New R owner

[Topcat1910]

Hey everyone, my name is Tim I've been on here a while but not posted until now. Finically picked up a rising blue Friday just gone and so happy with it!

What mods would everyone suggest? Debating to go for air or stick with performance. Had a Mini GP I used for track and spent a fortune on the engine and carbon parts leading me towards stance with the Scriocco.

[Stu13R]

Nice car mate and my favourite colour.

Tons of experienced modders on here mate so just say what you are trying to achieve and you will get plenty of help.

I was at a meet today where Ashley had his air suspension car. Looked good but there are plus and negatives, so best having a chat with him.

Great choice by the way to move from the mini to a Roc.

[whiteDevil_170]

Welcome
Car looks great.
A mate at work has a grey 2011 mini jcw and admitidly it sounds the nuts. He's obsessed with the gp though. Can't wait to show him tomorrow that a member on here has sold his mini gp to get a scirocco. I'm allways winding him up saying sciroccos are better than minis.

[Luke.08]

Nice car mate and my favourite colour.

Tons of experienced modders on here mate so just say what you are trying to achieve and you will get plenty of help.

I was at a meet today where Ashley had his air suspension car. Looked good but there are plus and negatives, so best having a chat with him.

Great choice by the way to move from the mini to a Roc.

you mean alex lol

[asquires1]

Nice car mate and my favourite colour.

Tons of experienced modders on here mate so just say what you are trying to achieve and you will get plenty of help.

I was at a meet today where Ashley had his air suspension car. Looked good but there are plus and negatives, so best having a chat with him.

Great choice by the way to move from the mini to a Roc.

haha im not Ashley Stu

Yes theres positives and negatives to air ride.

Positives would be choosing your own ride height without having to worry about speed bumps and ramps. Its different and something you don't see everyday( I like airing mine out leaving it and watching people trying to workout how its meant to move lol)

However there are many negatives
firstly the cost is a lot. Having an R I would expect you would want the performance struts with digital management your looking at around 3-3.5k fitted.
Air even with the performance uprated struts it will never handle as well as a decent set of coilovers.
you do loose boot space.
Performance struts is a very harsh ride too.

In my opinion if you want to take the car to shows then get air ride however competition is very strong with owners spending tens of thousands on modifying their cars.
If your not really into all the showing then go for the performance route and enjoy the car more.

[Coddy]

Smart

[Stu13R]

Hi Alex, yes I realised as soon as I saw your reply lol.

Your car looks different in rl compared to pics and even lower.

[AshleyHerbert]

Hey I'm Ashley!

Snap for the Rising Blue R! You'll love it.. I'd lower for performance, I've got H&R 35mm springs all around and the right height is sitting nicely, the ride is a little stiffer but cornering is much better! If you're not interested in springs you can get some coilovers with the DCC adapter so you can keep the function (if you're interested)

I got my parts from DPMPerformance, picked up the springs for £150 incl postage (bartered with the price).

Other mods:

LED interior lights
Gas strut bonnet
Gloss black badges (I haven't done this yet)

There's a nice DIY MOD topic on the forum that you should follow, offers a lot of insight!

Any questions feel free to ask mate

[AshleyHerbert]

Welcome
Car looks great.
A mate at work has a grey 2011 mini jcw and admitidly it sounds the nuts. He's obsessed with the gp though. Can't wait to show him tomorrow that a member on here has sold his mini gp to get a scirocco. I'm allways winding him up saying sciroccos are better than minis.

Volkswagen VS Mini build quality? No comparison!

A colleague at my work has one of these and within the space of 2 years it's been returned 12 times with faults.... it's also lost 8k (supposed to be one of the best cars for depreciation!)

Mind my hate, I just hate the new Mini's, the classic ones are much better (my opinion don't take offense)

[Topcat1910]

Hey everyone and thankyou for all the replies. Was kind of a rushed post the other day but basically I'm looking for something different.

I had clubsports on the GP and nothing I've driven has been as much fun as that car specially at Oulton park. As much as I loved it, it was getting close to 59k miles and getting old so decided to trade it in for a JCW Clubman put that on KW V2 coils, one off rear lights with a small amount of carbon compared to the GP and hated every minute I drove it, just had no wow factor.

That now brings me to the scriocco R, really modern and nice place to be in, seats are comfy but wanting to upgrade them either to the RS4 seats or some tillets. The acceleration is as good as the GP which I spent quite abit on the engine from a catcam, 550 injectors, reduced pulled, Decat full pipewerx exhaust, coil pack, HT leads, thumper header. The only thing I'm not sold on is the handling, the GP felt like it was on rails.

With hating the Clubman and had that on coils thought I'd try the stanced scene with the Scriocco to be different so I've been looking at the accuair I level kit just need to read up more on the slam and performance struts.

Performance wise my friend owns KMS who specialise in the focus RS and looking at going with him for stage 2+, I'm just unsure which induction to go with.

As to badges I'm thinking of getting some carbon fibre ones made and a few other bits.

Best place to order the gas strut for the bonnet? I've already done the led lights and waiting on some pressed plates.

[Topcat1910]

As to built quality have to say the R53 mini are really good all the newer models from the R56 onwards are shite but even the R53 has nothing on VW.

[Topcat1910]

[asquires1]

Air ride is expensive to buy , fit and remove. Just need to ask yourself will you get the enjoyment out of the car on air after owning cars on coilovers. Especially if you are going up to stage 2+.

One thing I forgot to mention is on the roccos the chassis has to be notched when fitted with air ride as the drive shaft will hit.

[Topcat1910]

Air ride is expensive to buy , fit and remove. Just need to ask yourself will you get the enjoyment out of the car on air after owning cars on coilovers. Especially if you are going up to stage 2+.

One thing I forgot to mention is on the roccos the chassis has to be notched when fitted with air ride as the drive shaft will hit.

Great bit of advice thankyou don't think I'd want to notch the chassis, have you got a pic of the boot install?

Think I'm leaning towards could more now, know of any coils that will integrate with the sport/comfort?

[Topcat1910]

Sorry just read on the KW website they do DDC, think I'm going to get these

[AshleyHerbert]

Was just about to mention KW do the DCC adapter :-) nice mini btw! Look forward to your build thread.

[Topcat1910]

Cheers Ash, great help!