R50 Mini Park Lane
Discussion
It has been a while.
My last thread here was my Boxster, Jan 2023. I've been on dad duties since then and tbh the Boxster did me so dirty it more or less put me off toy cars for quite some time. 3 years, 4 months and 30 days to be exact at time of writing this.
So why the change of heart? Bit of a long story to a question no one was actually asking but I found myself missing something to have a play around with on weekends and faff about with through the summer. The MO was not to spend too much and to find something fun. This Mini ticks both of those boxes.
I've been looking for the past 2 weeks or so and there's loads of good examples out there, my limiting factor was distance. There seemed to be an invisible line drawn around South Wales / West and a Mini exclusion zone of about 150 miles between me and any Mini. This Park Lane came up in Monmouth, about on hour away from me in South Wales so a call was made.
Owned by an elderly chap (3rd owner, I'll be the 4th) and serviced by his son-in-law whom I dealt with the car is pretty honest it seems. Not show room condition but OK overall. It's apparently had a clutch in 2022, evidence of a new cat-back exhaust at the same time along with rear springs and some wheels speed sensors. It passed an MOT today with rear subframe rust and an oil leak being the 2 advisories.
A quick test drive confirmed it drives, stops and steers ok. Also confirmed was the air con isn't working, the seats look more comfortable than they actually are (although they're not uncomfortable) it revs really nicely and the stereo is pretty s
t. A deal was done for £2,200 (seems pretty cheap for what it is) and an enjoyable drive home was had.
This Park Lane is pretty well specced, it has:
seated heats
cruise control
lighting pack
It's missing:
harmon kardon
pan roof
maybe some other things I'm not aware of
But overall OK. It seems to not (at least obviously) be rusting around the base of the rear lights or above the number plate on the boot lid. It looks pretty solid underneath. I did a Car Vertical check on it prior to going to view it and it came back with a score of 73/100. Interestingly it has a record of some kind of damage to the rear in Jan 2014 amounting to an estimate of £500 ish. No idea what that was but it's so long in the past that at thing point it doesn't really matter. The car presents well with no evidence of damage that it's kind of a moot point 14 years on.
I took it over to a mates who (having a better ear for this sort of thing apparently) instantly diagnosed a noisy pulley / idler on the LHS of the engine, a large screw driver was employed to confirm that there's a few bearings that are rough as balls. I think those will be the first jobs to tackle but don't look too difficult to sort.
Encouragingly the Mini has 4 'new' (2721 date stamp) Pirelli Cinturatos on it. Somewhat disappointingly they're all-season NSF 2's with only very slightly less of an aggressive tread pattern than BF Goodrich all-terrains. I'm pretty sensitive to tyres so I may well change these out for something a bit sportier for the summer which will be a good excuse to get the Park Lane bridge spoke wheels refurbished. That's probably for later though.
Along with the grumbling aux bearings I notice that the front wheels are able to be moved front and back in the arches quite a bit, if I'm correct I think this points toward the front lower control arm bushes having execissive play (must have been a friendly MOT tester). A job that requires the front subframe to be dropped out I believe. Not the end of the world though.
I'll be getting on with the most pressing of the jobs in the next few weeks but for now the Mini will have a thorough clean inside and out, wheels off etc and just some use as and when I feel like taking it out. I am looking forward to spinning a few spanners and enjoying a fun little car again. It's so nice not to have the various bings / bongs of new cars and a breath of fresh air not to have to fight the steering wheel every time I change lanes with all the ADAS nonsense, it really is in the early 2000's sweet spot for modern / no nannies.
My last thread here was my Boxster, Jan 2023. I've been on dad duties since then and tbh the Boxster did me so dirty it more or less put me off toy cars for quite some time. 3 years, 4 months and 30 days to be exact at time of writing this.
So why the change of heart? Bit of a long story to a question no one was actually asking but I found myself missing something to have a play around with on weekends and faff about with through the summer. The MO was not to spend too much and to find something fun. This Mini ticks both of those boxes.
