Anyone have more information on the Oracle body kit made by VIS RACING?, it looks very similar to the Orciari kit($1300.00), if not the same, I found a website advertising this kit for $599.99 + $249.00 for shipping, there is also a $100.00 mail in rebate offer.

Is $748.99 after mail in rebate a good price for this body kit?
Have anyone dealt with autodirectsave.com in the past?

http://www.autodirectsave.com/prod/V...Body_Kit/11303#

 

Not for that aesthetic abomination. Given how inelegant and poorly-integrated it is, autodirectsave.com should pay you $748.99 to defecate that filth onto a perfectly good MINI.

 

That's OK, don't hold back on our account; tell us how you really feel....

Yes, it does look like the Orciari kit. And if that is what you like, then it seems to be a very good price alternative. VIS makes some really nice stuff (CF hoods for example).

 

ok, you dont like the oracle body kit

what do you think about this other kits?

www.grounddynamics.com/Templates/frmTemplateq.asp?SubFolderID=665&SearchYN=N

 

This one from that site isn't so bad. It makes the MINI look like a touring car.




This one is just over the top. (this is the picture quality from the site)

 

Yes I like this one too, but only the rear bumper and the side skirts, the front bumper is a little too much for me, maybe if a get the oem front aero bumper instead.

 

Every single kit on that cage is a replica of a real kit available for our car. None of them are the originals. This generally means that you are taking a risk on the quality and the fitment. The replica companies offer lower prices because they cut corners in the manufacturing and shaping of the kits. So it's up to you. If you see one you like and want to know who the real company is, just let me know

The oracle is pretty ugly though......as are the other two posted in this thread. They don't really fit with the styling of our car

 

Oofa!

 

My eyes...my eyes...XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!

 

Not one of them is appealing. The problem is that the designers of these kits are making these kits to appeal to ricer sensibilities, have ricer taste themselves, or both. The MINI has smooth, rounded contours--yet most of these kits are tailored to eliminate that effect and end up emphasizing the incongruity of the finished disaster that used to be a MINI.

The most glaring flaw with most of these kits for the MINI is that their emphases are on the front and back of the car while the fender flares are stolen from a Ford Focus. The reason for this is obvious: the front and rear are basically bolt-ons while worthwhile side-body changes involve real body work. Unfortunately, ease-of-installation is not synonymous with visual appeal.

Note that the nosepieces on some of these kits lengthen the front of the car while some of the tailpieces are bumped out to lengthen the rear. Two of the MINI's strengths, both visual and performance, are its very short nose and tail. All four wheels are on the extreme corners of the car where they belong--the correct layout for a car (excluding engine placement, which is wrong in almost all FWD cars). Some of these body kits ruin that effect, probably out of a perceived need to appeal to the boyracer crowd--people who grew up in the 80s or 90s and like the jarringly long front ends issuing endlessly forth from the front wheelwells of ridiculous-looking cars like the Impreza/WRX/STI--the dream car of ricer manchildren the world over.

To put it in stark terms, if your body kit makes the MINI look like a Transformer then you did it wrong.

 

Isn't Msfitoy designing a bodykit? One of the reasons why I've waited on an aerokit is to see what he comes up with.

 

Still working on it...I'm rebuilding the complete Mini from scan (which takes some time) so the rest of the design will fit properly...

 

MSFITOY, what is this body kit going to look like?

 

The only thing I like about any of those kits is the rear bumper on the Autozone(?) one. I hate how the MINI's rear bumper is so far from the ground, this kit kind of solves that problem. That boxy front bumper though...BLAH!

 

Whaaaaaaaat?!1! Is there any type of prototype or mockup on a CAD-like program anywhere we could see?

 

Can't show it here...NAM won't allow me to unless I pay a fee...I'll show it to you when you come to town...

See above reason... It's all in CAD...

 

I'll just have to try... other methods of finding it.

 

Sid... i gotta see your kit! send it to me... i can defenitely open it!

but back on topic, this isn't that bad

 

What does the back look like?
Not a huge fan of the screw holes in the fenders...

 

you have to paint the fenders anyways.....any bodyshop could fill those holes easy

rear looks like this....on either the cooper or Cooper S bumper, they both have center exit exhaust.

The cooper version has a less agressive front lip....and with filled holes, i think its the best kit avaible besides the OEM ones.

 

The real company that makes it is MS design.

The cooper lip looks like this:


While the Cooper S is a little over the top and looks like this


a better pic of the rear....again its the same on both the MCS and MC version

 

Still not the kit that is going to win me over, or my money.

I just love how that Autozone(?) kit wraps the rear wheels.

Might just buy that bumper...

 

the carzone kit is a widebody.....so it's either all or nothing. Or you could buy the rear bumper and do some hardcore custom fabbing of the side arches to make them match.

 

i knew i saw that somewhere before... rally know anyone who might carry that kit? while it'd be very late next year when i'd even consider dumping the M7 grilles and M7 splitter... but that kit the more i look at it the better it looks

 

Not in the US. I've only seen the knock-offs over here. You could talk to estrictlyforeign.com and see if they can import it for you or something.

Or maybe the knock-offs arent that bad?