I took the advice of MiniRoadstah and paint matched the head light bezels. The black bezels made the front a bit busy.

scuffed the shiny chrome for adhesion


Self etching primer


Paint mixed at local auto parts store


Please do not tell my wife about this part.......

 

Cleans up the front. You have a great looking Mini. Plus, a lot of painting talent.

Won't say a thing about the oven.

 

No true talent, the black is plasti-dip. Very hard to screw plasti-dip up. The wheels and bezels are simple rattle cans that anyone can do.

I love coming home to a big brown box from the brown truck man!

 

Like I said... not wasting time. Surprise! The good work continues.

 

Carerra style decal

 

Continues to look great. Cooper side stripe script does look like the Porsche writing and looks good on a Mini. The Cooper S stripe looks better.




How's the interior?

 

Yes, looks pretty close.

 

Out with the old and in with the new. Ireland Engineering cat back was a breeze installing, no issue what so ever. Took about an hour on my garage floor. All fasteners and hangers worked perfectly. The sound is smooth with zero resonance. Perfect tone and nice burps and gurgles. The price was $380, far less than the more popular ones.

 

That's tease. Let's see those new shiny exhausts on the Mini!

 

It's dark out now (darn day light saving time). One tip is slightly longer than the other, nothing a little trimming couldn't handle. I'm satisfied with the way it sets, it's very slight and only noticeable if pointed out. The tone gets deeper and deeper the more I drive, I'm in love. I'm very happy I didn't go with the more expensive ones, heck it's only piping and a muffler why should it cost an arm and leg?

 

any drone at all? I have just a rmw header and straight pipe after that, and my god, I feel like my ear drums are going to explode half the time.

 

No drone at all. I'm very impressed with the system. I've done tons of research and was about to pull the trigger on the miltek and decided against it. The single muffler is supper light and was very easy to install. It only has two main parts and then the tips. It goes together like butter. I kept waiting for the "hard" part but it never came. When I was done I kept thinking I missed something.
Shipping was fast and took only five days coming from CA to MI.

 

are you still on the stock header and stock cat?


I only have header and test pipe and that's it.

 

Holly cow that has to be loud. Yes I'm still on stock header and cat for the time being. I'm researching headers and how to eliminate the CEL. I'm considering the OBX header and welding the angled o2 bung but still unsure.

 

it doesn't help, I have the rmw, must have gotten a faulty one, had to relocate the o2 port. still got a cel

 

And this is why I haven't bought one yet, I hate CELs. I've heard that a tune could be needed with a header and test pipe. Did you notice a hp increase with the header?

 

my boost went down 2lbs. because of the lack of backpressure, but I think im gonna grab the exhaust you got, im still waiting on a tune, I have to get new injectors.


im sad, but at the same time its making her faster, and me poor-er....

 

had an ie on my e36, it was really nice for the price. Great company to support, always happy to give them my money.

 

I hear you on the lighter wallet. I just ordered supercharger oil and necessary gaskets, gonna tackle it this weekend. This will be my first of many "front end service " might as well get familiar with it.

 

Ok so I was able to do some spirited driving with the new exhaust. I'm sure exhaust alone does not equate to much of a horse power difference but combined with the 15% pulley and cold air it pulls much stronger. My boost gauge shows that I'm building boost faster too. I wasn't sure if the added sound made me believe the car performed better but I'm thinking the exhaust free'd something up. The best way to describe the difference in feeling is the car sort of felt choked before but now it's able to breath.

 

Better flow, better go. It all helps, especially the 15% pulley.

 

Started on the supercharger oil change and fill. Thanks to Mod mini on youtube for his great point of view videos. I was able to get this far in about an hour (air tools). My oil pan and crank sensor were bone dry but I'll be changing the O ring anyway. My gaskets and oil should be here in the next day or so. My confidence in working on and maintaining the mini has grown. The more I drive and tinker, the more I enjoy owning this little pup.