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tweedbean's R53 MCS

72316 Views 261 Replies 63 Participants Last post by  keano, 
tweedbean
10
As project orange was completed, I have decided to start a new thread around my car showing where it started, what it looks like now and what my future plans are. This is less of a project and more of an ongoing thing.

Its a 2004 facelift MINI Cooper S. I was bitten by the modding bug after a year of ownership and I haven't stopped since.

First MINI - Dark Silver Cooper S 2004

When I bought it:


0781_3 by tweedbean, on Flickr


0eaf_3 by tweedbean, on Flickr
Here are my two previous MINI's. Currently MINI-less, but will hopefully pick up another one next summer:

Modified for looks and power, ended up with 260bhp.

Look 1


MINI by tweedbean, on Flickr


The best my r53 looked by tweedbean, on Flickr


5708585662_358f9d649c_o by tweedbean, on Flickr

Magazine Feature:


P1020872 by tweedbean, on Flickr


Look 2


P1030454 by tweedbean, on Flickr


I really liked this shot for some reason by tweedbean, on Flickr


GTT strut brace fitted, picture also shows my carbon fibre M7 air diverter by tweedbean, on Flickr


It had a great spec:

- 2004 Facelift R53 MINI Cooper S

Engine:

- Thumper TPR1 Peformance Head
- GP Intercooler
- DaveF CAI
- Milltek Catback Exhaust
- Janspeed Manifold with decat pipe
- KMT 17% Pulley
- Newman Cam
- 450cc Porsche Injectors
- GTT Oil Catch Can
- P-Torque Custom Remap
- SFS Snoot boots

Performance:

- 260 BHP
- 215 lb/ft Torque

Gearbox:

- Six speed manual
- KMT Carbon Clutch
- Retro fitted MINI LSD

Suspension:

- GTT Upper Strut Brace
- OMP lower strut brace
- Cabrio braces in Purple
- GTT Rear Strut brace
- Meister R Coilovers
- Lower SPC Rear Control Arms
- Polybushed rear upper control arms in red
- Superflex Polybushes for the engine mounts, gearbox mounts, rear control arms
and steering rack

Brakes:

- Front Custom R56 4 pot Brembos in Black with gold brembo decal
- Front Drilled and grooved front discs
- R56 Cooper S Brake lines
- Rear Cooper S brakes in black
- MOTUL RBF600 Racing Brake Fluid

Wheels and tyres:

- Road Use: Custom 17” Purple BBS RZ's 17x7 et37
- Road Tyres: Toyo Proxes T1 R's 205 45 17
- Track Wheels: Custom 17” Black BBS RZ's 17x7 et37
- Track tyres R888's 205 45 17

Interior:

- Orranje Performance GP Style Seat Delete Panels in matt black
- Sparco Milano's Full Leather Seat
- GP Rear seat delete kit in matt black
- Black Sparco Harnesses for track use
- Black Alcantara Roof liner with satin black fixture and fittings
- RKDE Black Alcantara downtubes with silver stitch
- RKDE Black Alcantara gear stick gaiter with silver stitch
- RKDE Black Alcantara handbrake gaiter with silver stitch
- De-chromed interior with black gauge/cupholder rings
- JCW Carbon fibre gearknob
- JCW Carbon fibre handbrake grip
- Front Speakers - Focal 165V 6.5" Components + tweeters.
- Rear Speakers - Focal 690CA 6x9's
- 10" Kenwood subwoofer
- Auto Acoustics Stealth Box
- Kenwood amp for subwoofer
- Pioneer AVH-P5000DVD motorised DVD screen with Bluetooth and iPod integration
- 30gb ipod video + 30gb iphone 3GS connected to the DVD player
- Scanguage 2

Exterior:

- Orranje Performance Rear Bumper GP Style Inserts -Black
- Orranje Performance GP Style Spoiler
- Orranje Performance Brake Ducts
- Orranje Performance GP Style Rear bumper trim
- Front Aero Bumper
- Aero Sideskirts
- Joey modded headlights - All black
- Colour Coded Aero Grills
- Colour Coded Headlight Rings
- Black side vents
- Black Wing Mirror Caps
- Black De-locked door handles
- Colour Coded Custom Cooper Petrol Cap
- Rear Road Legal Pressed Metal Number Plates from Dubmeister
- Offset front numberplate on a custom removable mount
- De-badged rear end
- Rear Wiper Delete
- Entire exterior de-chromed including gloss black belt line and rear lights

