Ownership Verified: Cooped Up! My MINI S

KaJuN

KaJuN

Disco Inferno
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Messages
9,743
Location
Dayton, Ohio
Car(s)
Mini Cooper S, Landy Series III, Vulcan 900 Custom
My daily driver, a horrible old Dodge Stratus, was falling apart to the point it wasn't financially reasonable to keep it going. Hell the rear suspension work alone was as much as the car is worth. So I set out in search of a new daily, probably something like a Focus or Civic when this little guy popped up in my searching. Why settle for just a car when I could get something I truly enjoy? So here she is!











A 2008 MINI Cooper S with just over 60,000 miles. Powered by a 1.6L turbo four bolted to an excellent six-speed manual. The whole thing weighs about 2,700lbs with me inside. Couple that with 177 lb-ft of torque available at 1,600 RPM, plus 172hp, and you get a very quick little car. Actually quick isn't the right word...this thing is downright fast! Merging onto the interstate resulted me in going almost 90mph without realizing it. This car begs to be driven faster. The sport button completely changes the feel of the car by tightening up the throttle, clutch, steering, and suspension. It just keeps on gripping in the corners and that wave of torque rockets the car back onto the straights.

It's pretty well optioned out with heated leatherette seats, a panoramic sunroof, and color-selectable interior mood lighting. Like any used car it does need a few little things, primarily fixing a small spot of surface rust and replacing the hatch lift supports. I've decided it also needs bonnet stripes and probably front driving lamps.
 
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I love those. Congrats!
 
Cool. Certainly more characterful than the regular warm/hot hatches :)

Although I think the slightly goofy nature of it goes better with a little more colorful bodywork like red, blue, yellow or green.
 
Very nice. I like the first two gens of the new Mini. So cool! :)

But make sure you're not doing a subaruwrxfan in the US of A with a German car...

 
Nice, you've got the S-winder wheels; those are the lightest of the 16" wheels that MINI made. I was always keeping a half eye out for a good price on them. Keep an eye on your turbo; they like to start leaking oil around 100,000 miles. Also, there's an overboots function in certain gears when you floor it that'll raise boost from 10psi to 15psi; they say it's good for an on-demand 10-15 lb-ft of torque.

Did anybody show you the "drug smuggling" compartment located on the passenger side of the car? I think it's supposed to be for CDs, but nobody knows it's there unless they're told. I used to have an R56, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Also, if you're looking for supplemental gauges, the Marshall ones are almost a perfect match to your OEM ones: https://www.cravenspeed.com/mini-cooper-gauges-by-marshall-instruments/

Nobody knew that it was aftermarket when I had my boost gauge installed. I used an Alta Performance pod (http://altaperformance.com/i-14007144-gauge-pod-single-for-r56-turbo-engines.html) because I only installed one gauge, and I ran vacuum line to it using a MAF tap. It was a very clean setup.




And a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkCic2zg3h8
 
M3lover said:
Cool. Certainly more characterful than the regular warm/hot hatches :)

Although I think the slightly goofy nature of it goes better with a little more colorful bodywork like red, blue, yellow or green.
Click to expand...

I like how the car doesn't take itself too seriously. I also liked how this one has a more mature color combination than bright red with checkered flag patterns everywhere. Adding some go-faster stripes should bring back more of that silliness to mine though.

Mitchi said:
Very nice. I like the first two gens of the new Mini. So cool! :)

But make sure you're not doing a subaruwrxfan in the US of A with a German car...

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Yikes! :blink: Does he want to ruin that engine? Because that's how you ruin an engine. Although I have read about the thermostat housing issues on these cars so I'll be keeping a close eye on mine.

WDWBen said:
Nice, you've got the S-winder wheels; those are the lightest of the 16" wheels that MINI made. I was always keeping a half eye out for a good price on them. Keep an eye on your turbo; they like to start leaking oil around 100,000 miles. Also, there's an overboots function in certain gears when you floor it that'll raise boost from 10psi to 15psi; they say it's good for an on-demand 10-15 lb-ft of torque.

