Let's talk mini-coopers

Well dang, you guys have crushed my dream pretty good.

 

Nah. I'm old school.
My Dad owned a foreign car shop in 70s and we had REAL Mini Coopers as. Kid to ride around in.
So these new ones dont do anything for me.
My Mom had 2 door Morris minor she drove us kids around in.

Steven

 

Any Lotus's, or is that Loti?

 

Yep real Foreign cars. Lol
Before they became the norm.
Jaguars and nice cars.
Pretty interesting as a kid for sure.
Dad raced them so got to hang out at Scca races.

Steven

 

Cool, besides bikes, when I was growing up my dad had a 72 Porsche 914, and a 73 Lotus Europa big valve, twin cam. I got to drive the Lotus some during senior year on the weekends and during college.

He auto crossed the 914, but by the time he bought the Lotus, he drag raced motorcycles every summer weekend, so no auto crossing it.

 

mini... the Buell's of automobiles. enough said, you've been warned. Ski

 

or gets stolen from you as soon as you sneeze at it.

for the Mini S'... transmissions are 50/50. some people go a lifetime without a single problem, the other half have to do replacements. the superchargers can take a shit if you don't do the maintenance which is annoying but not even that involved or expensive. but it will be if you kill the supercharger. electrical gremlins that any BMW/Mercedes/Audi/VW would potentially have. they're pretty easy to work on tho and fun to drive.

i would totally love to have an old nice EG or EK hatch with a Si or GSR or K20 swap as a cheap daily that would get amazing gas mileage, but foreal you can't own a Civic that isn't a clapped out piece of shit, or somebody is stealing it from your driveway.

 

We have an ‘05 Cooper S - it’s the wife’s daily and she still loves it. Currently has 170k on the clock.

Major issues over the years were a harmonic balancer, we did the clutch around 110k, a water pump, cam cover gasket, oil pan gasket, cam chain tensioner, and something else. It has a loud ass exhaust on it, solid motor mounts, and Koni shocks.... it’s a hoot.

Great little car.

t

 

Ok I took my time and listened to you guys and found something better. I bought a 2006 WRX. This thing was babied hardcore. The dude never drove it in winter and changed the oil every 3k with full synthetic. Kinda Broome like OCD going on so I jumped on it. He put mild mods in it, not too crazy. How am I doing compared to what I was targeting in my goals? Well...

-fun = F yes!
-good mpg = 20 mpg, ok not good but I can live with it compared to my rig that gets 15 mpg
-$4K = LOL, I spent $10k but I have no regrets that target was way too low
-trackdays = oh hell yes, this thing rips and I can't wait to do some trackdays in it

I knew a guy selling an older A4 that was a trackday car and set up very nicely. I drove it for a couple of weeks and was about to buy it but he loaned it to a woman for a trackday and she blew it up. I narrowly dodged a bullet there.

 

Did you ever actually drive a Mini Cooper S?

 

No.

 

Best day was when we got rid of our 2005 S. What a fucking money pit!

3 power steering pumps, yes 3!! I got reimbursed for 1 under the recall.
Harmonic balancer split in 2.
Cracked head.
Ate tires like Mongo does pie. They have a stupid amount of rear camber for no reason.
Various odd electrical gremlins.

Did I mention it ate the inside of the tires...

Had the rear hatch rust repaired under warranty.

 

That’s probably a good thing. They’re a freaking riot!

 

Your stock just hit penny status.

 

He's probably thinking about the WRC version of said vehicle:

 

I just love 5 door shitboxes. Makes no sense and I have no real idea why. just really dig 'em.

 

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