Mini R56 JCW

[scotiamr2t]

Standard wheels all day long for me. Doesn't suit the turini's

 

[MarkCup]

F***-a-bout, what a palava. You certainly pick 'em Dave!

 

[Daz...]

That bloke looks proper old school, no wonder he got the lockers out!

Personally I prefer the original wheels.

 

[Smiffyboy1990]

Prefer the standard Alloys. Turini's don't look that bad either tbf.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[Sir_Dave]

F***-a-bout, what a palava. You certainly pick 'em Dave!

Yup, bit of bad luck on this one really, although i guess, because i bought at the bottom end of the market, its not the end of the world from a £££ perspective. Id be fuming if id bought it from a Mini dealer for £11k lol. The chap spends 3 days a week at BMW/Jag/Volvo/Audi apparently, they all use the same sh1tty locking nuts!

That bloke looks proper old school, no wonder he got the lockers out!

Yeah, worked as a welder at Rolls Royce for years, then got fed up with his Volvo V70 locking wheel nuts being c*nts to get off, so started doing this instead. Is now a fell time job lol, his phone rang 5 times in the 90 mins i was there, on a Sunday morning!!

Re: the wheels, glad im not going mad, the OEM do look far better 😂

 

[_Tom]

With the front lower the turinis will look awesome imo

 

[CrippsCorner]

OEM wheels imo.

I love these OZ wheels on the R56. Actually prefer them in black but it's harder to see detail so...

 

[Stefan.]

Love those oz wheels

 

[James Mk1]

Think the Turinis look better, but not by far mind, OEM ones also suit it nicely

 

[Daz.]

No no no no no to Turinis, well those exact ones anyway.

The oem wheels are a great design.

 

[Slammed172]

OEM certainly look a lot better. Of course a drop from the coil overs will help matters out on the Turinis.

Are you not worries about the tick of death and coking issues ? After sending you a few messages about R56's a while back, after much more research they seem to be a ticking time bomb and one of the worst reliable cars out...

 

[Budgie]

The people of CS have turned against Turinis?

WUT??

 

[Sir_Dave]

I love these OZ wheels on the R56. Actually prefer them in black but it's harder to see detail so...

These ones, are lush:

Are you not worries about the tick of death and coking issues ? After sending you a few messages about R56's a while back, after much more research they seem to be a ticking time bomb and one of the worst reliable cars out...

This one had the timing tensioner changed & a de-coke just before i bought it.
Bar the clutch/flywheel, which i knew about, it seems to be fine. Goes like stink lol.

The people of CS have turned against Turinis?
WUT??

I know, must be a glitch in the Matrix

Perhaps if i fitted Fiesta St or Golf R wheels it would still fit in with the CS.net entry requirements ...

 

[Martin.]

Man maths at its finest

 

[Sir_Dave]

So i get back from 2 weeks away in Sri Lanka and its the Mini that i grab the keys to, not the M3 :tongueclosed:
Couple more odds & sods bought whilst i was away, hopefully collection/delivery will occur in the next couple of days:
"Lounge" leather rear seats - hate the non-matching fabric rear seat, will need to re-colour the white piping, but should look far better.
NM Engineering catch can - to help avoid coking
AEM strut brace - just well, because, it will look nice i guess lol.
Hopefully ill get that lot fitted, along with the Ohlins/Airtec FMIC over the bank holiday weekend.
The whirring from the clutch release bearing/judder from the flywheel is now pretty bad, so now seriously pondering whether to fit a standard clutch/flywheel when they are next on offer from ECP/GSF (£900), a Helix SMF/organic clutch (£1.3k) or go the whole hog and put in a Helix/Quaife diff (£2.1k). I am very wary of how cr4p the standard stuff is however, the car is on its 2 clutch/flywheel at 70k miles!! Powerflex front wishbone bushes will also be done at the same time (again, they need doing fairly urgently), & the standard downpipe/cat will be going back on.

 

[Daz.]

Go mental on it!
I think you should sell the M3 and throw every penny at the Mini

 

[Stefan.]

The m3 will be sold, dave is just making subtle hints

I think you are mad but whatever makes you happy lol

 

[Sir_Dave]

Latest updates, nothing too exciting, but nice all the same.
From:

To:

From:

To:

The Ohlins & Airtec FMIC will hopefully be going on this weekend.