I've been looking for the past 2 weeks or so and there's loads of good examples out there, my limiting factor was distance. There seemed to be an invisible line drawn around South Wales / West and a Mini exclusion zone of about 150 miles between me and any Mini. This Park Lane came up in Monmouth, about on hour away from me in South Wales so a call was made.
Owned by an elderly chap (3rd owner, I'll be the 4th) and serviced by his son-in-law whom I dealt with the car is pretty honest it seems. Not show room condition but OK overall. It's apparently had a clutch in 2022, evidence of a new cat-back exhaust at the same time along with rear springs and some wheels speed sensors. It passed an MOT today with rear subframe rust and an oil leak being the 2 advisories.
A quick test drive confirmed it drives, stops and steers ok. Also confirmed was the air con isn't working, the seats look more comfortable than they actually are (although they're not uncomfortable) it revs really nicely and the stereo is pretty s
t. A deal was done for £2,200 (seems pretty cheap for what it is) and an enjoyable drive home was had.This Park Lane is pretty well specced, it has:
seated heats
cruise control
lighting pack
It's missing:
harmon kardon
pan roof
maybe some other things I'm not aware of
But overall OK. It seems to not (at least obviously) be rusting around the base of the rear lights or above the number plate on the boot lid. It looks pretty solid underneath. I did a Car Vertical check on it prior to going to view it and it came back with a score of 73/100. Interestingly it has a record of some kind of damage to the rear in Jan 2014 amounting to an estimate of £500 ish. No idea what that was but it's so long in the past that at thing point it doesn't really matter. The car presents well with no evidence of damage that it's kind of a moot point 14 years on.
I took it over to a mates who (having a better ear for this sort of thing apparently) instantly diagnosed a noisy pulley / idler on the LHS of the engine, a large screw driver was employed to confirm that there's a few bearings that are rough as balls. I think those will be the first jobs to tackle but don't look too difficult to sort.
Encouragingly the Mini has 4 'new' (2721 date stamp) Pirelli Cinturatos on it. Somewhat disappointingly they're all-season NSF 2's with only very slightly less of an aggressive tread pattern than BF Goodrich all-terrains. I'm pretty sensitive to tyres so I may well change these out for something a bit sportier for the summer which will be a good excuse to get the Park Lane bridge spoke wheels refurbished. That's probably for later though.
Along with the grumbling aux bearings I notice that the front wheels are able to be moved front and back in the arches quite a bit, if I'm correct I think this points toward the front lower control arm bushes having execissive play (must have been a friendly MOT tester). A job that requires the front subframe to be dropped out I believe. Not the end of the world though.
I'll be getting on with the most pressing of the jobs in the next few weeks but for now the Mini will have a thorough clean inside and out, wheels off etc and just some use as and when I feel like taking it out. I am looking forward to spinning a few spanners and enjoying a fun little car again. It's so nice not to have the various bings / bongs of new cars and a breath of fresh air not to have to fight the steering wheel every time I change lanes with all the ADAS nonsense, it really is in the early 2000's sweet spot for modern / no nannies.
Looks like a good car that, and with a good history. I've got a real soft spot for these R50s as my first car when I was 17 was an '03 One (faster than your Cooper though, because it was Chili Red and had racing stripes 
) which frankly was a bit of a dog and I could've/should've bought a better example, but we live and learn. I adored it nonetheless, even my ropey example was incredibly fun to drive and I still love the way they look, inside and out.
Sadly I think mine has gone to the scrapheap in the sky as it was last MOT'd in 2024. Glad to see yours looks to have a long and happy future ahead of it though. I reckon a nice one (as yours looks to be) is a definite future classic.
) which frankly was a bit of a dog and I could've/should've bought a better example, but we live and learn. I adored it nonetheless, even my ropey example was incredibly fun to drive and I still love the way they look, inside and out.Sadly I think mine has gone to the scrapheap in the sky as it was last MOT'd in 2024. Glad to see yours looks to have a long and happy future ahead of it though. I reckon a nice one (as yours looks to be) is a definite future classic.
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