Baxter - MINI V

Dear Minitorquers,

It's been a long 20 months since I last darkened your doorway (that's what she said).

I'm sure many of you have wondered where I went or at least noticed that less wheels were for sale than normal.

As it turns out, the rumours of paternity suits, government conspiracies, gender reassignment and living in a bin were all (mostly) untrue.

In fact all I've done is move to Sydney, get a new job, set up home by the beach and as of last week, pick myself up another mini.

Lacking a suitable montage for the occasion, I've dug up some old MT videos from our trip to Le Mans showing the sort of banter that makes this place great...

Attacking Forbes, Minionesam and Oli M in a shit Freelander...


Lord F falling asleep...


A man touching some children...


A GT40 giving it the beans...


Singing (badly) whenever possible...


Racing some men in a GT3 and watching them get arrested...


Going to Le Mans...


Lord F leaving his phone on the roof during a drag race...


Cute toll booth wimmin...


Getting smashed, setting things on fire and Ryan rapping...

Aaaaaand back to mini's...

In 2009 I picked up an ultra low mileage R53 to replace the old VW's that had been raping my bank account for the last few years...



It was very nice but the modding bug had bitten and old habits die hard, so I stuck a few different sets of wheels on it...















Unfortunately the car had endless problems and was put back to stock...



To be traded for GP0721...



The GP was fantastic but I just couldn't live with parking it on the street in Glasgow city centre every night so I sold it to Ryan K...



Who abused Forbes in it...


Then broke it...


Then destroyed it...

In the meantime I picked up another R53, just cheaper and loaded with toys...







I even convinced my mum to get a mini...






This was much more like it but alas I lost my job and the only sensible thing to do was sell up...

And combine Royster's turbo shell...





With O'Dwyers freshly built challenge engine to create Vlad...





Next time i'll remember to upgrade the driveshafts before driving home...



And a safety tip - don't try combine 285hp and runflats, it's fucking scary...


After months of searching and with no job in sight I decided to move to OZ which meant no mini for a while :sad:

Eventually I picked up a very sad looking Ibiza GTI as a daily and did the customary wheels and coils ...



After a few months I had some coin behind me and decided that due to my monster commute and the mental cost of German cars here to pick up an XR5 turbo (Feckus ST to those of you in the UK).

I actually quite liked it...



Especially with a tune, IC and filter...



Although a Toyota Hiace liked it a bit too much...



After a while I realised that altough it made a great noise, held a tonne of shit from Ikea and went well enough, it never had the character, steering feel or community of my previous minis.

The shortlist for a replacement was, well, short. My visa/no Aussie credit history makes it hard to finance anything too mental and luxury car tax rules out most of the rest.

It came down to:

Polo GTI - shit engine
Golf GTI - boring - £30k
Rocco R - missus thinks they look like a Volvo C30 - £40k
Meg 265 - 5 dealers in OZ - £35k
370Z - pornographer's car - £45k
FPV Falcon V8 -£50k
R55 JCW - missus hates them
R56 GP - £50k, yes really
R53 - I knew it would have to be the perfect colour, spec and less than 6 years old for my company car rules. Surely there's no chance one would just appear at the last minute!

This brings me to mini number 5 and my current toy...ladies (who are we kidding) and gents I give you, Baxter...



22,019 miles if you care...



The token V-power camera phone shot 10mins later...



The token give up on runflats and fit Yokohama AD08's 12 hours later camera phone shot...



Ugh...



Laser alignment...



A quick blast up to the blue mountains to break him in...



Today's trip, chasing the sunset up to Palm Beach where they film Home and Away - Closer each daaaaay...



















































33mpg so far, BIG improvement on the Feckus...



It's good to be home :thumbup:

So 300 miles into Baxter's ownership, a few observations:

- It's awesome being back in a mini :cools:

- He feels totally solid, both the drivetrain and the interior. Right up there with my old GP

- Issues...the engine is a little tappety from cold and the steering rack creaks when he hasn't be used in a couple of days. Not the end of the world

- It's time for the modding to begin!

Given that we've just set up home in OZ funds aren't unlimited, that means no new wheels...for now :blushing:

As a starting point this month i'm looking at ordering:

- ITG filter - loved these on my old cars
- Decent oil for a service - what are people using these days?
- Dimple - only heard good things
- M7 thermostat - necessary before summer hits here?
- Stubby aerial - RC OEM aerial is pissing me off
- A better armrest - we've got the cheap slidey one that rattles the ENTIRE time
- Scangauge - safety first
- A new steering wheel - the missus really wants another full leather JCW but they're like gold dust

I'm sure you'll notice coils aren't on their just now but i've run OEM, JCW, Koni, KW V1 and KW V3 setups before and i'd much rather save for a decent setup with camber plates, drop links and control arms than slam it on AP's and complain the whole time. Just now Bilstein B16's look like the best option for my occasional track day plans :drool:

As shipping costs to OZ are a pain in the arse most of my parts will probably come from the States, Out Motoring and Way Motor Works seem to have the best prices but i'll drop Lohen a line too and see how their shipping rates compare.