 

[Stay Puft]

These have never taken my fancy but this one looks lovely! Spending a fair few £ too!

 

[Djw John]

These have never taken my fancy but this one looks lovely! Spending a fair few £ too!

That's cos he's saving money on fixing the other one...

 

[Sir_Dave]

These have never taken my fancy but this one looks lovely! Spending a fair few £ too!

Yeah, a few pennies spent, but nothing that i cant get back via selling the parts on again, i only tend to buy 2nd hand/bargains remember ...
Barring the clutch/flywheel of course, but that was factored in when i bought it originally :tonguewink:

That's cos he's saving money on fixing the other one...

Ha ha, the other one is just sat around looking grumpy tbh.
Thats a car that i never really want to sell, but dont really want it at the moment either.
Its a car that needs to go full hardcore, needing a garage, & a trailer to tow it to trackdays now i think.
The R56 is a car that does everything ok, bit like a Golf Gti, but without the space.

 

[RMDavis]

That AEM intake looks fantastic mate! I presume it works in conjunction with the bonnet scoop?

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[Cookie]

Is it for sale yet?

 

[Sir_Dave]

That AEM intake looks fantastic mate! I presume it works in conjunction with the bonnet scoop?

Thanks! Its a beautifully engineered piece of kit tbh, as i put it together you can really see how well designed/thought out it all is compared to alternatives. As standard (as i'm sure you're aware), the scoop doesn't do anything at all, so the AEM channels the air directly from it directly into the top of the airbox - hence why you can see the filter when the bonnet is open.

Is it for sale yet? :tongueout:

Nope. Probably wont be for a while i don't think, its nice being back in what is effectively a relatively simple old skool hot hatch 😌
I also love the fact it does 40 mpg and costs £12 a month to tax :tongueclosed:
Must be getting old.

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

Thats coming on very nicely!

Best colour for a Mini, too!

 

[Jimbob 2705]

Saw a lowered Red JCW R56 in my local town today, and man didn't it look awesome!

They've really grown on me recently, although they do look quite a big car (for a Mini!)

Much difference between the R53 and R56 when it comes to handling?

 

[Sir_Dave]

Saw a lowered Red JCW R56 in my local town today, and man didn't it look awesome!
They've really grown on me recently, although they do look quite a big car (for a Mini!)
Much difference between the R53 and R56 when it comes to handling?

Yes, they really need lowering, sit soo high from the factory, quite ridiculous in fact!!
Standard for standard, the R56 is far better, it uses the rear suspension setup from the R53 GP1, so is better than all the other R53 out of the box imho. The adjustability on the limit is similar to the Clio i think, you can steer it on the throttle with lift off oversteer. Modified? Difficult to tell, my R53 has damping adjustable Meister coilovers, front camber plates/RCA's etc, but the R56 will shortly have a set of Ohlins Road & Track coilovers fitted with the GP2 alignment settings. I expect it to be very good tbh, but it should be for the price of the parts lol!!

This weekend, i completed one more part of the jigsaw, the Airtec FMIC. As per usual, previous bodges were apparent, with cable ties in places where there should be screws, air/nothing where there should be plastic fasteners & only one of the corner undertrays being fitted. Ill be ordering some replacements shortly, along with a GP2 undertray i think. Generally though, the car reminds me why i dont tend to buy cars that have been modified, then put back to standard

Tiny standard IC:

Airtec, quite a bit bigger:

And my favourite bit? Because its black, super OEM modding:

Now to finally decide on the clutch & flywheel ...

 

[_Tom]

The original I/c is tiny..lol! Mind you, it is quite deep but still.

 

[MarkCup]

LOL at that intercooler!

It must be just about ready to sell on now?

 

[Waitey]

I think the volume of the OEM and Airtec are nearly the same though.

 

[Sir_Dave]

LOL at that intercooler!
It must be just about ready to sell on now?

Ha ha, no chance. Love this thing!!
More OEM style modding at the weekend ... a 10mm drop using Ohlins Road & Track Coilovers.
During fitting:

All done, marginal drop compared to other brands, but meh, nobody complains about the Megane Trophy-R:

First impressions are very much WOW. Quite how a coilover manages to give such a controlled & firm ride without any crashiness is amazing, potholes & speed bumps that in the R53 on the Meisters would send a jolt through the car are barely noticed. The Sachs on the 182 Trophy were very good, but did have a certain roughness when the roads got sh1tty. As a road setup, i can see this being very very good, whether it'll work on track with the stiffer settings is yet to be seen, but from the quality of the manufacturing, the complete lack of knocks & rattles after fitting & impressive first impressions, im sure they will be more than fine!