Look 3 - before being traded in


The last picture of my R53 Cooper S before being tradeded in by tweedbean, on Flickr
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tweedbean
19
After my first mod, a minimania CAI, I couldnt stop, by early 2010, the car looked like this with its Red GP intercooler, minimania CAI, OMP strut braces, lots of chrome and new stripes:

DSC02507 by tweedbean, on Flickr

DSC03451 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Then in early Jan 2010, I needed three new runflats and it worked out cheaper to buy a used set of BBS RZ's of Ryank with T1R's and this is where it began. Two weeks later I bought my Sparco Milano seats.

And from then on Project Orange was born.

Project Orange 2010:

The plan was to introduce an accent colour and make the car more standout with some changes here and there. A year later ands its amazing how changing wing mirror caps to orange ended up how it has with all the interior and exterior changes, as well as the engine mods that definitely were part of the original plan.

First step was to remove the chrome with colour coding the headlight rings, fitting an aero bumper and cc'd aero grill:
in progress
P2073815 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Joey mod in progress
DSC04549 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Engine Mods:

450cc injectors
DSC04520 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Kavs 17% Pulley

DSC04526 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Me fitting my newman cam

DSC04543 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Custom Remap at P-Torque

DSC04622 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Flames :)
So Childish by tweedbean, on Flickr

More flames :)

Picture 8 by tweedbean, on Flickr

At this point the car looked like this:

DSC04981 by tweedbean, on Flickr

The next thing was to get the wheels powder coated to give it a more aggressive look

DSC05445 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Drag Racing 2010:

Now it had its aggressive look at power, it was time to test it, firstly at Shakespeare raceway, followed by 3 visit to RWYB days at Santa Pod in 2010

39939_453961230972_513835972_6760366_8383239_n by tweedbean, on Flickr


41217_453967795972_513835972_6760623_4954361_n by tweedbean, on Flickr

Later in 2010 I had more custom bits for the interior like the alcantara with black, silver and orange stitching, Rich also made me these awesome steering wheel inserts in alcantara:

DSC05839 by tweedbean, on Flickr


DSC05835 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Track Use 2011:

Then in 2011 I decided I needed to take this thing on the track so we arranged a track day at Curborough with yamMINI. Despite being the only MINI with out coilovers, my car held its own.


P1010270 by tweedbean, on Flickr


_DSC0009 by tweedbean, on Flickr


183657_10150118918838534_568173533_6449774_2065544_n by tweedbean, on Flickr
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tweedbean
5
March 2011

The last few mods are the GP Spoiler and challenge brake ducts:


Rear 1/4 close ps by tweedbean, on Flickr


P1010451 by tweedbean, on Flickr


P1010370 by tweedbean, on Flickr

Mods to go in over the next month:

Black Alcantara headliner and wrapped pillars

MINI LSD

738095ac by tweedbean, on Flickr

Kavs Carbon Clutch

199472_10150111004173372_518313371_6696294_1678983_n by tweedbean, on Flickr
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R56_Ollie
Looking at this makes me wish i brought an R53! Wicked car man.
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richcoopS
Unbelievable transformation dude. Its come such a long way in such a short space of time. Any plans to do something with the suspension? Also how did you calculate your bhp? Up from whp or down from bhp. Mine ran 202.5whp and never really sure which % to calculate up with! Using 16% myself to make 235bhp... but could be wrong - yours is about 19%.

Looks epic :thumbup1:
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Jack
really like this car, massive difference from when you first got it. I would deffo revmove the stripes, would look a lot cleaner without them, and less totalmini.
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tweedbean
richcoopS said:
Unbelievable transformation dude. Its come such a long way in such a short space of time. Any plans to do something with the suspension? Also how did you calculate your bhp? Up from whp or down from bhp. Mine ran 202.5whp and never really sure which % to calculate up with! Using 16% myself to make 235bhp... but could be wrong - yours is about 19%.
Click to expand...
I didn't calculate the figures myself, both figures are from the dyno printout.

