Here she is, in all her glory with 118 horsepower, my 2010 Mini Cooper base/non-turbo/non—S or Justa as in “just-a-Cooper-not-an-S”. I don’t expect many here to get this car. Even most of the Mini enthusiasts don’t get why someone would want the naturally aspirated base model.



It has just 23,000 miles and its in close to new condition. It does have a rebuilt title from a front end collision with a deer. I got it from a body shop which repaired it. It drove great and my mini mechanic gave a clean bill of health and the price was low.

I was looking for something to complement my S2000. It had to be OK in the winter, a little more luxury, manual. Natural aspiration was close to a requirement. If it had a backseat that was a plus. I don’t often do much kid hauling and besides we have two other cars for that. We bought a Cayenne to tow our Airstream trailer. The wife’s Infiniti EX35 will go to my 16 year old if she ever gets around to taking her driver’s test. I looked at early Caymans, E46 M3, and E39 M5, RX-8. I wasn’t thinking much about a Mini but I saw this one on Craig’s and thought I’d drive it. It’s a special edition called the Mayfair with metallic brown paint and a premium leather interior.

Taking it for a spin on Chicago surface streets was a blast and got me hooked. I love working a shifter and with so little power you have to be in the right gear at all times. I feel like a rally driver everywhere. I can go flat to the floor. I can shift at redline. I can feel-toe around town.

The thing with cars is that it takes different horses for different course. I just don’t have the opportunity to use a lot of horsepower. I live in the Chicago suburbs. My driving is mostly in 30 mph speed limits. Highway drives tend to be stop and go.

Meanwhile, the 2nd gen Mini has a nice interior. It’s not a Mercedes but it’s as nice as I need. The ride is pretty good. I can listen to a podcast.

I dont have anything crazy crazy planned for mods. There’s not much available for power mods anyway. I have a CAI waiting to install which claims 8 lbs ft of torque improvement and better throttle response. Some people claim a Magnaflow header helps too but nobody has dyno’d It. There are no tunes afaik. If I keep loving it I’ll probably do light wheels for my winter tire set-up and and a stiffer rsb, and maybe coilovers.

dislike turbo lag. Like the throttle response of na. Prefer linear, predictable power delivery. The turbos can be hard to heel-toe. Also, the 2nd gen Mini turbos are really troublesome but the main thing was how they drive.

Nice car and pick up! My favorite was always the older SC version. That car was visceral.

I have a heavily modified supercharged first gen that I’m selling. My wife had a supercharged convertible. They’re great to drive but the interiors are junky, loud, and they’re getting old. Stock vs stock I much prefer the handling and feel of the first gen over the second. I’m hoping with pilot super sports, new poly front control arm bushings, and a bigger rear sway bar I can make mine feel more “mini”. As it is on the non-sport suspension and 9-year old run flat tires (!), it’s still decent handling.

Another reason to buy one is that they are DIRT CHEAP! My friend has an ‘06 S with 103k miles. We looked it up on Edmund’s. Private party value is $2,600. Retail is $3,500. That’s a lot of fun for the $$. I think the BMW/Mexico connection scares people off.

turbo?