And with the other 2, fleet rationalisation needs to occur i think.

 

[Smiffyboy1990]

I genuinally love this car, what Suspension does the GP2 use ?

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

[Daz...]

This car is getting better all the time.

 

[Jimbob 2705]

This looks awesome on the Turinis and slightly lower, bloody love it - planning to get it mapped?

Also, may be time to sell the R53 and put the money into this one...?

 

[Sir_Dave]

I genuinally love this car, what Suspension does the GP2 use ?

The GP2 uses Bilstein, which i was considering, but they all seem to have issues with the front dampers rattling, so i decided against them. Next choice was BC Racing, partly as ive got Meister R's on the R53, but secondly as Orranje had 10% off, but im glad i waited & went for the Ohlins. I've now got them set to -15 clicks from full hard (halfway through the 0-30) range & they are perfect for day to day, such a smooth ride!!

This car is getting better all the time.

Thanks :up:

This looks awesome on the Turinis and slightly lower, bloody love it - planning to get it mapped?
Also, may be time to sell the R53 and put the money into this one...?

Mapping may happen, although im a tad concerned that a lot of the Stage 2 R56's having failed pistons, so im not sure id do that unless i forged the pistons/rods tbh. The standard power/torque, plus whatever i have with AEM induction/Airtec IC is really rather good in all seriousness, on the road i certainly never think "oh i could do with more". As childish as it sounds, i also love the dump valve hiss & pops on overrun 😌
R53 wise, Sarahs dad wants to rebuild the top end & use it for track days, so we'll see what happens, from my perspective, im going to be taking all the cosmetic expensive parts off & selling them over the coming weeks. Number plate wise, this happened yesterday .... so my focus is now on the newer car:

Clutch wise, ive send back my OEM clutch to GSF & have asked Lohen to let me know when the Helix Organic Clutch/Single Mass Flywheels & Quaifes are back in stock, so October is going to be a big month. Cannot wait!!

 

[Waitey]

The GP2 uses Bilstein, which i was considering, but they all seem to have issues with the front dampers rattling, so i decided against them. Next choice was BC Racing, partly as ive got Meister R's on the R53, but secondly as Orranje had 10% off, but im glad i waited & went for the Ohlins. I've now got them set to -15 clicks from full hard (halfway through the 0-30) range & they are perfect for day to day, such a smooth ride!!

Thanks :up:

Mapping may happen, although im a tad concerned that a lot of the Stage 2 R56's having failed pistons, so im not sure id do that unless i forged the pistons/rods tbh. The standard power/torque, plus whatever i have with AEM induction/Airtec IC is really rather good in all seriousness, on the road i certainly never think "oh i could do with more". As childish as it sounds, i also love the dump valve hiss & pops on overrun 😌
R53 wise, Sarahs dad wants to rebuild the top end & use it for track days, so we'll see what happens, from my perspective, im going to be taking all the cosmetic expensive parts off & selling them over the coming weeks. Number plate wise, this happened yesterday .... so my focus is now on the newer car:

Clutch wise, ive send back my OEM clutch to GSF & have asked Lohen to let me know when the Helix Organic Clutch/Single Mass Flywheels & Quaifes are back in stock, so October is going to be a big month. Cannot wait!!

Call Helix direct, will beat any garages quote.

 

[Sir_Dave]

Last Saturday was the annual ClioSport rolling road meet at Surrey Rolling Road.
Rather amusingly, this year there was only 5 clio's out of 22 cars 😂
Think i need to get my camber arms on the rear (its over -2), bit too much negative for my liking, i prefer it to be more like -1.

Unfortunately i didnt run it before, so have no idea on the baseline, but for just bolt-ons, im very pleased with the result. In all seriousness, for the extra worry/pain of a remap to gain 30bhp, i wont be bothering. With the new clutch/SMF/Quaife, it'll be more than good enough :up:

 

[Smiffyboy1990]

That's so impressive for Just Bolt-ons.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[alistairolsen]

That'll go well!

 

[Daz_RT_04]

@Sir_Dave Are these much bigger than the R53 inside?

They look much fresher than the R53, better built? Less rattles? :imp::imp: