***CAUTION : The following could be classed as long-winded and/or emotional***


Been an emotional attachement with Minis for years................from 2008 when I picked up 'Buymble', my yellow Mini Cooper from Sunderland and drove it back up the road.

I was still living with the parents at the time and Dad went ballistic in front of the neighbours..........."What the **** you thinking??? No son of mine should be driving a Mini!!".
I was stunned..........cut to 2013 and still had the car, Dad had changed to even recording documentaries on Minis in the morning for me when he was up before the rest of us.
I should say I'm 6'7" to give you a better background on this!
This was back in the days when I would go up to Blockbuster on a Fri after work just to get the latest release for a movie night.
Been told since then Dad would lean across in his chair in the living room to watch me go out the street, turn to Mum and ask "How does he drive that Noddy motor??".

Dad was very sarcastic and funny, something we knew and loved as a family. Why did he go ballistic on that first day??? Well I asked him, and he said he didnt know why, just that he could only see the previous generation Mini, the one from the 60s wheich he thought wasnt the greatest. It wasnt until I took him down to the bank one day in Bumble that he learned differently.


Anyway, on to 2013.......get the hankies ready..........we lost Dad suddenly. He didnt wake up on the morning after he and Mum came back from a months cruise to America and Canada. Pretty selfish and inconsiderate of him actually (you can hopefully grasb the family sense of humour).

A week before they came home though Dad had walked 5 blocks in a 90 degree heat just to get pics for me of a Mini dealership in New York, with the Mini on the side of the building, and to this day, now in my own place, i have those 3 pics in my living room framed in sequence.


Now, I let Bumble go to my older sister once she passed her test a year or so later, then she sold her on when she had a family. To this day I'm still determined to hopefully hunt her down when she appears on Auto-Trader and store her with our mechanics advice in time for my current 13 yr old niece when she gets her license.

Since then I had a black Cooper S, then moved on to a grey Cooper S and then a black Paceman.
My sister currently has a Countryman and mum has actually moved from their Freelander 2 to a Paceman as well.

When Covid started I moved on to an Orange Cooper S, but never really felt connected to it......maybe I was sickened with Minis or needed a change I dont know.

For the last 18 months or so I've been driving in a black 2016 Audi TT diesel Ultra, non -quattro, manual. I LOVE it........so addicted to the spoiler flipping up and then down at certain speeds.


The thing is though.....as we all seem to do......I was window shopping recently on Auto-Trader and have found a red JCW Mini.
Even with the current fuel crisis I always said if I was going to do it again I would only do it if it was a step up from the Cooper S' I had before......and as we know, JCW is the next step.
Ive been fighting with myself for days but this JCW has parking sensors, heated seats and the Harmon Kardon sound system......those 3 things are an upgrade on the TT itself.

Not too sure about a pro-exhaust........is that standard on all JCWs?


Course Mum, whis car daft too, has said I'm daft for even contemplating it again so..................I guess I'm on here to just ask...........HELP lol, I know being on a Mini site is biased anyway!

The dealer said in the personalised video I got sent that if I've had fun in the TT I'll def have fun in the JCW, but is that just sales patter??