What would you do?
Discussion
I have a Mini Equinox P reg that I am in two minds about selling. The question to you chaps is if you had a car like this and were to keep it would you:
1. Keep it entirely original considering it has no rust and is a lovely little car.
or
2. Don't know much about upgrading but I know that I would like the car to feel more planted on the road, have a better ride and be able to get a bit more poke out of the little silver bullet!
Not hugely fussed about changing looks either but nicer wheels than the steels and some spots on the front would look quite cool I think. So the question is upgrade some bits. But what bits?
Any thoughts?
Ace-T
1. Keep it entirely original considering it has no rust and is a lovely little car.
or
2. Don't know much about upgrading but I know that I would like the car to feel more planted on the road, have a better ride and be able to get a bit more poke out of the little silver bullet!
Not hugely fussed about changing looks either but nicer wheels than the steels and some spots on the front would look quite cool I think. So the question is upgrade some bits. But what bits?
Any thoughts?
Ace-T
If you're selling, then keep it as it is, you won't add any value by modifying it now.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're selling, then keep it as it is, you won't add any value by modifying it now.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're selling, then keep it as it is, you won't add any value by modifying it now.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're selling, then keep it as it is, you won't add any value by modifying it now.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
If you're keeping, then you can pretty much do what you want !! I know it's a "limited" edition, I thought long and hard before modifying my 1979 Mini 1100 Special, but it's your car !!
Performance wise the Equinox has the single point injection engine, which makes like a little more difficult but not impossible. The usual starting point is replacement back box and inproved air-filter. From there it gets more tricky, for more detail see here : www.minispares.com/Article.aspx?aid=200
Suspension and handling it depends how far you want to go. Uprated front subframe mountings tighten things up no end, uprated tie-bar and track control arm bushes help too. Some KYB Gas-Adjust dampers are uprated and non-adjustable, fit and forget !! From there your into negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles.......
You should look at the brakes, especially if you are tuning the engine. No need to go mad for a road car, some decent pads (not motor-factor specials), new discs if required and a bleed through of some new fluid will do for now. You might want to look at some uprated pads, but there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
Wheels are nice, but tyres have more effect. Get rid of the standard 145 section Pirelli's if you've still got them, they are awful. Try some 165 section Yokohama's or Falken's, much better. 165 section tyres will fit on either standard steels or Rover minilite style wheels, but some 12x5 wheels would be better.
Hope this helps.
Desticker it, chop 1.5 inches off the roof, fit suicide doors, 18in chrome spinner allys, full welded-in rollcage, recaro buckets, rip the arse out of it and throw in a turbocharged Z-cars conversion with sequential 'box. NICE 
Edited to add: and whack one of those massive "chav" meccano roof spoilers on the back too for extra downforce.
P.S. I'm not helping much am I?
>> Edited by S Works on Thursday 7th October 09:49
Edited to add: and whack one of those massive "chav" meccano roof spoilers on the back too for extra downforce.
P.S. I'm not helping much am I?
>> Edited by S Works on Thursday 7th October 09:49
phil hill said:
there's no need to go mad with grooved/drilled/vented discs, four piston calipers etc. unless you drive like a loon, are the last of the late brakers, or intend to do trackdays.
The standard brakes on my '90 Cooper didn't stand upto the rigors of braking from Motorway speeds, go through a couple of sets of discs in a year, then switched to a Metro Turbo 4-pot/vented system which solved everything. It's a fairly cheap mod to do.
Sell it for a reasonable sum then get yourself a solid pre1993 car, so it can run a carb and get rid of the cat, get a nice 1380 some Hilo’s, Spax and negative camber arms and improve the brakes. The only thing I miss about my equinox it the seats, they are much more comfortable than the early cars so might be something to consider. It could work out a lot cheaper to buy a nicely modified car though than doing it yourself.
Paul V said:
Sell it for a reasonable sum then get yourself a solid pre1993 car, so it can run a carb and get rid of the cat, get a nice 1380 some Hilo’s, Spax and negative camber arms and improve the brakes. The only thing I miss about my equinox it the seats, they are much more comfortable than the early cars so might be something to consider. It could work out a lot cheaper to buy a nicely modified car though than doing it yourself.
Ahh the voice of reason! I was joking by the way... apart from the loony tunes motor of course
Wow - thanks for the replies guys (especially Phil with his informative yet insistent postings
Mustard - I did reply to your e-mail a while ago letting you know what crazy plans for new toys may be! It is a long term thing though.
I would not mod if I was selling within the next year, as you have quite rightly said there is no point. However I do need a daily driver and as I don't particularly go for 'normal' cars I may keep the Mini as the daily.
I absolutely love driving it, you do get some odd looks as you are laughing out loud when going round roundabouts but
heyho!
If I did any mods it would be to make it feel more stable. Shocks would be the obvious starting point along with better tyres (I need some new ones soon anyway I think) but I do not fully understand Phils list and why they help ('negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles....... ') Would someone kindly point me in the direction of a dictionary/book/website that explains these things and what they do and why it is a good thing to change them for better ones?
Mucho thanks one and all!
Ace-T
(especially Phil with his informative yet insistent postings Mustard - I did reply to your e-mail a while ago letting you know what crazy plans for new toys may be! It is a long term thing though.
I would not mod if I was selling within the next year, as you have quite rightly said there is no point. However I do need a daily driver and as I don't particularly go for 'normal' cars I may keep the Mini as the daily.
I absolutely love driving it, you do get some odd looks as you are laughing out loud when going round roundabouts but
heyho! If I did any mods it would be to make it feel more stable. Shocks would be the obvious starting point along with better tyres (I need some new ones soon anyway I think) but I do not fully understand Phils list and why they help ('negative camber arms/brackets, uprated adjustable tie-bars, Hi-lo's, adjustable dampers, rose joints, coil-over conversions, rear beam axles....... ') Would someone kindly point me in the direction of a dictionary/book/website that explains these things and what they do and why it is a good thing to change them for better ones?
Mucho thanks one and all!
Ace-T
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