The Whiner: Cooper S R53
Discussion
Brief summary of my short car history:
Fiat Punto Sporting 1.2 8v - Very slow, very bad quality, very annoying when the gearbox blew up on the way to football.
Suzuki Swift Sport mk1 - Very fun, very good round corners, very annoying when my neighbour wrote it off.
So I was stuck in a position where i needed something that was fun, a bit more juice than the SSS but still in the same mould - high revving, good in the corners, but more outright pace and power. Changing gears every 2 minutes to get everywhere can be fun, but not all the time.
Enter the £1700 R53 Cooper S. Had it a few days, already racked up 190 odd miles. Fantastic fun and brilliant value. Only downside so far is MPG (26 at a push, luckily not a daily driver)
Mini by joecastle, on Flickr
TO DO LIST:
General house keeping (Mats, dustcaps, quick go round with a paint touch up pen)
New front grills (Those black mesh ones - very sporty)
Wheel refurb (or replacement depending if i can source anything I like)
New and uprated brake pads (standard ones seem lacking - eventually look into better discs if the power warrants it)
15% reduced supercharger pulley belt (Seems to be a good way to unlock power for cheap)
Airtec Induction kit (for more supercharger whine)
New exhaust (milltek or a custom build)
Remap
And if needed a new Intercooler - this also means i can go for a 17% reduced belt as well. The idea is to be over the 200bhp mark, and officially into "Very Nippy" territory.
Oh, and final part of the to-do list, GO SOMEWHERE NICE FOR PHOTOS!
Fiat Punto Sporting 1.2 8v - Very slow, very bad quality, very annoying when the gearbox blew up on the way to football.
Suzuki Swift Sport mk1 - Very fun, very good round corners, very annoying when my neighbour wrote it off.
So I was stuck in a position where i needed something that was fun, a bit more juice than the SSS but still in the same mould - high revving, good in the corners, but more outright pace and power. Changing gears every 2 minutes to get everywhere can be fun, but not all the time.
Enter the £1700 R53 Cooper S. Had it a few days, already racked up 190 odd miles. Fantastic fun and brilliant value. Only downside so far is MPG (26 at a push, luckily not a daily driver)
Mini by joecastle, on FlickrTO DO LIST:
General house keeping (Mats, dustcaps, quick go round with a paint touch up pen)
New front grills (Those black mesh ones - very sporty)
Wheel refurb (or replacement depending if i can source anything I like)
New and uprated brake pads (standard ones seem lacking - eventually look into better discs if the power warrants it)
15% reduced supercharger pulley belt (Seems to be a good way to unlock power for cheap)
Airtec Induction kit (for more supercharger whine)
New exhaust (milltek or a custom build)
Remap
And if needed a new Intercooler - this also means i can go for a 17% reduced belt as well. The idea is to be over the 200bhp mark, and officially into "Very Nippy" territory.
Oh, and final part of the to-do list, GO SOMEWHERE NICE FOR PHOTOS!
Very similar to my last R53, also dark silver with a white roof 
I'd look into R53 JCW or R56 Cooper S calipers for your brakes, the standard R53 setup is abysmal and even half decent pads and discs make little difference if you're going anywhere near a track. I had much of your setup and I had 182whp which went quite well (15%, Milltek non-res only mods, really needed a better intercooler)
I'd look into R53 JCW or R56 Cooper S calipers for your brakes, the standard R53 setup is abysmal and even half decent pads and discs make little difference if you're going anywhere near a track. I had much of your setup and I had 182whp which went quite well (15%, Milltek non-res only mods, really needed a better intercooler)
Brakes wise just ditch the front R53 brakes altogether, they are garbage and no where near up to the job. R56 Cooper S front calipers, pads and discs is the best upgrade for very little. You just need to make sure the calipers are from an ‘S’ as they have carriers as well for the pads.
Did this on mine including braided lines and a fluid change, night and day different.
Did this on mine including braided lines and a fluid change, night and day different.
Thank you all so far:
I’ll look into the r56 brake swap! Sounds he way to go.
As a drivers car it is fantastic. Feels much more like a sports car that I ever imagined it would.
Headlights should be cleaned up this weekend - they’ve been bothering me and yes they are cloudy! As a daily not sure I could hack the ride and mpg, but if there’s backroads it’s worth it!
I’ll look into the r56 brake swap! Sounds he way to go.
As a drivers car it is fantastic. Feels much more like a sports car that I ever imagined it would.
Headlights should be cleaned up this weekend - they’ve been bothering me and yes they are cloudy! As a daily not sure I could hack the ride and mpg, but if there’s backroads it’s worth it!
I had an R53 Cooper S (Same colour too) Cracking little car. Brakes on mine were a bit spongy and the clutch was on its way out, but it made a nice noise.
Added a decent Alpine head unit, bonnet stripes and a few other bits. Never bothered with tuning it as I only owned it for about 10 months before moving it on.
I also owned a Mk2 Punto Sporting. Had 80bhp in a 1.2 and it was pretty zippy. Never had any problems with it and I owned it for 53k/4 years. Yes, its slow when comparing it to WRX, but compared to cars of a similar size/era, it was pretty good.
Added a decent Alpine head unit, bonnet stripes and a few other bits. Never bothered with tuning it as I only owned it for about 10 months before moving it on.
