With unique styling and a Japanese influence, this inky-black tuned Mini Clubman is flying under the radar and out for a good time.
Ambition is critical. Anyone who’s watched Twin Town will tell you that (they might even chuck in a bonus expletive for kicks), and of course, it’s a phrase that’ll be familiar to residents of Swansea and/or fans of the poet David Hughes. The crux of the matter is that a yearning for bigger, better, newer and more interesting things is what pushes mankind forward, and that’s particularly evident across the car modifying scene. After all, how many people do you know who’ll carry out a few mods, say ‘Yep, that’s finished’ and then keep the car like that forever? No, project cars are never finished, there’s always a fresh set of wheels or a higher echelon of power or what-have-you to strive for. And Sam Jones is a keen example of this mindset.
Every car he owns ends up turning into something cool and ever-evolving, and when he tried to restrain himself with this tuned Mini Clubman by mapping it out from the start as ‘just an air-and-wheels build’, it was always inevitable that he’d get carried away.
But let’s rewind to the start. Because Sam’s been playing this game for a while now, and it’s been getting more and more complex throughout. “My first car was a Peugeot 106,” he recalls, “and of course, I modified it – it was the usual: air filter, exhaust, lower it as much as possible, sticker bombing was still in fashion back then, too… After that, I had a SEAT Arosa and went down the air-ride route, but gearbox issues put an end to that. And for the last six years, I’ve always had Minis.”
It seems that Sam found a comfortable niche with this particular marque, and it’s something you’ll all no doubt strongly relate to. “There’s a huge culture for all years of Minis, and plenty of different routes to modify them,” he continues. “There’s something for everyone, whether it’s classic, stance, full-on track car and everything in-between. So I bought myself an R53 JCW – I was actually looking at R56s but found this R53 for much cheaper in a better spec, so a test drive later, I bought it! Soon after it was treated to a smaller pulley, air filter, R56 exhaust and Challenge diffuser, Tein coilovers, Rota Grid Vs for that meaty stance, stripped-out interior… I loved that car and would own another one in a heartbeat.”
So how did we arrive at a sensible diesel-powered Clubman after all those boosty hijinks? Well Sam was coming to the end of his time at university, and, with the prospect of lengthy commutes on the daily, he decided it was probably time for something a bit more frugal. The R55 Clubman felt like an offbeat choice, as it harked back to his original hankering for R56s, while also being a model that really doesn’t get modified that often.
Sure, we’ve featured a few over the years, but the ratio of Clubbies to hatches that are singled out as project fodder has always been seriously skewed toward the latter. So Sam started looking around, and happened across this Clubman Cooper D tucked away at the back of a local used car dealership. It was all totally standard, and a little bit rough around the edges with a couple of dents, the DPF light on and a knock coming from the rear. However, none of this worried Sam (and they all ended up being really easy fixes), so he took the plunge and a new era of Mini adventures began.
“The plan was simple – it was to be a sensible modified daily,” he deadpans. “A new career path at the time of buying it meant commuting further, hence going for a diesel. Buying air-ride before the actual car was the first mistake, I guess, and at that point, I aimed for just bags-and-wheels… although with the bags going on the car just two months after I bought it, it was only a few months later that it had a full respray.”
Yeah, it’s easy to get carried away. But it’s that critical ambition coming into play again, isn’t it? Life’s too short to drive boring cars, and even if he wasn’t overtly planning a full-on project, there was a guiding voice in Sam’s head that just couldn’t let him keep things too simple.
Having enjoyed the myriad benefits of air suspension on his old Arosa, he was fully sold on the idea of fitting it to the Mini. After pulling off the baller move of ordering the kit before even owning the right car to fit them to, Sam went a stage further and specced the old-school vibe of manual four-way adjustment – purely because he likes the tactility of the switches and the simplicity of the system.
“With the Air Lift suspension fitted, I still daily-drove the car for over two years and it never missed a beat,” he grins. “Engine-wise it’s fairly standard and well-maintained because that’s what it was bought for. It does have a Ramair filter for induction noise and turbo flutter, and a Stage 1 remap to unlock some more potential for what is a very slow, standard car – taking it to around 140hp. I wanted it to be reliable more than anything, so big power mods were never on the cards from the start, but this was all done within the first year of owning it.”
Dervs aren’t all about the horsepower of course, as it’s the torque that characterises the delivery – and with a robust 229lb ft, the Clubman is certainly no slouch. And with power and stance tackled pretty early on, there was a fairly sizeable elephant in the room which needed to be addressed. A wheel-shaped elephant (not literally, obviously, that’d be terrifying).
“The car started on a set of Fifteen52 Tarmacs, which I absolutely love,” he says. “I don’t think there’s a single car they look bad on. But I wanted something completely different, really, something that had possibly never been seen before on a Mini. The build has some Japanese inspiration, so I decided to import a set of AME Shallens from Japan. I was going to get them fully polished, but they are a nightmare to keep clean so I opted for powder-coating them black. I’m always looking at other wheel options but so far I’ve not found anything I want to replace the Shallens with! The metal arches have been trimmed for maximum clearance; the rear will roll when it’s fully aired out, but the front needs to be raised slightly to roll because it’s sitting right on the tyre.”
Well, with great fitment comes great responsibility, and these little tweaks are all part of the fun. Indeed, it’s little tweaks that have led to larger ones and created an unstoppable avalanche of creativity. Take the colour scheme, for example. Sam was aiming for a murdered-out kinda vibe, but never saw himself going as far as respraying the whole car in a glossy black. It was the incremental steps leading to it that made it an inevitability, and from then on the script just started to write itself. “The paint on the roof is loosely inspired by lowriders,” he goes on, “and Adam at Wyatt’s Autopaint & Body Repair was able to bring my vision to life, he’s played a big part in transforming the exterior.
Its look has been constantly evolving during my ownership, and I’m already thinking about what to change next. I wanted to upgrade from the standard body kit too – everyone does the JCW/aero bumper, so I went for the LCI Cooper S bumper instead. And I like to learn new skills and have done everything to the car myself with the help of friends.”
The attention to detail inside is similarly strong. When he bought the car, Sam was perfectly happy with the stock cabin and had no plans whatsoever to upgrade it, but obviously, he’s been busy with that too and has absolutely bossed it. The dash and steering wheel have been artfully reworked in the unusual mix of carbon fibre and tartan, the OEM steering wheel cunningly reshaped, while a custom headlining echoes the design of the exterior panel above. The boot build took a lot of thought and planning too, as he wanted the car to remain practical for load-lugging, and the air install has been tastefully trimmed to look like luggage. “All the carbon work and steering wheel reshape I learnt and did myself, same with the headliner,” he says. “The cabin is still something I’m slowly deciding what to do with – more interior modifications are top of my list!”
This tuned Mini Clubman really is a car in which the details speak volumes; master of the double-take, with more elements revealing themselves the closer you look. Passers-by on the showground are often gobsmacked to discover that it’s actual paint on the roof, while Mini aficionados are stopped in their tracks at the ingenuity of the custom headlights, which were apparently a nightmare to get working while also retaining the correct levelling functionality.
“I’ve owned the tuned Mini Clubman for around three years now, and it’s never really finished – there are just different versions it will go through,” says Sam. And there’s no doubting that he’s all-in with this one. Nowadays he has an Abarth 595 as the ‘sensible’ daily (ever pushing the boundaries of what that word entails), which allows him even more freedom to move the game forward with the R55. Future plans? He wants to address the one missing piece of the puzzle and chuck in a bunch of power,… and not by traditional tuning means either. “I’m thinking about some ridiculous engine swap. V8, RB26, 2JZ, that kinda thing.” See, it’s that unstoppable ambition at play once again. The need to push things forward, it’s not simply a desire – it’s a biological imperative.
Feature from Performance Mini magazine. Photos: 24Seven Photography.
Tuned Mini Clubman images
Tech Spec: Tuned Mini Clubman
Engine:
1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel N47, Ramair filter, Stage 1 remap, custom 3.5” exhaust tips, rear box delete
Power & Torque:
140hp and 229lb ft
Transmission:
Six-speed manual gearbox
Suspension:
Air Lift Performance suspension, four-way manual management
Brakes:
Stock
Wheels & Tyres:
7.5×17” (front) and 8×17” (rear) AME Shallen wheels with 205/40 Nankang NS-20 tyres
Interior:
Carbon-skinned/grey tartan dash, reshaped carbon/painted OEM wheel, soft velvet custom-printed headlining to match exterior roof, grey tartan-wrapped air tank with leather straps, We Are Likewise Death Grip shifter
Exterior:
Full repaint in Super Gloss Black, custom LED headlights with DRLs, Cooper S front and rear bumpers, custom gunmetal roof design with black flake, rear wiper smoothed, gloss black handle covers, tinted rear lights
