear at the busy times, and backed off and let the nutters past straight away...



Mini performed reasonably well; the runflat's were better than I thought, but I'd imagine the car would be transformed with decent rubber.



Brakes were pretty good too - But my pads are probably the original set (car has 25,000 miles on it), and they started to crack and degrade, so I limited my session time and kept a close eye on them.

The handling was amusing - Lots of lift off oversteer with the DSC off, but then I was struggling to put the power down out the corners.

It was a very warm day (25C +), and under bonnet temps were sky high - I'm sure heat soak was reducing power (more excuses )

Fuel consumption dropped to 13.4 mpg at one stage - I had 5 bars left on the fuel guage and an estimated range of 97 km... (!)



Drank a little bit of oil too - Perhaps 2-300ml...(It's rather black now, so will be undergoing an oil & filter, plus air filter change next week).

All in all good fun - Not sure I'd rush to do another till I've replaced the brakes, though!

Here's a mobile phone vid (turn the quality up to 720p) - I see Cooper S' are expected to hit 150kph on the straight, so I've some way to go...

[Masterbiker]

That's a really awesome app you are using for the video.

[timmydamini]

Hi Ross,

That's a nice car you have, nice lap of Mondello too, you obviously know your way round a circuit.

I found the runflats to be detrimental to the handling of my Mini, opted for non RFT and to carry a puncture plug kit with compressor.

Hope to get to meet you soon at some Mini event or other.

Tim

[Fluoxetine]

That's a really awesome app you are using for the video.

Quite impressed with it - Harry's GPS Laptimer - I used to use Racechrono and try and overlay it on the video, but it was pretty frustrating syncing it up!

Hi Ross,

That's a nice car you have, nice lap of Mondello too, you obviously know your way round a circuit.

I found the runflats to be detrimental to the handling of my Mini, opted for non RFT and to carry a puncture plug kit with compressor.

Hope to get to meet you soon at some Mini event or other.

Tim

Thanks Tim - Very rusty, as I haven't driven on track regularly since 2004/05!

Completely forgotten how to heel & toe smoothly, so had to brake a little earlier than I normally would've as a result.

With the stability safety net off, the car had quite a bidable chassis - Less understeer than I expected, and a handy helping of lift off oversteer if you desired. (I was interested to note the stability software actually had quite a high threshold before stepping in, especially if you drove smoothly).

Sport mode almost made the throttle response too eager - It was harder to string a decent lap together, as constantly jumping on / off the throttle destablised the car.

All good fun, though - A fair bit of time to be had still on the current set-up, and easily a couple of seconds on non RFT's.

At the end of the day, it's a daily driver though, so I'm not going too far down the track biased set up path.

Be good to meet up at an event - Perhaps even something at Mondello?!

[timmydamini]

Hi Ross,

Your right not to go too far on the track biased route. I polly bushed mine including engine, gearbox, rack mounts, sharpened it, but a step too far for daily use.

Some track mods also make it harder to sell the car on, not everyone's cup of tea.

[Fluoxetine]

Hi Ross,

Your right not to go too far on the track biased route. I polly bushed mine including engine, gearbox, rack mounts, sharpened it, but a step too far for daily use.

Some track mods also make it harder to sell the car on, not everyone's cup of tea.

While it sounds a little bit pious, the biggest upgrade you can make is driver training - Just one session at North Weald with Andrew Walsh (an ex-Benetton F1 test driver) learning the basics of how to hold the steering wheel has saved my bacon on numerous occasions!

So after 'abusing' my poor Mini on track, it was time for some TLC

The MOT (NCT) is due at the end of September, but you can have it completed a month early to gain a 13 month MOT.

While it was in for that, I took advantage of it being on the ramp, and changed the oil & filters - The OBC reckons on another year / 22,000 km before the next service, but having ragged it at Mondello, I wanted it done ASAP.

Eurocarparts had a great deal on for the correct BMW recommended Castrol Edge 0w30, and I got 5 litres for £37 delivered.

Looked at ITG panel filters, but plumped for the OEM part, along with the OEM oil filter.

(Part numbers, if anyone's interested - MINI R55/R56/R57 Petrol Engine Oil Filter 11427622446 - £11.78, & MINI John Cooper Works Air Filter 13717568728 - £18.82)

Also swapped the wipers for Bosch Aero Twins - Really rate these, and fit them to all my cars.



Anyway, onto the bigger stuff:





Finally did this too...