Did anybody show you the "drug smuggling" compartment located on the passenger side of the car? I think it's supposed to be for CDs, but nobody knows it's there unless they're told. I used to have an R56, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Also, if you're looking for supplemental gauges, the Marshall ones are almost a perfect match to your OEM ones: https://www.cravenspeed.com/mini-cooper-gauges-by-marshall-instruments/

Nobody knew that it was aftermarket when I had my boost gauge installed. I used an Alta Performance pod (http://altaperformance.com/i-14007144-gauge-pod-single-for-r56-turbo-engines.html) because I only installed one gauge, and I ran vacuum line to it using a MAF tap. It was a very clean setup.




And a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkCic2zg3h8
Click to expand...

From what I can tell the sport mode allows the overboost function to kick in more often. At first I thought it was just turbo lag but in sport mode I get about a second of lag then another push of torque as the revs build up. It's so much fun and this car just begs to go faster all the time, like a puppy wanting to go to the park. :lol:

I read about the smuggling compartment when I was reading through the manual. I ran out to see if mine had it and sure enough it does! It's the perfect size for a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield...or so I've read. :whistle:

I was surprised to see the huge availability of customizing options available for these cars. That boost guage looks very nice!
 
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There's a HUGE aftermarket for these cars that NOBODY knows about, haha. In addition to the very expensive JCW stuff you can buy from MINI, Alta is just an arm of Perrin Performance that is specifically for MINIs. I knew about Perrin from my days in the Subaru world. It looks like someone might have already gone shopping at Craven... you have a Stubby! Allegedly, the 2008 models also were pre-wired for rear fog lights. You'd just need to get the lenses with bulbs, a new toggle-switch cover, and an extra toggle for that blank spot next to the central lock. There's a lot about it in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.c...switch-plate-and-toggle-switch-install-2.html
 
Striiiiiipes!





Originally I was going to go for two thick stripes going up the middle but after playing around with designs in Forza I decided this style looked better. I'm super happy with how they turned out and I absolutely love the look! The stripes really livened it up from just the soccer mom gold color and now it has the sporty look the S model deserves. They were super easy to put on too.

I also just found out I might be joining a friend on his car club's yearly trip to the Tail of the Dragon next week. That would be an awesome way to start out my MINI ownership!


WDWBen said:
There's a HUGE aftermarket for these cars that NOBODY knows about, haha. In addition to the very expensive JCW stuff you can buy from MINI, Alta is just an arm of Perrin Performance that is specifically for MINIs. I knew about Perrin from my days in the Subaru world. It looks like someone might have already gone shopping at Craven... you have a Stubby! Allegedly, the 2008 models also were pre-wired for rear fog lights. You'd just need to get the lenses with bulbs, a new toggle-switch cover, and an extra toggle for that blank spot next to the central lock. There's a lot about it in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.c...switch-plate-and-toggle-switch-install-2.html
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about installing the fog lights just to break up that big black piece on the bumper. The stubby antenna is the only non-factory thing on the car which is nice because it gives me a clean slate.
 
Update time: it broke. I was having trouble starting it while cold. Basically it fired right up then ran very rough, almost like it was only firing one or two cylinders. This continued for several start sequences before it finally ran properly. It turns out the high pressure fuel pump beginning to fail and MINI had extended the warranties on those parts for 10 years/100k miles. I got it fixed for free! :dance: Otherwise the cheapest I could find the part was $400. It's running great again and even feels like it has more power than before. Perhaps the pump was starting to fail when I bought it?

Another benefit of taking it to the dealer was I learned the car's birthday: June 1, 2008. I'll mark it on the calendar and buy something nice for him then.
 
Reading this thread kind of makes me want to look at cooper s's... Hmmm!

Nice car! I have driven a Supercharged one, so a bit earlier than yours, apart from the clutch being stupid heavy it was pretty nice to drive in the limited time I could drive it! :)

It's quite a shame that the new ones are no longer "mini".
 
^same here, but not just because of this thread

the first gen of the new mini always had a strong appeal to me
i'd take a works edition over any hot hatch without a doubt!
 
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