The Red Rocket

The Red Rocket

Naturally once my dad had a taste of my and my sisters Mini's he wanted one for himself... he went balls to the wall with this one! We paid £4750 for this its an original JCW rocking 200bhp with the JCW upgrades. The car is kind of an odd one as it isn't a pre facelift and it is not quite a facelift, for instance it has the 3 spoke wheel, but still got the reverse light above the rear bumper, it has the clock on the chrono pack dash not above the rear view mirror etc. but this to me just adds to the Mini's quirks, Like the old classic minis where each one was different it's as if a little testimony to the classic has been done.

We drove from Essex to Liverpool for this and boy was it worth it! The car is in immaculate condition inside and out and has been tastefully modified but not ott and benefitted from having 2 owners from new. On top of that the Mini had only covered 30,000 verified miles.

The cars JCW Parts/modifications are:

Miltex Exhaust,

Alta Induction Kit (the pre facelift didn't come with the JCW airbox)

JCW Brakes,

JCW Carbon Fiber Dash,

JCW Carbon Fiber Gear Knob,

JCW Head,

JCW Aero Kit,

JCW 11% Pulley

Fletcher Radiator

BC Racing Coilovers

When I took this for its test drive I was genuinely shocked at how much quicker this felt than mine. Admittedly I hadn't driven mine for a few months due to electrical gremlins but it felt rapid! Compared to mine it felt ridiculous but this could be because i'm used to my Audi A3 TDi. Unfortunately whilst on the test drive I hit a pot hole, this within a couple of minutes put the tyre pressure light on... I had given the car a puncture.... most probably its first! this made the journey home fun as we had to keep stopping to pump it up, this is all fixed now though fun times!

All in all this is a fantastic car and with the mileage it was bought at it seems like its a future proof buy as i'm sure this will only appreciate in value as a future classic. Some of you may know that the John Cooper Works factory shut down around 3-4 years later as they were bought out by BMW making this im my mind relatively special.

Thanks for reading,

Jon