AIRRED OUT R53

DOM's AIR RIDE R53

I’ve always had this thing in my head that i want to modify a Mini, I looked on instagram and google for months, finding things l like, what I would do to mine if I had one, what spec I wanted etc. Finally got to the point of finding the exact one I was looking for and went for it.

I took the car home and ordered some cheap coilovers instantly and found a guy selling the wheels I wanted a week later, so it stayed standard for a good 5days max 😂 at this point I had no idea about cars at all so my good friend Tom put everything together for me. I had the front bumper smoothed and resprayed a few months down the line and attended every car show I could, soon realising airride became more and more tempting to have, imagine being able to have a car as low as it can possibly be, and not having to worry about speed bumps or uneven roads! But always thought it was so much money so I put that idea to the side... for now. I wanted it to be louder, I wasn’t happy with the look and sound of the standard cooper s exhaust, so a guy I followed on instagram was parting his beautiful r53 show car and I quickly snatched the exhaust of him, it’s a Tony banks custom catback with a direnza manifold and decat, drove to Manchester after work and he took mine off and fitted the new one onto mine the same night.

Being static always annoyed me, my pride and joy always scraping, ruining the bumper, not being able to go down a certain road, couldn’t take it anymore. so I decided to take the jump and get it bagged. Went down to oxfordcaraudio in oxford for a price and ended up ordering the kit without really thinking, because somehow I would of talked myself out of it. I got another good friend Paul, owner of rockbottom to install it for me. Went to pick it up a week later and my god it was the best sight! My car was officially slammed!

From that point I saw that my car was exactly how I wanted it to look, absolute perfection! But something was missing.. a roof rack. Found a great deal on eBay for the one I wanted and put it on straight away.

Next on the list is to make a start on the interior, a proper boot build and maybe cage it! I’ve never really been interested in making it faster or anything like that so as for the engine it’s completely stock. But who knows, I’ll probably change my mind.

Follow Dom's build on instagram @deceptionate