Mini Clubman John Cooper Works R55

[Over over under steer]

Looks great and always had a soft spot for these. An old friend used to have one, rode quite firm and watch that front splitter, it caught on bumps easily. I’d absolutely have one and think they look mega with a roof box on top.

Enjoy in good health!

[OMITN]

Love it!

We had a Cooper R55 when our daughter was young (my wife generally drove it). Run flat tyres aside (ruined the ride), we loved it.

It moved on for a R57 (convertible) CooperS, which she also loved.

I’ve long hankered after another Mini in the house. Enjoy it..!

[mikeswagon]

Congratulations, you've got a late JCW (N18), with the optional Recaros, and in the best colour. IIRC it was something like 230 sold in the UK, but I'm maybe slightly off on that figure. I looked for a long time before finding mine - Syd.




Sadly, he's been sold, bit of a rash decision on my part. The links below are from a road trip I was lucky enough to take part in.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=18...

[Challo]

Nice OP. I have a standard Clubman Cooper S and very handy to have the extra space with two young dogs.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Lovely! I have an R55 Cooper with a mega high spec which I love, despite it being slow and an R53 but I think about chopping them both in for a JCW, I absolutely love them.

[Court_S]

That looks lovely OP, especially with most of the chrome removed.

Being a massive fan bit of the R53 era MINI, I never really got the R56 era at the time but they’ve aged really well. They’re much better looking than the current F series cars too (we had one, technically very good but neither of us really loved it like my old MINI’s).

[R56Cooper]

Fantastic looking car! Much love for these. Those Recaros are v. desirable, I've heard of them being sold for circa £2k so worth keeping fresh.

Shame the suicide door is on the wrong side for us, if I recall correctly it's something to do with the fuel tank and it was too much faff for them to move it to the nearside for the UK market.

[peteblk]

I have these seats in my JCW, and I wondered what you used to clean yours? I was told not to get them too wet as it can damage the Alcantara. How did you get on?

Great car by the way!

[Jhonno]

Love a Clubman! I've been tempted a few times, but just struggle to make that leap back to FWD after 15yrs of RWD..

[IAche]

I had an R55 Clubman Cooper S for a couple of years and absolutely loved it. Sadly it died during the Great Birmingham Floods of 2018. No matter how idiotically I drove it I always seemed to get 35mpg out of it.

After it died I borrowed my brothers Corsa VXR of a similar age and it was utter ste in comparison. The LSD and seats were nice but the engine was terrible and even on a motorway run only returned 26mpg. I know that mpg isn't the point of these but I feel that it shows how poor the vauxhall engine is compared to the mini.

[Challo]

IAche said:

I had an R55 Clubman Cooper S for a couple of years and absolutely loved it. Sadly it died during the Great Birmingham Floods of 2018. No matter how idiotically I drove it I always seemed to get 35mpg out of it.

After it died I borrowed my brothers Corsa VXR of a similar age and it was utter ste in comparison. The LSD and seats were nice but the engine was terrible and even on a motorway run only returned 26mpg. I know that mpg isn't the point of these but I feel that it shows how poor the vauxhall engine is compared to the mini.

The engine in the R55 is very good, does have its issues but its quick and economical. The only downside for me is that it doesn't sound very good. I know a 4 pot turbo is never going to sound excellent, but after the supercharger whine of the R53 i think they missed a trick with this one.