ostentatiousness is all very well. We’ve got a lot of time for people who paint their project cars bright purple, or retrim their interiors in outrageous in-yourface styles, or fabricate one-off bodykits to morph the factory lines into something entirely new. Stepping away from the beaten track is something to be encouraged, we love the lunacy. But this sort of approach isn’t for everyone, and it takes all sorts to make a world. For some, particularly in recent years, the key has been to modify cars in such a considered and light-touch manner that the uninitiated would never even suspect that anything had happened; following the OEM+ route can refine and perfect the factory treatment while making everything a little bit better. This technique speaks softly (in conceptual terms, at least) while carrying the proverbial big stick: it doesn’t shout about all that’s been done, because it just doesn’t need to.
Of course, there are levels to this. If you’re starting with a base-model R56 MINI
