Mini Clubman Factory Works

[oxnop]

Evening everybody, I've been a long time lurker (years) and thought id post up some pics of my marmite vehicle to ease me into the the world of full membership....

Apologies for the quality of pics both from my phone, one from the day I bought it a couple of months ago and another from when we parked at the GP mudfest! ill get some better pics uploaded if anyone is actually interested.

In my 28 years (10 of which i've been legally driving) I've a had a few cars and bikes. Most were boring (Corsa, Punto, Civic) a couple have been fun'ish (A4 Sline 2.0T, MK5 DSG GTI) and a couple of oil burners (MK4 Golf 1.9 PD GTTDI and MK5 2.0 GT TDI 170). But none given me as much pleasure as the mini.




First impressions of the 211hp bread van (must have been ok I guess as I went out to buy a 10/11 plate S3 and came home with this :-) )

Handles well considering conti runflats
4 pot Brembos stop it well
Once the Ediff is disabled and the overboost function is on the limitations of the chassis become apparent i.e. it wants to literally torque steer you off the road into a wall
Roomy inside (boot size is poor)
Chunky alacantra steering wheel is lovely
JCW exhaust has a nice rasp and coupled with the turbo whoosh sounds quite purposeful
In 2.5k of driving mainly congested roads into work and some motorway trips I've averaged 35.2 MPG on V power (my 2008 Golf averaged 37MPG in 12k on same journeys)

Only mods I'm planning (can't believe I'm using that collection of words and I'm not a teen) are to de-chrome, change to normal tyres, and get it booked in for a detail.

Thanks for looking

Edited by oxnop on Wednesday 25th July 22:34

Edited by oxnop on Wednesday 25th July 22:35

[northandy]

That looks lovely!!

[tom felty]

i'm going to be honest with you

i adore that
more pics NOW

[oxnop]

Took the car for a wash so thought i'd get some pics whilst driving through a part of town I don't often frequent....

Only change i've made to the car is the red bonnet scoop, my plans are to de-chrome so the mirrors, belt line and headlight covers will all end up black. So appreciate it looks a little odd being black, chrome and red.

Edited by oxnop on Saturday 28th July 16:05

[northandy]

Great pictures!!

[oxnop]

Thanks for the feedback :-)

[Lund]

oxnop said:

In my 28 years (10 of which i've been legally driving)

I like it. They should do a GP breadvan!

[FlashBastd]

Looks great!
How effective is the eDiff?
Have you considered swapping to a standard bonnet, given that the scoop isn't functional on these?

[oxnop]

When it's completely off the torque steer is the worst I've felt in any car. But (not sure if plecebo) when it is off it feels noticeably quicker in a straight line providing the road is straight and surface is good.

Regarding the scoop. I didn't know the scoop wasn't functional? The turbo sits right at front of engine under the scoop so imagined the scoop did aid cooling, the challenge versions have an elongated scoop so wouldn't have thought mini would bother on their own race cars if the scoop was for aesthetics only.

Thanks for the comments!

[Matt Bird]

That looks fantastic! Really like Clubmans and that appears a great one. I think the scoop was functional on the original, supercharged Cooper S but stuck around for the turbo'd one as it became a bit of a distinguishing feature. Not totally sure though!

[oxnop]

Yeah, I think you're both right. The vent doesn't seem to be critical to keeping engine temps down.

Just looked at the spy shots of the new Mini GP from before official pics were released and when doing track testing the test vehicle was run without a scoop.

[Max M4X WW]

The scoop is from the Supercharged cars where the intercooler sits below it. I guess they couldn't really remove it from the S models after they had it before.

I'd say the OP would be reluctant to remove it as its been painted red, would make it look like a cheaply repaired crash damaged car too.

[FlashBastd]

Dropping the scoop would make it a bit more subtle, might sit nicely with the dechrome, etc. that was all I was thinking.

[philmots]

Looks great that. Used to see a brown one parked up with some lovely multi spokes and always used to quite fancy one.

On these newer ones did they sort out the cam chain issues of the earlier 1.6T ? A friends went back 3 or 4 times before he ended up selling it for another Megane!

[Trustmeimadoctor]

i had a look for one of these last night couldnt find one for sale

[Louis91ST]

Really enjoy the Mini Clubman, de chrome is a must i think and maybe the stickers running down the side of the car.

Other than that i am very jealous, wouldnt mind one of these as my next car !

[oxnop]

I haven't seen another one of these in the flesh so imagine they are quite hard to come by. Once I get the de-chrome underway I'll deffinately be removing the stickers on the sides to increase the stealth effect!

[melvster]

Lovely looking car, i see Mini Tuning Specialist Lohen's Clubman Works often and it looks superb.