Hello NAM community,

I joined the forum shortly after I got my 2011 MCS, and posted a few comments here and there, but never did a real introduction of myself or my MINI so here goes.

I've been a motorcycle guy ever since I was a kid (raced in motocross, riding since I was 13 or so), and Triumph Bonneville was my dream bike, which now I have and ride (2007, right before they went EFI). On the car side, MINI was the car I always wanted, but never had a chance or an excuse to get myself one, well, until I rode my Bonnie to a dealership one day.

My MINI is 2011 Mini Cooper S in Hot Chocolate with white roof. No nav, no Connected, no Auto AC, no sunroof nor aero package. Light and simple, pretty much focused on the core driving pleasure. Looking cuddly when she's still, and nimble & quick when she's moving.

JCW bits: N18 Tuning kit, leather/alcantara steering wheel, carbon/alcantara shift **** and side scuttles.
Running Hankook V12s on R108 17" wheels.
Sporting CravenSpeed phone mount and stubby antenna, TuneLink BT (integrated using NewMiniStuff hidden power socket), Griffin Tech USB ports front and back.

Thinking of suspension mod sometime in the future, but she's all good to go for this year, I think. Maybe M7 strut brace at some point.

My diving buddy and I take her to Monterey for scuba diving pretty much every other weekend so I've got the cargo cover protecting from back of front seat to end of the boot full-time, folded rear seats just as a backup for occasional passengers. We carry two people worth of cold water full diving gear and 4 x 80 lb air tanks, and she does the job wonderfully.

She does all kinds of task from bringing rolled up KING size mattress from Ikea to everyday 50 miles of commute, from diving/camping trips to spirited ride in the mountains. I'm looking forward to many more years of joy with this little buddy.

Nice meeting with you guys and let us motor.


Some iPhone/Instagram shots of her. Hoping to shoot better photos soon...


Latest look - exterior.


Latest look - interior.


Before JCW tuning.


Somewhere in Woodside.


My precious Brits.


Today, right after getting the R108/Hankook V12 wheels on.

 

Welcome or welcome back, whatever works! Nice looking MINI, you put her through her paces and she comes out like a champ!

 

Sweet ride........ \m/

 

Great looking car! Those nice wheels must be fun to clean. I am curious about your JCW Tuning Kit. How much did it cost you? Is the exhaust note louder or just about the 'right' loudness? Has your gas mileage changed much? And of course are you enjoying the Kit? Thanks

 

Thanks guys for nice comments.

Tex6 Hawkeye,

Thanks. She still got 2 years of warranty so I'm taking it slow and mellow, but I'm very happy with where she is right now.



jgc_tn,

Thanks, and hello fellow 2011 MCS friend!



Coop-a-Loop,

Thank you. Looks like it will be raining for the rest of the week so I'll see how hard to keep the multispoke wheels clean. There are no hard edges on the front design so I'm hoping it's not too bad.



On the JCW kit. It IS quite a bit more expensive than previous kits due to added manifold. I guess the price varies by region/dealer, but I was quoted for 10 hours of labor (there were some older threads dealer quoting many hours less, but I think they didn't know the manifold part and what's involved). My regular dealer in SF didn't even know there was a kit for N18 (really?) and wasn't really enthusiastic about finding out more. I called another dealer 45 minutes away, and they knew the kit, master mechanic has done the job on their car on the floor, and they worked out the price quite a bit for both the parts and labor so I brought my business there. They provided loaner car, and next day she was all more powerful.



You can easily feel the gained performance as soon as you take off from dealership. A part of the reason I pulled the trigger was that for N18 they did all the way from intake to manifold to cat-back exhaust, complete with VIN specific ECU full programing. You end up with about 200 hp / 200 boosted torque. That's about 7-8 points lower than factory JCW, but my car is probably a bit lighter than typical fully loaded JCWs.



I've done a few spirited rides in mountains since then (tho with 16" S.Drive) and I can see ECU tuning is "racier" compared to stock S. I used lots of 4.5k to 6.4k rpm range in mountains, and she just kept springing forward without flat spots. Lower rpm is also good, but you can kinda feel you need to give a tad more gas when you are pulling out of small garage parking spot at extreme low speed so that's why I said racier earlier.



Exhaust sounds great. Not too light or throaty, and not that louder when idling (you can hear the difference tho). As soon as you give some gas, you can definitely hear her purring. On freeway traveling 75 m/h and up, it can get rather loud when engine is under some load. I am a motorcyclist (my bike is a Bonnie with classic british pipes so they aren't obnoxiously loud like HD) so I have absolutely no problem with it and I enjoy it, but I don't know if that's for everyone you maybe traveling with. I'm intentionally using music-only Bluetooth instead of fully integrated Parrot I had so I can use separate headset for calling on my commute (25 miles of freeway ride). I think on-board microphone wouldn't work so well with JCW kit no matter you have MINI stock or 3rd party BT solutions if you are traveling at highway speed or accelerating. With headsets, so far no problem with people hearing me.



