Nathans R53 Mini

[nathanrw]

I am really bored so thought I would finally make a thread that's not in the intro section about my car. My name is Nathan and I am from the Middle Tennessee area and I drive a 2004 Mini Cooper S. I have Vmaxx coil overs (hopefully not for long), alta end links all around, hotchkis LCA, and 16" BBS RS. I also have some Ireland Engineering camber plates and powerflex bushings that I have yet to put on. I was running 16x7.5 ET19 and 16x9 ET13 in the pictures of the BBS' on my car but right now I am rebuilding and refinishing the RS' to fit better and look cleaner. My sidewalls bubbled really bad after 5 months of driving. BUT, when it's all said and done with they'll be 16x8 ET24 and 16x9 ET24. Which should fit perfectly. Now for some pictures.







Right after I finished the wheels the first time.


Sidewall bubble.


I used to have 5.5" barrels up front and 6" barrels in the rear but I bought some 6.5" barrels for the rear and put the 6" ones up front and sold the 5.5".
Rear barrels test fit


Front barrels test fit. Hopefully I don't have inner clearance issues when I drop it down more...


Traded my aftermarket 2.5" lips plus cash for these 2" BBS Slants (Right).
This is the setup size wise. 16x8 +24 and 16x9 +24


Rear lips 2"


Front Lips 1.5"


That's all i've got for now. I will post more as I go along.
Edit: Also bought two Falken 512's to go on the 8's up front so it will fit right this time.

[scweet14]

damn, super clean mini man! havent seen one with bbs rs wheels yet

[themandillon]

Love this!

[Yogi_Bear]

Those wheels look smaller to me, but either way looks clean

[Tylerhasaphone.]

so sick man, clean and simple.

[robertw]

Very clean

[Burke]

Talked to you on Instagram, love this mini.

[nathanrw]

damn, super clean mini man! havent seen one with bbs rs wheels yet

Love this!

so sick man, clean and simple.

Very clean

Talked to you on Instagram, love this mini.

Thanks everyone!

Those wheels look smaller to me, but either way looks clean

They're 16's. But I think they may look a little smaller because of the dark color of the centers. Or it could be because I'm not low enough to get the wheels tucked in there right just yet.

[Hayden]

Stoopidclean MINI..

[Dane]

Dig it. I want an R53 really badly. I also have some RS' to put on it if I ever get one. Looking real good.

[nathanrw]

Stoopidclean MINI..

Dig it. I want an R53 really badly. I also have some RS' to put on it if I ever get one. Looking real good.

Thanks! Yeah I like the R53 body a lot more than the 07+ R56's. Plus you can fit wider sizes and lower offsets on R53's.

[J77]

I'm jealous of the clean kit. I'll fit an S kit back to mine one day.

[sterling archer]

I like what i see here

[nathanrw]

I'm jealous of the clean kit. I'll fit an S kit back to mine one day.

Thanks. I just replaced the grille with the JCW style grille. It's gloss black and looks ten times better. Once my RS' are finished and I get them put on I will take some good pictures of it.

I like what i see here

Thanks!

[nathanrw]

Probably would have been smarter if I posted this on this thread and not in my intro thread....
Figured I might as well update this. It's been a while and a lot has happened.
I completely refinished my RS'. I put my 1.5" Slant lips up front and traded my 2.5" step lips for original 2" BBS slants. Powder coated the faces dark grey sparkle, and painted my barrels silver. I reused the BBS bolts again this time after polishing them up again but I am more than likely replacing them with gold bolts over the summer. The wheels are now at 16x8 +24 and 16x9 +24. Perfect for a Mini. I put my Toyo Proxes 4's from my fronts last time I built them on the 9's and found someone selling two 205/40 Falken 512's. Snatched those up and got a good stretch up front.
Anyway, here are the wheels. Sorry for my crappy pictures. I need a real camera.



Also I got my camber plates put on. My tie rods are seized up BAD right now so I have no choice but to order new ones and replace them but after that, I will dial in more camber. I only have a degree of negative camber right now. Also got my new control arm bushings in after having to drop the subframe to get to the bushing brackets. Car rides awesome now though other than my axle vibration from being low.


I think the camber plates some how raised my front end up a little bit.... May do some tweaking to them to get them to go lower.
This is the wheel gap I had after all that.....


I realized that my stock wheels and fat meaty tires had rubbed down the fender arches a lot so I got new fender arches and it made the car look ten times better with those alone.


I also got a JCW style grille a little while ago.


And after realizing the car needed a lot more low...... I maxed out my coilovers.
The bottom perch is where it sits now and where the spring is, is where it sat in the pictures. It's close, but it works!


I haven't had a chance to get a good picture of the car how it sits now but I will definitely try and get some pretty soon. I am going to IA in Atlanta this weekend so hopefully I will have some good pictures after this weekend. I'll try and keep this thread a little more updated from now on.

Oh, and seriously this time, this is coming in a couple months. My payments for school put me back a lot for a while because I wasn't working but I am moving back home in a week so it won't be much longer. I've decided on this for my set up since I need the camber.