This Guy Turned A MINI Cooper S Into A Racing Simulator For His Basement

If you had a 2005 MINI Cooper S, what would you do with it? Use it as a secondary car for trips to the city and occasional track sessions or turn it into a racing simulator?

Brent Cheney from South Jordan, Utah, opted for the second choice. A man with a plan, he always wanted to build a racing simulator from an actual car so he spent $1,000 on a 2005 MINI Cooper S with a faulty engine and got to work.

And boy there was a lot of work involved in this crazy project because Brent needed to chop the MINI to pieces in order to transport it to his basement. Once there, he reassembled the parts on a wood platform using metal brace plates, nuts and bolts, and sheet metal screws, then threw in the video gaming hardware as well.

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He included a 49-inch Samsung gaming monitor mounted where the windshield used to be, a dedicated Intel i9-powered gaming PC under the hood, six surround-sound Harman Kardon speakers plus a subwoofer in the trunk, wireless phone chargers, lighting, and more.

Since we thought it would be better to hear from him how this whole thing came to be, we caught up with Brent via email and asked him the essential questions.

CarScoops: How did you come up with the idea?

Brent Cheney: Kind of a “Hold my beer” moment when I was talking about doing something like this and a friend said it would be impossible. Most of the things I do because people don’t dream big enough. This really wasn’t as big of an undertaking as it might look like. I have seen similar things but never a full car, so I knew that it was up to me to prove it to the world!

Can you tell us about the building process and what did you include with the rig?

“So the process really consisted of setting strict budgets around the type of car I would use as well as parameters for the build. I had to be able to hide all of the cuts from dissecting the car and making it so that I could fit it into my basement.”

“Originally I was planning on using an E36 M3, but this car [MINI Cooper S] sort of fell into my lap and it turned out to be absolutely perfect for the build. Once I had the car, I completely gutted it and cleaned, I cut it into pieces small enough to move to the basement. I had to be able to fit through doorways and around a tight corner on the stairs. From there I reassembled the car, then installed all of the electronics.”

How long did it take and how much did it cost?

“The total time was around six weeks, but really about 40 hours of work spread across those six weeks. I would estimate the total cost coming in around $6,500.”

What are your favorite racing games to play on the rig?

“I primarily play iRacing and Dirt Rally 2.0. I did just see that Tokyo mod for Assetto Corsa though, so I plan on installing that so that I can cruise the Wangan. I run a series with the local NASA UTAH chapter on iRacing with a few races per week that are broadcast on my Youtube channel.”

Thanks to Brent for sharing the project and comprehensive photo gallery with us!