Today I received my custom “skinny spare tire travel bag” from Robyn (“jerseygirl” on MINI2 and NorthAmericanMotoring):
I received Issue 2 of GoMINI yesterday and read it – lots of stuff about modified MINIs from England and America. It also mentioned a book that I had not previously heard of, called the MINI – the making of a modern icon” by Brian Laban:
It seems that Amazon US does not carry this book (yet) but you can order from Amazon UK (just click the pic). A review will follow when I receive it.
Other excellent books about the MINI include MINI by Patrick C. Paternie, and new MINI by Graham Robson (recommended), both of which can be ordered from Amazon.
Today I was at MINI Peabody! We had light snow but it did not affect my visit – luckily 🙂
Why was I at MINI Peabody today?  So GBMINI can get the John Cooper Works upgrade! I have debated this for a long time, read all the reviews, considered aftermarket upgrades … In the end, the prestige factor of the official package helped to swing the deal, along with maintaining a warranty and a good relationship with MINI Peabody.
At the moment, still being gentle with the car due to the weather as well as some “running in” considerations, I have not experimented with the new performance limits of GBMINI – but I expect that I will find some improvements!
Here’s a full “photo history” of the upgrade:
So, what’s it like?
Good question … So far, with few miles and bad weather, I have noticed only a few things:
I expect that once I try driving it in the higher rev range, and with harder acceleration (when the weather allows) I will discover more differences …
UPDATE: After driving another MINI for two days, that has the pulley but not the full works package, I am convinced that while both MINIs have a similar power, the John Cooper Works package is more “smooth” … hard to pinpoint exactly, but there is some extra refinement in the JCW upgrade that seems to be missing with only the aftermarket pulley.
M&I / GBMINI 