Speaking of freeway ride, we know MINIs got pretty close gearing ratio all the way to 6th, and overtaking is easy even in 6th gear. With the kit, it's even easier. I still think "wow you can pull that much from here??" often today. Imagine you were flooring to overtake on S, now the pedal is not even touching the floor to do the same job.



Wow this got long, but that's my thoughts on the JCW tuning kit so far. It is an expensive kit to install, but I am very happy I did it.

 

Oh and on the MPG: has my mpg changed much? It's yes and no.

When I follow my heart to drive, which is most of time, MPG decrease is rather "huge" because I am happy driving zippier and my MINI is answering to it without a hesitation.

When I follow my brain to drive, like taking a passenger and bunch of scuba gear to Monterey, with very conservative driving and using cruise control, MPG is not affected much if not at all. I think that's a good thing. You have wider range of choices between gas saving drive and getting more fun out of it.

 

I appreciate all of the detailed info. I am gonna get the 'kit' soon. I rode in dealer car with the kit and if felt to me exactly how you have described above. Now if I can get it for around $2600 it will be the perfect mod for me. I know my gas mileage will go down.....for sure. Thanks again.

 

great thread, nice car!

What dealer in the Bay Area did you take it to for the upgrade? I have a 2011 clubman S and was looking to possibly go the same route...

 

Hey, I'm a Mini and motorcycle guy here in San Francisco as well. See my signature for specifics. I just moved here in May, and the motorcycle riding is top shelf!

 

found from another thread you used mini of concord, which is where i got my car anyway. Just called and waiting for a call back on the JCW kit.

 

Welcome back. Car looks great.

If your interested in joining up with some other local Mini owners I would suggest joining the Silicon Valley mini group on Facebook. Leading a group drive on the 7th if your interested (see my sig for more information).

 

Coop-a-Loop & Dustypants,

I am very happy with the kit. And Dustypants, yes, MINI of Concord guys did the job. I have tendency of keep modifying things (like my motorcycles) but I'm happy with where she is right now, for the time being. Talk to Mikey at parts dept and Kevin at service, tell em Suguru sent ya.


Robert,

Welcome to the city and nice looking rides you got there. We are blessed we get pretty much all year long "riding season" in the bay area. (and that we can use summer tires all year!)
If you are interested here are my rides (recently sold Street Triple and I miss her). Ride safe!
My Girls I: Bonnie | Flickr - Photo Sharing!@@AMEPARAM@@http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7047/6850590505_3eba771218_m.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@6850590505@@AMEPARAM@@3eba771218 My girls II: Streeple | Flickr - Photo Sharing!@@AMEPARAM@@http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6850617565_7ca6e444fa_m.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@6850617565@@AMEPARAM@@7ca6e444fa

clubman44,

Wow the route looks real nice! Unfortunately I have a Point Lobos diving booked on that day, but will definitely check out the fb group and try to make it to the next meeting.

 

That's cool. I didn't have the same experience unfortunately... Basically I was quoted $4 grand to install the kit, for around 200 horse. **cough**

I called bay bridge right after and they are working on a package that would include full exhaust, intercooler, and probably the NM tune. Their tune for the N18 isn't ready but they were interested in what NM had to offer. Not sure if bay bridge does in house tuning or what, forgot to ask. Anyway it would probably be half the price for way better gains. Going to wait a bit and see what they say.

For now I'll stick to some exterior stuff and that TSW x-brace... Excited to get that on but not sure i can crack those four bolts with simple hand tools....

 

Yeah I know what you are saying. For the #s you get, JCW kit, especially the N18 engine ones are very expensive. I do like the fact my warranty is fully intact, and that the whole thing is still MINI/JCW designed rather than 3rd party involved, but definitely there are much cheaper options to gain performance.

I'd much like to know what you think of TSW x-brace. I'm not ready (mainly financially) to get into suspension mods just yet, but I do want to increase the rigidity a bit at some point. I'm thinking about doing TSW rear sway bar later this year, when I recover from JCW hole in my wallet. :p

I'd likely use the bay bridge folks for non JCW bits installation. Have you dealt with them before? Heard good things about them, and love to know your experience with them.

 

will do! So far they installed some NM sport springs and changed the run-flats to Potenza's. Super happy with that so far...

Will post back once i've worked out what parts i need next, after they've installed. Probably a few weeks.