One of the most sought after features by many of us who take our MINIs to the track are working brake cooling ducts. As most trackday junkies know, one of the first things that starts to fail on a MINI on the track are the brakes. And one of the biggest reasons for that is a lack of cooling the pads and rotors. BMW’s own cars have dealt with this issue for years with working brake ducts designed into the front bumper. In fact BMW has been doing this for decades for pretty much every model.

However the one exception was always the MINI. For the R50/R53 there was a semi-official part created for the JCW Challenge racing series back in 2002. However it was only available from John Cooper Garages in the UK and it was designed to use the openings where the fog-lights normally were housed. And it was insanely pricey for two pieces of plastic.

MINI has now made amends for all of this with an updated JCW aero kit with brake ducts designed into the front bumper for the R55, R56 and R57. Even better (for those who already have the aero kit) MINI has created a retro-fit kit that fits the JCW aero kit from 2007 to 2008. The kit is relatively straightforward in terms of installation and it uses the normal cooling area to house the ducts. Of course the only caveat is that you must have the JCW aero kit (or at least the front bumper) on your MINI.

Pricing varies by market but in the US the kit will retail for $238. However be sure to check out our MF sponsors who carry official MINI accessories for potentially lower prices.

Now for the best part. You can download the official MINI retrofit PDF below. Enjoy.

+ JCW Brake air package retrofit / MINI PDF