MINI Black Top

History:

Oh god, I'm the fourth owner.

Drivetrain Mods:

A stock engine aside from the zip tie holding the air cleaner lid on.

Suspension Mods:

Stock. Gonna stay that way, I think, unless I get a great deal on a hand-me-down sway bar. Maybe I'll bolt on some Craven STIs.

Wheels and Tires:

Not run flats. Goodyear Eagle LS P185/60R15 on stock OEM steel Holies.

I'm looking for input on the right tire size and model to go with to improve mileage and road noise while still getting good tread life.

And I'm considering some new wheels too, though the lightness of the holies is sure attractive.

Packages:

Base + Sunroof

Exterior Mods:

11 years of sun has made the white more of a french vanilla. Or is that the shade it starts with?

Plastidipped the chrome grill & rear hatch handle to make it more purely black & white. And now the whole front grill and headlight trim rings as well as the saddle between the upper and lower grill and the faux bumpers on the lower front bumper.

I've installed a new rear wiper blade! Now I've found out the rear wiper doesn't work.

Interior Mods:

Removed the back seat backs. Added some sound dampening under the rear mat, rear seat, inside the rear panels, and the doors.

Planning to fabricate my own back seat removal kit.

Details in Motion did a great job tinting the windows.

Ice Mods:

Why doesn't anyone make a Digital Media Player with an HD radio??? If they do, they're keeping it a secret.

I went with a Pioneer MVX560BT Digital Media Receiver. I can't believe what a difference this made in the sound over the stock unit. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GS80OQ8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00GS80OQ8&linkCode=as2&tag=preppforanyth-20

Also some upgraded front mid speakers, a pair of Kickers. I didn't notice a big difference over the 11 year old stock speakers! But the new Sound Ordinance 6x9s in the rear are a noticeable difference.

Anyone else find the interior of R50s to be a challenging acoustic environment? No matter how I tune my equalizer, I keep finding the audio has a "speaker in a tin can" quality.