My ‘06 Mini Cooper S JCW - R53
Discussion
Howdy ladies and gents!
The story of how I come to acquire this car is pretty fun. Within the my group of car friends, there is one chap called Lee who religiously, calls me up once a month to do a detail on his cars, his pride and joy being a Mk7 GTi. About three weeks ago, he was telling me about his intentions to sell the JCW as it was just sat there, and how he would love to see someone get some use out of it. After a bit of chatting, we hatched a plan to get the car cleaned up and take it to a local cars and coffee show with a for sale ad in the window, hoping to get a lead. Funny thing is, you could tell that he wasn’t too eager to let the car go.
So come last Friday, he collected me from my house and dropped me into town to collect the Mini so that I could take it home and polish the bejesus out of it. Quite how I set myself up for it I don’t know, but I even joked and said “you do realise that once I drive it, I’m going to want to buy it?” to which he left an open invitation to drive the car as much as I like, and don’t forget to turn off the traction control.
The drive home was uneventful, but hearing that supercharger whirr away in the background even when accelerating normally was exciting, especially as I had never driven a Cooper S before, but alas I refrained from putting down the boot and got the car home. The next morning, I just had to see what the fuss was all about....besides, may as well wash it after I have gotten it dirty right?...right?? With the car up to temp, the traction control turned off and a clear road ahead, I plant the throttle in 1st (nope), into 2nd (still nope), and then 3rd (ahh, there’s some traction). Jesus Christ the acceleration once it got grip is just ridiculous, and the throttle response and whine from that supercharger puts such a huge smile on my face. It’s the first car in a while that has genuinely made me laugh out loud!
The next couple of days were mainly just cleaning the car up and getting it ready for the show...Ladies and gents, here is my JCW, aptly named “Moe”, thanks to the numberplate!
Pretty tasty eh? Spec list is mostly basic Cooper S, except it is a factory fit JCW car. Unfortunately someone has removed the cat back at some stage and it now has the standard system with the one ball mod. It also turns out however, that the car has a range of other mods that have been performed over the years including:
Dave F induction kit
GP larger inter cooler
Jasma manifold and decat
Big Valve head
Upgraded Camshaft
15% reduced supercharger pulley
550cc injectors
Mishimoto Radiator
Remap
Full L.E.D conversion inside and out
And some other bits and bobs I cannot seem to recall right now, but either way the mechanical spec list is rather impressive and means that the car is putting out a healthy 232hp at the crank!
I’ve only had the car in my ownership for a couple of days or so and the weather is horrific, meaning I haven’t had chance to push it too hard. However I have done a couple of small jobs, including new tyres, a full service (including the supercharger oil) and talking of the supercharger oil, I fitted a very handy kit a local club member was selling which has a little canister in the engine bay that pumps a separate feed through the supercharger meaning that the next change will be a lot easier!
For now, I am going to just enjoy the car and get used to it. I am happy with the power (VERY happy!), but I do plan to find the original JCW exhaust and fit a LSD at some stage, as it does tend to spin the one wheel especially in the wet!
I’ll keep the thread posted if any updates.
Thanks for reading!
The story of how I come to acquire this car is pretty fun. Within the my group of car friends, there is one chap called Lee who religiously, calls me up once a month to do a detail on his cars, his pride and joy being a Mk7 GTi. About three weeks ago, he was telling me about his intentions to sell the JCW as it was just sat there, and how he would love to see someone get some use out of it. After a bit of chatting, we hatched a plan to get the car cleaned up and take it to a local cars and coffee show with a for sale ad in the window, hoping to get a lead. Funny thing is, you could tell that he wasn’t too eager to let the car go.
So come last Friday, he collected me from my house and dropped me into town to collect the Mini so that I could take it home and polish the bejesus out of it. Quite how I set myself up for it I don’t know, but I even joked and said “you do realise that once I drive it, I’m going to want to buy it?” to which he left an open invitation to drive the car as much as I like, and don’t forget to turn off the traction control.
The drive home was uneventful, but hearing that supercharger whirr away in the background even when accelerating normally was exciting, especially as I had never driven a Cooper S before, but alas I refrained from putting down the boot and got the car home. The next morning, I just had to see what the fuss was all about....besides, may as well wash it after I have gotten it dirty right?...right?? With the car up to temp, the traction control turned off and a clear road ahead, I plant the throttle in 1st (nope), into 2nd (still nope), and then 3rd (ahh, there’s some traction). Jesus Christ the acceleration once it got grip is just ridiculous, and the throttle response and whine from that supercharger puts such a huge smile on my face. It’s the first car in a while that has genuinely made me laugh out loud!The next couple of days were mainly just cleaning the car up and getting it ready for the show...Ladies and gents, here is my JCW, aptly named “Moe”, thanks to the numberplate!
