has anyone put a racing style steering wheel in replace of the stock one? i would like to do this but i don't see any products shown on the larger parts retailers. does anyone have any recommendations or pieces of wisdom?
Unless you making your MINI into a dedicated track car leave the OEM wheel on. It will cause you more grief that it will ever be worth with the airbag, wiring going to the wheel, the error codes that will follow along with the potential to fail a state safety inspection or get a "fix-it" ticket. That being said, for a dedicated track car you should be able to get a wheel from most any manufacturer. You will just have to adapt the MINI to take the wheel. There are a few folks on here with fully prepped cars that can chime in with experience/advice I found this: Steering Wheel Adapter Which should help you out. THat should allow you to get any generic "race style" steering wheel attached.
There is the JCW wheel which is a bit larger in diameter, but the wheel on mine is pretty much to my liking as is!
Yep...I have... If you have a multifunction wheel now you will lose all that functionality. You also lose the airbag in the wheel. You will need a hub adapter and to prevent there airbag light from coming on you need to put a resister in the airbag plug. You can find information about that resistor in this thread While it is about seats the principles are the same.
Get an alcantara wheel if you're going to wear gloves every time you drive the car. Much nicer feel, tons of grip, but it gets nasty when you sweat on it. If you're going to drive the car on the street, stick with a leather wheel.