I also owned a Mk2 Punto Sporting. Had 80bhp in a 1.2 and it was pretty zippy. Never had any problems with it and I owned it for 53k/4 years. Yes, its slow when comparing it to WRX, but compared to cars of a similar size/era, it was pretty good.
Looks like its still on run flats? if so bin them off as they are mostly responsible for the harsh bouncy ride and terrible grip. My wife has had hers about 5 years (she had a Swift before too) and my mate recently got one to turn into a track car. His has good, non run flat tyres on it and its like driving a different car altogether.
At 26mpg do you just drive around town? Ours does 25-30 round town but on a run will be well into the 30s. We got 41mpg driving up to Snowdonia and that was just normal driving not concentrating on economy. On a typical country hoon its still usually 28-30.
One problem we had with ours was a leaking boot. Check the seals around the rear wiper, the bracket that has the handle and numberplate lights and the strip along the bottom of the rear window. Ours was leaking in the latter last winter and had half filled the area where the battery sits before I noticed it. Had to drain it, clean it all up and replace the wiring down there as it had all turned to rust and crumbled.
At 26mpg do you just drive around town? Ours does 25-30 round town but on a run will be well into the 30s. We got 41mpg driving up to Snowdonia and that was just normal driving not concentrating on economy. On a typical country hoon its still usually 28-30.
One problem we had with ours was a leaking boot. Check the seals around the rear wiper, the bracket that has the handle and numberplate lights and the strip along the bottom of the rear window. Ours was leaking in the latter last winter and had half filled the area where the battery sits before I noticed it. Had to drain it, clean it all up and replace the wiring down there as it had all turned to rust and crumbled.
RB Will said:
Looks like its still on run flats? if so bin them off as they are mostly responsible for the harsh bouncy ride and terrible grip. My wife has had hers about 5 years (she had a Swift before too) and my mate recently got one to turn into a track car. His has good, non run flat tyres on it and its like driving a different car altogether.
At 26mpg do you just drive around town? Ours does 25-30 round town but on a run will be well into the 30s. We got 41mpg driving up to Snowdonia and that was just normal driving not concentrating on economy. On a typical country hoon its still usually 28-30.
One problem we had with ours was a leaking boot. Check the seals around the rear wiper, the bracket that has the handle and numberplate lights and the strip along the bottom of the rear window. Ours was leaking in the latter last winter and had half filled the area where the battery sits before I noticed it. Had to drain it, clean it all up and replace the wiring down there as it had all turned to rust and crumbled.
To be fair, mine didn't do much better than 30mpg. The mpogreally does highlight their age. The modern equivalents probably do high 30s round town and maybe mid 40s on a run. At 26mpg do you just drive around town? Ours does 25-30 round town but on a run will be well into the 30s. We got 41mpg driving up to Snowdonia and that was just normal driving not concentrating on economy. On a typical country hoon its still usually 28-30.
One problem we had with ours was a leaking boot. Check the seals around the rear wiper, the bracket that has the handle and numberplate lights and the strip along the bottom of the rear window. Ours was leaking in the latter last winter and had half filled the area where the battery sits before I noticed it. Had to drain it, clean it all up and replace the wiring down there as it had all turned to rust and crumbled.
The weight of those wheels also do nothing for the ride. They are incredibly heavy and serious track day types will bin them straight away. However, I really liked the look of them and when I bought one, I wanted it to have those wheels. Angel eye lights also improve the look too.
bakerstreet said:
To be fair, mine didn't do much better than 30mpg. The mpogreally does highlight their age. The modern equivalents probably do high 30s round town and maybe mid 40s on a run.
Spot on. My R53 once hit a calculated 30.0 mpg on a fairly gentle early morning run at 80mph across France and into Germany, else it was in the late teens or early twenties everywhere else. My sisters new F56 Cooper S has the same power, but has averaged 38mpg or thereabouts all in town and city driving in the first 2k miles. 
Bought my 06 Checkmate in Feb, and while there's lots to like I'm surprised they are as popular as they are. Steering and clutch are very heavy on mine and the gearbox isn't brilliant either despite a fluid change. The engine is the star of the show of course.
I've done an evening at Bedford already and none of those things really matter in that scenario. I actually found the standard brakes fine for 2.5 hours on the track but I have an R56 conversion ready to go on because its cheapish and I've never done a brake upgrade. Requires new hoses as well as disks and pads as the R56 calipers have a different fitting.
Also, check your low speed fan works as I've just learnt it plays havoc with air con if it doesn't. Good luck with it all.
I've done an evening at Bedford already and none of those things really matter in that scenario. I actually found the standard brakes fine for 2.5 hours on the track but I have an R56 conversion ready to go on because its cheapish and I've never done a brake upgrade. Requires new hoses as well as disks and pads as the R56 calipers have a different fitting.
Also, check your low speed fan works as I've just learnt it plays havoc with air con if it doesn't. Good luck with it all.
Just bought one as a fun car as it was too much using a Vantage everyday or taking a Freelander
Cheap as chips to run, over 30mpg so far and less than £3k to buy, mine needs new ball joints (not sure if its upper / lower), will get another set of wheels, some new tyres and take it down Anglesey for a track day.
Enjoy it!
Cheap as chips to run, over 30mpg so far and less than £3k to buy, mine needs new ball joints (not sure if its upper / lower), will get another set of wheels, some new tyres and take it down Anglesey for a track day.
Enjoy it!
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