Before:



During...



After:



...And fitted the GP2 diffuser- A nicely engineered piece of kit, with proper tunnels, that clips onto the flat floor. (Doubt it'll make anything other than an aesthetic difference, but you never know...It balances the look of the car IMHO, especially with the larger front splitter)







It's now pretty much how I want it, and how I feel the FJCW should have left the factory - Although I still need to powdercoat the wheels in gloss black, and sort a machine polish / smart chip repair to tidy the paint.

[timmydamini]

Looking very tasty Ross, the diffuser is the business.

[Mackers]

Amazing looking car, lovely little touches done.

[AdyP]

Hi Ross and welcome , keep the pics coming , as regards fuel here in Ireland Maxol E5 is listed at 99.0 octane so no major problem these .
G

Careful here Ross, I heard from some Scooby owners that Maxol dropped their octane levels without telling anyone, so this has now resulted in some engine issues with cars that are heavily remapped just for high octane stuff!

Car looks great though!

[Fluoxetine]

Hi Ross and welcome , keep the pics coming , as regards fuel here in Ireland Maxol E5 is listed at 99.0 octane so no major problem these .
G

Careful here Ross, I heard from some Scooby owners that Maxol dropped their octane levels without telling anyone, so this has now resulted in some engine issues with cars that are heavily remapped just for high octane stuff!

Car looks great though!

Thanks!

I've been lobbing Miller Octane Booster in whenever I fill up (adds 2 octane points), so hopefully that'll help.

Happy enough with standard power levels - It's already a little unruly on bumpy surfaces, and the DSC / TCS light flashes a fair bit if you're aggressive with the throttle...(!)

Brakes are next on this list - Front pads are down to 40%, so considering what to replace them with.

OEM have been good, but apparently Nissan 350Z pads also fit the calipers, and therefore gives me the opportunity to look at Carbotech / Pagid's. Hmmm....

[Fluoxetine]

Been quiet of late, as the car's been behaving itself, and I haven't done anything to it...(Including changing out the brakes!)

To be honest, I had a wobble over swapping it for a BMW M135i (had a spin in a mate's car, and they are awesome), but common sense prevailed - I've got my JCW the way I want it, and spending an extra £10-15k on an M135i (and a further few £k at Hartge to fit a proper mechanical LSD) doesn't appeal right now.

So - Brakes and tyres.

I know the Michelin PS3's are very highly rated on here - I can get a set fitted for €640 over the UK (where the car is for the winter, as I can garage it there).

Also hearing good things about Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2's - A set fitted is €600

Anyone have experience of these?

Also note that if one were to plump for 215/45/17's the price drops markedly -€590 fitted for the PS3's & €490 fitted for the F1's!

A forum search suggests that running 215's doesn't fowl the arches, and makes the speedo more accurate, if anything. (Quite a few running on track without issue, too).

Anyone here running 215's? Any comments?

As for brakes - Will stick with OEM JCW discs all round, but considering Ferrodo DS2500's for pads - Can get a front set for just €15 more than the OEM JCW pads. (Ran them on my old S2000, and they were great track / road pads ).

Anyone have any experience of using them on a Mini?

[irlmin]

I drive lots of MINIs every day , some with budget tyres some with big brand tyres , some with 90bhp some with 250 bhp and there is NO tyre works as well as Michelin PS3 on the 17" and 18" wheels , the ability to deal with standing water is just amazing , whereas the Goodyears are a very competent tyre they are just not as good as the PS3s in my opinion , in the smaller sizes again go for a big brand and avoid the budget 'chinese' tyres that are almost an epedemic here at present , I recently got in a nice standard 2003 Cooper on 15" wheels and during the check over we spotted it needed 2 front tyres, got the tyre shop next door to fit 2 Continentals and off for a quick test drive , into a wet roundabout and expecting a little understeer under power as usual when the rear snapped out in one of the most violent oversteer occurences I have ever experienced , back to the workshop and found the problem !!!!! budget Chinese tyres , on with 2 more contis and repeat test -no problem perfect grip even though the tyres were not 'scrubbed in' . now I am convinced that many of the wet weather accidents we are seeing now are a direct result of these 'cheap' tyres . anyway rant over and back to the question of Michelin PS3 s I have used these and the previous PS2s with many years and have done laps of the Nurburgring in both dry and very wet and never had a 'moment' , never had a moment in any conditions during everyday use is also a reason I won't use anything else .
G