In the car world, saying “from humble beginnings” is a phrase that’s often followed with someone’s explosion of e-fame stardom that leaves them with an inflated ego. While this isn’t always the case, in today’s day & age, it seems more & more that it’s becoming the norm… rather than an anomaly. That’s why it’s so refreshing when you find a wickedly cool build, and the owner has stuck to their roots. That’s the absolute epitome of who Chase Gamblin is – and what his Mini Cooper S, Buddy, is all about.

Mini cooper flares

While the Mini Cooper is not a spotlight-car in recent years…

Minis have always been a widely-loved, classically fun hot-hatch that offer the driver a great connection with the road. What you get with Chase’s Mini, however, is all of that – juiced up with a mega-dose of steroids. 

fast mini Cooper S

This R53 Mini has been over a 10-year build for Chase…

The idea of sticking with one car for so long has kinda become a foreign concept to a lot of today’s newsfeed tuners. These days, it seems that people go through cars like cell phones – turn ’em & burn ’em to keep the content going on their IG feed and/or Youtube channel. But after getting to know Chase, you get a quick feeling that he’s not like them.

Having always been a Mini guy, Chase picked up this car in 2005, and named it Buddy

The Mini’s first necessities were taken care of quickly: wheels, tires, exhaust, sway bars, end links, etc. But things never settled down after that with Chase. He continued to stretch out & modify his Mini… and his hot-hatch fever continued to intensify. And as we all know, it’s a sickness that brakes bank accounts lol. Big brake kits, DOTR tires, tighter suspension, fresh color schemes, etc. Eventually – Chase began diving into mods that were not only different for a Mini, but they were truly going the way of unique & custom fabricated.

Chase sourced & fabricated parts to go after an aggressive look on the Mini Cooper…

It was just a natural scenario where – the next idea evolved on top of the last idea… and the car got meaner & meaner. As he neared the 5-year mark of ownership, Chase decided to really marry himself to the Mini & take it to the next level. He pulled the motor, and sent it to ENDYN for a complete build. While that was in play, he acquired a set of rare wide-arches from a friend. Now, we see the phrase ‘widebody’ hashtagged to just about every make & model of car these days. And Chase is no different – other than the fact that his arches were widened to swallow up meaty tire, rather than negative camber.

As soon as the fresh motor was delivered, things began to take a different turn…

A unique thought had begun to creep into Chase’s head, and he began taking steps to secure a turbo system in addition to his OEM supercharger… in a scheme to twin-charge the car. But after purchasing the turbo and getting deeper into the idea of twin-charging, he decided to ditch the unstable twin-charge idea, and all-out replace the supercharger with a new Garrett Gt2860rs turbocharger setup.

The turbo-swapped R53 Mini brought a whole gaggle of other new modifications…

New additions included: a custom carbon fiber hood, full cage, gutted interior, new radiator & piping, a roof swap from the OEM sunroof to a slick roof, Relax seats, and SSR wheels.

However, as the car came back together… the ever-present issues with turning a factory supercharged car to a turbocharged car seemed to resurface & plague Chase with problems. So he finally threw his hands up & sent the car to Track One Motorsports to put an end to the annoying complications. 

The Mini Cooper came back from Track One sorted & reliable…

And Chase parts-slapped it a few more times with Bilstein challenge coilovers, a new front splitter, a Vipec ECU, and a custom fuel system. Finally – a tune from Dynosty Tuning yielding a conservative & reliable 330whp and 236wtq. The Mini was finally rippin’ again, and Chase couldn’t have been happier. 

10 years, 5 states, 5 sets of coilovers, 5 exhausts, 7 sets of wheels, a turbo swap, wide-body arches, motor rebuilds, undergraduate/graduate classes, untold passion… and so much more. The Mini Cooper has evolved through over a decade of Chase’s life.

Chase is a good example of what & who is missing in the younger-side of car culture these days.

We get so caught up in the attention of a digital world… that we lose sight of what really brought us into this scene in the first place.

This feature is from past Issue 35 of S3 Magazine  //  Text & Photos by Dustin Kessler.

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R53 Mini fender flares

HANDLING

Bilstein JCM Challenge spec coilovers 

Challenge camber plates

I.E. rear control arms, rear sway bar, and end links

Onasled Racing rear control arms & trailing arm pickups 

Power Flex front control arm bushings 

Detroit Tuned front end links

Super Pro sway bar bushings & steering rack bushing

SSR Professor SP1r wheels: 16×9 +13

Advan AD08 tires: 225/50/16 

EXTERIOR 

Roof swap to sunroof delete; shaved antenna hole

Craft square mirrors

TSW wheel stud conversion

De-striped & de-badged

Blacked-out belt line

Rear wiper delete

Rogue Blue Dragon eyes 

MC gas door conversion

Aero front bumper

Shaved turn signal holes w/ LED turn signals behind the Aero grille

Aero side skirts

Cooper Only rear aero bumper

Way Motor Works brake ducts 

TSW tall jack points

MHW wide arches

Harrison dry carbon hood

GPGarage hood vents

Seibon carbon hatch 

Orange-G-wing

Samtrack vented fenders 

Shaved side markers

M7 tuning splitter  

SPEED

ENDYN built/balanced motor: with big valve head, ported intake manifold, rollerwave pistons +.20, ported oil jackets, and a modified oil pump.

Pistons coated with antifriction coating on domes & skirts 

Crower rods

Garrett Gt2860rs turbo

3″ intake with K&N filter

Cole Regal turbo manifold

custom 3” downpipe & exhaust with Magnaflow race muffler

Custom Treadstone intercooler with 2.25″ piping

Modified and shaved intake manifold

3-core half radiator

Shaman 13-row oil cooler

1000cc injectors

Marren fuel rail

Fuellab fuel pressure regulator

Bosch 044 in-line fuel pump

Vipec standalone ECU

NITROSTICK crower NS2

ARP hardware

ATI crank pulley

Davies Craig electric water pump & pump controller 

ClutchMasters FX400 clutch & lightweight flywheel

OBX LSD

Oil filter relocation to front bumper

INTERIOR

Autopower full-cage

Touge Factory seats  

Brey Krause mounting brackets 

Crow Enterprises 6-point harness 

Momo blue suede steering wheel with pink Hello Kitty horn button 

Helix short shift

Vipec Dash2

P3 gauge

Autometer – water temp and EGT gauge

Innovate – Oil pressure, Oil temp, Air/fuel gauge

AEM – Boost controller & fuel pressure gauge 

BRAKES

Wilwood 6-piston calipers 

Slotted rotors 

Steal braided lines 

Carbotech ax6 pads – front 

Hawk HPS pads – rear 

ATE super Blue fluid

Wilwood brakes Mini Cooper