i have been a lurker for a long long time.. I haven't auto crossed for about 13 years, and after my daughter brushed a telephone pole with my passat i decided to let her keep it (insurance paid out) and buy myself something more fun.
for me fun means slow car fast, but a "fast" slow car. I did i my research and decided on a either an 05, 06 or 12/13 mini cooper s I liked both the r53 and the r56, and I just wanted to find the best one I could. i found this 12 with about 70 k on it for a little less than 8k. seems like a good price. its super clean has every option i needed. wife said I could have any 4 seat care with an automatic in a price range so its an automatic, but i have to say it works pretty well with the flappy paddles, an din sport mode the engine pops and crackles. the openly thing i didn't like was the black wheels. wife said you sound like the people on hgtv who complain about wallpaper. go get some wheels. :). (oh iut has the 16s no the 17s.
my son and i are nto sure what color it is he said its darkmetalicolivegreenish. but it might just be grey
so whats next. fluids pads etc... and tunes.
it actually has a warrantee on it right now so i won't mess with it too much
plan for the tunes
in phases
i have a nice big JL audio i got on ebay that i will use to power the door speakers. 75 wafts for each woofers and 75 watts for each mid and tweet. this will be a challenge as i work around the factory Harmon kardon system. it has a 8 channel amp. I "simply" want to replace 4 of the 15 watt channels with 4 75 watt channels.
then i will replace those speaker with a set of focal components + some other 3 inch mids
then add another amp fully active 6 channels
then add and a very very small sub.
leaving the head unit for last. the factory stereo is heavily integrated into the dash it has bluetooth and plays my ipod so its last on the list.
ther is not a lot of space in the mini and i want to retain as much as I can. I have done big boom
by the way I have nowhere near the skill of most of the people on the board, but i am not afraid of electrics.
i thought people might be interested. i also decided to share what I am leaning because i after asking a lot of questions on the mini boards i have had to find the answers myself.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
ouch.
In reply to scooterfrog :
Welcome out of the lurker state and into being a contributor.
Sounds like you have a solid plan. The car looks really clean (at least on internet pics)
Welcome. That's a clean looking MINI.
I look forward to seeing this. Bigger stereo systems are always intriguing.
I see three letters in your future...S...M...F.
does a tune or access port put me in street mod f
A warranty for $8000??? Not bad!
In reply to jfryjfry :
it really was a great find.
huge stack of receipts, the options i needed, none i didn't want except high end radio. has the small wheels (16 that's good)
an update
The car is grey. i have driven th wheels off it and i LOVE it.
The only thing that needed to be changed was the tunes.
Here is what i did. I will add the pictures below.
Removed the stock amplifier
Cut off the amplifier plug, Their is no reverse harness it has 24 pins.
i am using all of the factory wires form the trunk to the speakers for now. i will need to run some new wires for the tweeters son.
Connected rca leads the head unit front outputs (front inputs to the amp factory) at the amp
installed a Rockford Fostgate DSRI with the universal harness. This is an integration unit / dsp with up to 4 inputs and 8 outputs, time alignment, active crossovers and 33 band parametric eq per channel. i hadn't started with this but it makes things MUCH easier 10/10 would use again
Connected to this are 3 amps. a JL 300/4 an JL 300/2 and a small mtx 30 x 2. (it will drive the tweeters in the a pillars very very soon)
a 12 inch pioneer small box sub is getting 300 watts from the 300 / 2
75x2 to the focal mid basses in the doors.
now 75x 2 to the Dayton reference 4 inch speakers and factory tweeters in the top of the door and a pillar. the tweets will be replaced with the focal tweets when i get off my ass and hook tem up.
some pics soon
In reply to scooterfrog :
Here you can see the 2 jl amps stacked next to the subwoofer. I have since replaced the bottom amp 300/4 with a silver one. I used threaded rod to stack them
A 3/4 inch plywood bard sits on top of th subwoofer and amps and comes right up the the level when the seats fold down making a flat floor, it is that too is covered in black carpet that matches the car
In reply to scooterfrog :
my messy wiring has since been cleaned up. new rca cables also all match
In reply to scooterfrog :
here you can see the 4 gauge power wire and fuse holder. first real problem the live hinge for the battery cover broke off. I am looking or a junk yard repalcememtn but even new its not epxensive
passenger side. door speakers panels came off easily
mid bass fit great, 6.5 inch instead of the 5 ad a quarter inch stock. the brown goo is rope caulk. it makes a nice seal and is easier to use than anything i have found.
these are from the focal performance series. the midrange is a Dayton reference in aluminum with a phase plug to help dispersion
the only other issue i had was that the midrange speakers are not a standard size. so i have bought what was called a 4 inch but it didn't fit. instead of taking the proper time to build plates and adapters, i just did a break out. i took the old speaker cut the basket and cone and used the mounting flange for an adaptor.
its an accepted practice, but not best practice.
i could replace it with a bigger speaker, but i wanted to stay with a smaller speaker to reduce what is called beaming. the larger the speaker the more it needs to point at your face for a as teh frequencies get higher so the smaller speaker will sound better (image better) in that position than one one size up. it also allows me to run a higher (low pass) crossover and then a higher hi pass on the tweeter so i can handle more power. the smaller speaker avoids the need to put the mid range up at the top of the dash.
this the same reason a midbass will sound great in the bottom of the doors or a sub in hte trunk. lower frequencies are less directional, and the smaller the ration of the sound wave to the cone the diameter better dispersion.
Ok I upgraded the amps.
Here you can see 3 jl slash amps stacked
Mids and tweets on the bottom75 per 4 channel
Sub on the middle 500 watts
Midbasses on the top 150 2
It does not get too hot.
