The Independent American Magazine for all Mini Owners
Issue link: http://mc2.epubxp.com/i/33536
Photos by Edward Cannon S terling Smith of Westchester, CA always liked the GP, but when they were announced, there was no way he could afford to pay over $31K for a MINI, so he contented himself with a nice Cooper S and was quite happy with it until it died at a MINI dealer while he was in Las Vegas. But out of woe often comes happiness and in Sterling’s case this was certainly true. The car was a total write off, and thanks to a good insurance policy, Sterling managed to pay the balance off on his loan and have enough left over to put down on a very gently used GP without raising his payments. “When you have good insurance, they take care of you,” says Sterling. “Thanks to that I got into my GP, one of the original Laguna Seca cars. It was four years old and only had 6,000 miles on it. The previous owner hardly drove it and kept it in a garage. Eventually he traded it in on a Clubman.” Unlike the previous owner, Sterling drives this car a lot. It is his daily commuter to Seal Beach and in the past year he has put 34K on the odometer. When you spend that much time behind the wheel, it isn’t long before you start thinking of improvements and modifications that can be made to suit the vehicle to one’s personal tastes. Sterling added a Gintani air-to-water intercooler, JCW air intake, VIS hood scoop, MSD ignition, Alta 4 into 1 headers and a Magna Flow exhaust system to boost power. For stopping, he added 12.2-inch Wilwood rotors with hats, Wilwood 4-piston calipers and pads all around and to help with the handling he added a Tarrett Engineering rear anti sway bar and control arms, KW Suspension shocks, Mason Engineering front strut brace, HRE 19-inch wheels carrying Conti Extreme Contact 225/35/19 tires. Then he lowered it three inches. Issue 32 MC2 Magazine 33 Inside the car, he had the OE seats pulled and replaced them with a set of Sparco Chrono Roads with a Sparco 4-point harness. A Whalen Shift Machine knob and brake handle engraved with GP 0179 dresses up the cabin and for road tunes he installed Image Dynamics amps and speakers, Horn Loaded compression drivers and hooked it up through a Clarion Head unit with slide out touch screen with navigation. A custom sub enclosure in the rear cargo area houses four 8-inch subs. “I’m pretty much finished modifying the car. I like it the way it is and enjoy driving it,” says Sterling. “I plan to keep it.” GP 0179