Suspension wise, coilovers are a near future mod but at the moment I'm spending less on the car while Orranje Performance is getting going.

jack_p92 said:
really like this car, massive difference from when you first got it. I would deffo revmove the stripes, would look a lot cleaner without them, and less totalmini.
Click to expand...
People were doing stripes before totalmini was a twinkle in the creators eye ;)

Im happy with the stripes, and trust me, i've been around MT long enough, I have had the best/worst of MT telling me to get rid of the stripes.

I never expected to change the car so much, as I have never been into modding cars until I bought the MINI.
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lordf
and yet the stripes remain, its what stops me loving this car it just looks fussy with them on
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tweedbean
Jamesf said:
and yet the stripes remain, its what stops me loving this car it just looks fussy with them on
Click to expand...
One day James you will love it ;) for now I will have to put up with love from the Rich's. On a serious note, we were discussing this yesterday while fitting the ducts and I think once it goes on coilovers, the stripes may go as will the orange in the headlights but for now im concentrating more are testing fitting all the parts for Orranje and perfecting the designs.

Useful testing such as we had a couple of people ask what speeds we have tested the GP style spoiler at, and I can confirm that on a private road we managed to test our spoiler at 125mph, confirmed via GPS, for 10 seconds before having to slow down due to lack of road.
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MLJ
Love your car James, the stripes do look a lot better in person that your pictures. I personally wouldnt have them but I know you like them and your pictures don’t reflect how good they look. I think if you were lowered considerable more they'd work ever better pulling off a racy look.
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tweedbean
MLJ said:
Love your car James, the stripes do look a lot better in person that your pictures. I personally wouldnt have them but I know you like them and your pictures don’t reflect how good they look. I think if you were lowered considerable more they'd work ever better pulling off a racy look.
Click to expand...
Thanks Mikey.

Everyones welcome to their opinion, thats what forums like MT and yam are all about. We dont all have to agree, as long as the owner is happy, hence why I dont have a fanny fit like some of the newbies that turn up on here and get offended when someone says they dont like their car. If you post your car in a public forum, you have to expect that not everyone will like it, especially when you go for marmite mods like plastering your car in orange ;)
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mullenmini
tweedbean said:
Useful testing such as we had a couple of people ask what speeds we have tested the GP style spoiler at, and I can confirm that on a private road we managed to test our spoiler at 125mph, confirmed via GPS, for 10 seconds before having to slow down due to lack of road.
Click to expand...

I can confirm it does it for longer :lol:
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MLJ
You can do speed testing, I can do crash testing if required :lol:
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tweedbean
mullenmini said:
I can confirm it does it for longer :lol:
Click to expand...
Im glad your enjoying it :)

MLJ said:
You can do speed testing, I can do crash testing if required :lol:
Click to expand...
::getcoat::
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lordf
MLJ said:
You can do speed testing, I can do crash testing if required :lol:
Click to expand...
youve already done that to all the GP parts i think :lol:
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JamesM
:p

looking great JB!
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TDLC
One of the nicest R53s on here for sure. The vinyl is not to my taste, but at least it's part of a coherent style.
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jayxx83
This is one of the best looking r53s IMO. The stripes are so different and look the tits! I think when it's on coils the stripes will work even better
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lama
Certainly one of the most inspiring Minis I have ever seen!For sure this will be a guide for my Dark Grey MCS project!
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tweedbean
4
Right time has come to finish off the interior, its currently a work in progress, that should be completed by next weekend hopefully.

Thanks to Rich, Rich and Oli, we managed to wrap two headliners and paint all the fixtures and fittings Satin black. Today I reassembled the interior and sprayed a couple of extras. Next came the orange Orranje GP style delete kit panels. Ive cut a new pair of interior panels to fit these as the others need to go into Rich's car.

The car feels really moody inside now and will be even better with some tints. Next job is to wrap all the pillars, once I pick up the material from the lockup.

Hopefully I should have an update on coilovers this week.



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