6 replies to this topic

[Leekr89]

ive been seaching the internet for a while now but unfortunatly i havent really found out that much info about them, ive been offered a mini (another one!) from my uncle but he is unable to send me any pictures of it and i last saw it around 4 years ago, its a 1993 mini cooper spi with a john cooper works conversion (he has loads of receipts for the car inc the jcw conversion bill he says of around £4500? (unsure which conversion pack was fitted but has the leather cooper recaros fitted?) i havent been able to find any pictures of these or exactly what the upgrades were compared to the factory standard cooper and was hoping you guys may be able to help me

[spiteri87]

bump

[BlueBell]

We have a soft spot for John Cooper works cars and am lucky enough to own an MPI conversion. I haven't come across an SPI personally but it doesn't make much of a difference. If he has receipts then that’s great, although the car has a conversion plate, blank copies are sold regularly on eBay. The SI conversions are often referred to as works cars rather than the higer spec "S" or "Works", this does have a bearing on future value, however the conversion certificare and receipts will help you on this one.

The Recaro's on their own are quite rare and fetch good money on eBay, been after a set myself for a while but the budget won't stretch that far. Internally you can also expect to see John Cooper signed door handles, pedals, etc depending on which additional options where specified.

As with all Mini's the usual rust and body work issues will apply. For a car that age its probably also making sure the suspension rubbers are ok (listen for a clunk from the back). I have heard some reports of poor reliability on the high lift rockers if the car has been driven hard, but haven't experienced any problems with them personally

Finally, remember that trying to explain the car has a JCG conversion kit to your insurance company will not be straight forward and will have an effect on premiums, you might want to consider a classic or agreed valuation scheme instead. Finally, I always recommend an HPI check, I have been offered three great looking cars over the last 12 months which turned out to have been insurance write-offs at some point in the past and in at least one case the present owner was blissfully unaware (or so they maintained)

Good Luck

Edited by BlueBell, 14 December 2011 - 10:37 AM.

[Cooperman]

I had to re-build a JCW MPI engine and I was surprised at how poorly the gas-flowing was in the head. The exhaust tracts were exceptionally poor, but I had to open out both inlet & exhaust tracts to improve the performance. That head wasn't cheap either.
It does seem unlikely that the 'S'-works actually does give the claimed 90+ bhp.

[Leekr89]

thanks for that i can now figure out why he has a reciept from john cooper garages for so much! although how much of the originality is left i dont know, from the information i have got from my uncle it was restored by the previous owner in around 2004-2005 by p&l minis with a heritage bodyshell and had had a number of upgrades fitted at the same time, its been garaged and rarely used for around the past 4 years so my uncle just wants to sell it, what kind of value would you say the car was worth? i think he said it had around 55k miles on the clock and he's offered me the car for a very reasonable price!