Congratulations Boondox!
You are going to love it. A word of caution...there is a sinister, as yet incurable 'disease' lurking out there, called Mini racin' fever /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. It makes one do very strange and expensive things, like gutting a perfectly good, plush new Mini Cooper S, installing hard bucket seats, roll cage and engine tweaks. The fever is only partially remedied by going 'round a race course at a high rate of speed. Once the race weekend is over....eeerrr, I mean once the treatment is completed, the fever recurs, and more money must be spent so that the car will go faster and faster in an effort to cool the fever down. The cycle continues all summer long. Only a cold winter can cool the fever for a bit of time.
For starters for this season, we removed window glass (very heavy, you know), installed an after-market limited slip differential (a great option available from factory on the '05s), Jackson header and KW coilovers (replacing the Spax coilovers installed by Mini North Scottsdale when they built the car to Mini's "factory spec racing series" specifications).
We now have a garage full of new/almost new OEM Cooper S parts ranging from sun visors to seats, brakes to catalytic converters to.... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Some day, we'll be able to build a new car.
