My Evo's gone

So, traded in the Evo last night. Got an ok deal (as ok as you usually get trading something in) and now have an '07 MINI Cooper S.

Basically, stage one of the get out of debt plan. All told, this saves about $300 / month (between payment and insurance not including a not-insignifiant gas savings) and I'll probably keep it for about 2 years at which point our snowball will be done allowing much more freedom (and budget) in the next car choice. Until then, this will do for a nice, spirited, daily driver.

I think the Evo was pre-sold to a guy in Idaho, so probably wont see it around anymore unless something changes in that plan.

Throw a wave (preferably not a rev as the MINI can't back itself up nearly as well as the Evo did, it might get a complex, lol), if you see a silver MINI with new tags out and about. Not sure what I'll get for a plate on the MINI, haven't given it much thought yet.

omg your one of those guys!

ghost wrote:

omg your one of those guys!

Well duh!! Thought you already figured that out , lawl...

Hey Tom,
You know you're obligated to try out the Mini at Lewistown right?

Damn Tom, should'a held out, that EVO might be worth even more in the future as it's the last of it's breed.

Congrats on the mini! Getting out of debt tho, what a feelin.

Dr.Auto wrote:

Hey Tom,
You know you're obligated to try out the Mini at Lewistown right?

+1!

I read Sonya's posts on Facebook about doin this. I don't blame ya, debt sucks! But as least you still got a fun little car and not a hooptie to drive

A Mini Cooper S is about the only FWD car I'd be caught owning. Do you plan on upgrading it much? I know there's at least one guy in town with a supercharger.

Cyfun wrote:

A Mini Cooper S is about the only FWD car I'd be caught owning. Do you plan on upgrading it much? I know there's at least one guy in town with a supercharger.

there is also a guy who has his supercharged and turbocharged same car pretty neat. they SCCA them quite a bit also.

um you guys know that all mini cooper S come supercharged right? Just checking.... kinda sounds like your telling him he should supercharge it........... but it already is from the factory. should have an Eaton M45 on it stock. Tom?

Dave Marbel is the guy with the duel charged mini S.

I think they are turbocharged.

Mini coops are the shiz. Always wanted one.
*coop coop*
hope to see you rollin around

U think about selling the bike, ill burn that mini cooper to the ground !!!

Riptide wrote:

I think they are turbocharged.

well a quick google search describes them as being a twin scroll turbocharger for the 2010-2011.

But every single mini cooper S I've worked on or seen is supercharged. I've worked on about a dozen of them..... but they were a few years old... so IDK

Ah yeah, Dave Marble is who I was thinking of. That thing is wicked quick, and handles like its on rails.

I was really just wondering if you were gonna leave it stock or throw some mods on it, be it more powa, susp, big brakes, etc.

You know who to PM if you want to get rid of the Syclone!!! Just throwing that out there. You can have a lot of fun with the mini at SCCA events, but the Evo was great for that too.

BLUBLS wrote:

You know who to PM if you want to get rid of the Syclone!!! Just throwing that out there. You can have a lot of fun with the mini at SCCA events, but the Evo was great for that too.

The Mini would be better than the Evo for autocross cause all the damn courses they make here are all tight turns and the cones are about 6 feet apart. Was a bitch to do in my BMW 5 series.

BMW needs to make a RWD Mini. I guess it'd essentially be a 1 series, though, but it'd be worth it just to see a Mini drift.

Cyfun wrote:

BLUBLS wrote:

You know who to PM if you want to get rid of the Syclone!!! Just throwing that out there. You can have a lot of fun with the mini at SCCA events, but the Evo was great for that too.

The Mini would be better than the Evo for autocross cause all the damn courses they make here are all tight turns and the cones are about 6 feet apart. Was a bitch to do in my BMW 5 series.

BMW needs to make a RWD Mini. I guess it'd essentially be a 1 series, though, but it'd be worth it just to see a Mini drift.

I have to disagree with the mini beating the Evo in the local SCCA scene. I have several races with my old evo to prove my point directly. The lack of traction the mini's suffer from cause huge problems when it comes to racing. The turbo/superchaged combo you mentioned earliery consistanly falls below people expectations because the car simply can't keep traction.

Totally understand the swap from the financial perspective, but in the racing world I see it as a huge downgrade.

It feels like it handles pretty well, as you all know though, so much of that is in the setup and good tires. I haven't pushed it hard yet. Mostly I was looking for economical, fun, interesting, better than basic transportation for daily driving.

It's cool so far.

The deal with Supercharger or Turbo...

First gen new MINIs were from inception - '06, they had supercharged motors in them. The secon gen new MINI is from '07 to current and they are turbo. Mine is turbo. The consensus is pretty split on them among enthusiasts. Some really like the supercharger whine, others really like the turbo feel. Personally, I'd probably like either. The turbo does take it as far as efficiency though, in real world tests, it just gets better mileage. Performance, I would think the supercharger's always on torque might take the cake in SCCA where the MINI is supposed to shine.

As far as SCCA, I might get out there and try it in the MINI. It was fun in my Evo and the thing worked really well for it too. I can't recall which class the MINI competes in, but I've heard very good things about their performance within their class. It definitely feels lighter when flinging it around but FWD feels a bit weird after coming from the Evo. I don't know if I'd take this quite to the same edge that I took the Evo, hard to say.

Glad that everyone is pretty ok with the change. Nice to have a little reinforcement since it is definitely a step backward. I didn't just want to get an econobox and be bored for the next 24months, this fits the bill.

BLUBLS wrote:

You know who to PM if you want to get rid of the Syclone!!! Just throwing that out there. You can have a lot of fun with the mini at SCCA events, but the Evo was great for that too.

Get with me when you have some time. Syclone is probably going to get sold. It is really just too nice for me to justify tearing it up to make it as fast as I want my "toy" to be. I have a few things that I want / need to do to it, then I was going to put it up for sale and let someone else decide what to do with it.

wile2k wrote:

BLUBLS wrote:

You know who to PM if you want to get rid of the Syclone!!! Just throwing that out there. You can have a lot of fun with the mini at SCCA events, but the Evo was great for that too.

Get with me when you have some time. Syclone is probably going to get sold. It is really just too nice for me to justify tearing it up to make it as fast as I want my "toy" to be. I have a few things that I want / need to do to it, then I was going to put it up for sale and let someone else decide what to do with it.

Tom I'll send you a pm with my phone number. We can meet up sometime and discuss the Syclone.

Ryan

The MINI came with a roots or a twinscrew supercharger? I'm assuming by the description of "whine" that it was definitely one of those two.