A pair of “MINI” Italian Stallions

These two gal's are part of the final “Supercharged” MINI's to leave Europe as such they were given the red carpet treatment on their way out. These are known as MINI Cooper S JCW GP; which means they were Mini's standard performance offering aka the “S” and then were handed over to John Cooper Works aka “JCW” for addition performance enhancements and then finally shipped to Italy to be massaged even further after which they were shipped all over the world which is how we came to refer to them as the MINI “Italian Stallion”. The next generation of performance Mini's have now been turbo charged so these gals are truly reflective of the end of an era

During the various stages of their build they received significant head work, supercharger enhancements, limited slip differential, JCW performance suspension and JCW brakes including items only to be found on this very limited run of gals such as aluminum control arms, unique exterior body panels and a full under body panel system, the rear seats were removed as was much of the OEM sounded deadening materials as the means to make them lighter, custom stainless steel free flowing exhaust, a custom paint color which included red exterior mirrors that tie nicely in with the various other red accents such as the red brake calipers and red top stitching on the seat, a purpose built carbon fiber rear spoiler, and unique 18” wheels specifically designed for these gals.

Once completed each of these gals were assigned a personal build number which can be found both on the roof above the driver's door and on a placard affixed to the dash near the glove box. Considering that of the 2000 a total of only 415 were shipped to this country makes this particular car extremely rare as such most folks will never even see one.

Now these two gal's came in to have a few personal tweak items tended to before they are exercised.

We will be installing clear bra on their noses and several other high risk areas, cross drilled brake rotors to compliment the already installed JCW performance brake system, the rear fog light system will be integrated which by the way they are delivered in Europe with however must it must be installed as a retro-fit system in this country, and a pair of the OEM VDO gauges that tuck neatly in-between the center console allowing one to quickly monitor the engine's oil temperature and the charging system

Here the process of installing the clear bar on them is well underway
Here the retro-fit OEM gauge cluster is being installed. During this process we took it a step further and hand trimmed the gauge pod so that once it was integrated into the center console it would appear a fully integrated system rather than simply a nice OEM addition. You can also see that during the process we had to remove the OEM oil drain plug and replace it with the OEM oil temperature sending unit.



Here we replaced the OEM switch panel with the one that has the integrated fog light toggle and then installed the fog light at the lower center rear portion of the bumper which brings them up to European standards. When they were received in USA trim they simply had a ugly black plastic plug in the place of the now integrated rear fog light; certainly the fog light a nice safety feature not to mention that it looks nice too.

Here we are installing new custom JCW rotors at all four corners; we say custom because before installing them we had the rotors cross drilled and then electrically plated in black so as to stop the typical corrosion found on rotors after a very short period of time. The actual surface that the pad scrubs against will become silver as that portion of the plating will be removed after only a few stops during the brake pad bedding in process. While the rotors were off we took the time to prepare and then paint the hubs and cast iron bearing retainers so that they too would not rust. With the new rotors being black they will not show the typical brake dust and they also work well (meaning look good) with the black OEM wheels






Here the gals are hooked up the GT1 to make sure that they are happy and that all systems are operating as designed before they are exercised.

Now as we continue to move for with this project tending to several very cool personal tweaks before sending these gals out to be exercised
Here we have installed one of Doug's aka Whalen Machine's extremely nice stainless steel shift balls. These are far more than simply a great looking piece but they are a work of art both in the finish work and the very unique manner in which they are secured to the shift shaft


Now the OEM seats as furnished in the GP's are very nice and specific to these gals however as a 2 seat car (no back seat in this model) and one that was designed as MINI's most spirited model the idea of a pair of true racing/sport seats seemed fitting. It was as the result of this that factory JCW Sparco seats were located and installed. Now these are BMW/MINI's factory retro-fit JCW seats complete with John Cooper Work's embossed in the leather behind one's head which are extremely unique. Because they were sold as retro-fit seats they came with everything that was needed to make the transition very easy
Here the JCW seats in full panther black leather are being made ready to be integrated. The process involved removing the seat tracks from the OEM seats and installing them on the new JCW Sparco seats as well as integrating the various electrical connectors such as the heated portion of the seats and the seat belt warning systems.

Here the first of the new JCW seats has been installed
Here both of the seats have been fully integrated into this GP
Here are the OEM GP seats as they were removed

Thank you for visiting this web site.
If you have any questions or comments
please feel free to contact us. 866-365-0920

Ferrari| Lamborghini | Porsche
E39 M5 | E52 Z8 | E46 M3 | E36 M3