Pretty tasty eh? Spec list is mostly basic Cooper S, except it is a factory fit JCW car. Unfortunately someone has removed the cat back at some stage and it now has the standard system with the one ball mod. It also turns out however, that the car has a range of other mods that have been performed over the years including:
Dave F induction kit
GP larger inter cooler
Jasma manifold and decat
Big Valve head
Upgraded Camshaft
15% reduced supercharger pulley
550cc injectors
Mishimoto Radiator
Remap
Full L.E.D conversion inside and out
And some other bits and bobs I cannot seem to recall right now, but either way the mechanical spec list is rather impressive and means that the car is putting out a healthy 232hp at the crank!
I’ve only had the car in my ownership for a couple of days or so and the weather is horrific, meaning I haven’t had chance to push it too hard. However I have done a couple of small jobs, including new tyres, a full service (including the supercharger oil) and talking of the supercharger oil, I fitted a very handy kit a local club member was selling which has a little canister in the engine bay that pumps a separate feed through the supercharger meaning that the next change will be a lot easier!
For now, I am going to just enjoy the car and get used to it. I am happy with the power (VERY happy!), but I do plan to find the original JCW exhaust and fit a LSD at some stage, as it does tend to spin the one wheel especially in the wet!
I’ll keep the thread posted if any updates.
Thanks for reading!
chrismc1977 said:
A useful real-world alternative to an ATR and easier to drive fast I’d wager.
Aside from the criminally poor crashy ride they are a decent hot hatch....
Crashy ride can be solved by replacing run flats with standard tyres. It’s still firm but much improved. Certainly no worse than an civic ep3 from the same era. Aside from the criminally poor crashy ride they are a decent hot hatch....
Neither the R53 or R56 JCW I’ve been in we’re on original rubber as I remember.
They just seemed mega-stiffly sprung tbh (probably good for track work, but not our UK roads). The other glaring thing was neither had the optional Recaros- so there was definitely a sense of sitting ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ the seats.
The chap who sold me my ITR replaced it with a tweaked JCW R53 but sold it on after some astonishing repair bills. Something to keep in mind running extra power O.P.....
They just seemed mega-stiffly sprung tbh (probably good for track work, but not our UK roads). The other glaring thing was neither had the optional Recaros- so there was definitely a sense of sitting ‘on’ rather than ‘in’ the seats.
The chap who sold me my ITR replaced it with a tweaked JCW R53 but sold it on after some astonishing repair bills. Something to keep in mind running extra power O.P.....
Took the Mini up to Dublin to see some friends last night. Didn’t miss a beat and was such fun zipping up and down the tight back streets to beat the traffic! Had a very brown pants moment on the way back however. Their was torrential downpour and as I was rounding a curve on the motorway at around 70mph, the water drifted from the hard shoulder to the inside of the bend, meaning that both lanes were under water. The back end immediately came out on me (as it did for the car behind me!) and I was sideways very quickly. I managed to pull her back in line quite quickly but Jesus Christ, I genuinely s
t my knickers.
Really falling for this car though. It was actually quite refined on the motorway.
t my knickers.Really falling for this car though. It was actually quite refined on the motorway.
Took the Mini out for a spin today as I am back at work Wednesday so probably the last chance I will have to drive it until the weekend, and unfortunately had a little issue this afternoon. I took the car for a spirited drive and upon arriving at a friends house and parking up, was greeted with a rather loud ticking noise when holding the revs at around 2k rpm....I instantly had images in my head of the timing chain or hydraulics being a problem, and looking up YouTube videos only enforced this idea as the noise the car was making was nigh on identical to the sound of a failed hydraulic tensioner and worse. The best way I could describe it was it sounded like a stuck lifter.
So me and my buddy are checking out the car, and he notices the supercharger belt has a rather large chunk missing out of it. “My wife’s Avensis made a similar noise once and it turned out to be the belt. Let’s change that first and see where we stand” he says, so we duly run down to the factors and I grab a new belt and a hydraulic tensioner just in case. As luck would have it, the new belt was indeed causing the noise and the car is now running quietly again. To say I was relieved is an understatement!
Overall, I really am falling in love with this car. It is not going to be an easy decision on whether to keep it or sell it once the Type R Accord is back on the road for spring. I guess only time will tell!
So me and my buddy are checking out the car, and he notices the supercharger belt has a rather large chunk missing out of it. “My wife’s Avensis made a similar noise once and it turned out to be the belt. Let’s change that first and see where we stand” he says, so we duly run down to the factors and I grab a new belt and a hydraulic tensioner just in case. As luck would have it, the new belt was indeed causing the noise and the car is now running quietly again. To say I was relieved is an understatement!
Overall, I really am falling in love with this car. It is not going to be an easy decision on whether to keep it or sell it once the Type R Accord is back on the road for spring. I guess only time will tell!
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