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Looks good - I picked up a r56 cooper last month & been looking at new wheels, the 15" with fat tyres suit the minis well, why did you go for 55 instead of 65 on the side profile, space for lowering?
mcJ78-
Oh nice! Do post pics! I went with the 55 as it was the closest I could get to the stock circumference. I was keen to keep the gearing and speedo as right as I could!
I would have liked to have gone bigger as ideally I'd like to fill the arches with less lowering but it would have bothered me to have the speedo reading lower than actual speed, whatever about reading a little higher...
Nahguavkire
Mechanically it's good * touches wood again * but I suspect the clutch will want doing in the not terribly distant future once the power increases...
The only issue I've had was the alternator failed which isn't really a big deal on a fourteen year old car. Exhaust is a little bit crust but passed the NCT (MOT in Ireland) fine, I have an upcoming update on that though in a future post.
There is an ever so slight oil (and possibly coolant although the coolant tank is fine other than the usual discolouration) leak which has me topping up by about 300ml once a week I'd say, it's not enough to leave an oil stain anywhere I park regularly so it may just be using a bit of oil anyway which would be a shocker for a warm-ish petrol engine I guess but it's on the to do list more to be able to tidy up the engine bay and have everything looking swell at some stage...
I'll try and get up to speed on the updates as quick as I can because I have a lot more done than I've posted here including the bonnet drillium!
The headunit is great, I just ordered a harness and adapter to go with it and plugged it straight in as far as I can remember, a little bit fiddly but nothing complicated. Once I setup the bluetooth on it I haven't looked back since. It sounds great with Spotify and works perfectly well for phonically although I do have a Quadlock phone holder and I use the phone to change tracks and make calls as the buttons on the headunit are more fiddly than just using the phone screen I find.
I have an in depth plan for bouncy bits that I'll unveil soon but it's rather comprehensive and as for the brakes I haven't upgraded anything except for the grooved and dimpled rotors, the brakes are ok but not superb, I wouldn't like to be tracking with them I think... I'm not sure if there is a big brake upgrade I can do that will fit under my current wheels, there is definitely a bit of investigation to be done to find a solution that will solve that problem as I don't want to go to bigger wheels.
If you're planning a proper fast road/ track toy I'd say it would be worth looking into lightening as much as possible with stripping out interior and I'd say 16" wheels would be the best bet in order to have some space for bigger brakes!
In short; get one! :)