I was wondering if someone can tell me what the lightest exhaust is for the Mini Cooper, not MCS. I have:

Stock - ???? lbs
Helix - ???? lbs
RSpeed - 24 lbs
Milltek - 23 lbs
Magnaflow - 25 lbs
Borla - ???? lbs

Are there any others that are available for the Mini Cooper? Can one put the Supertrapp on the MC? If so, how much weight savings will that give?

Since no exhaust is going to give me a dramatic gain in horsepower, I think the weight of the system is key. Thanks.

 

May I suggest that you look at this exhaust. The price alone should make you want to consider it. Ramus is made in Europe. It is a well respected manufacturer in EU. I have a Remus for my MCS and the sound is great. Not loud. Quiet at idle. Plenty of personality when it is in high RPM and and it is great looking. My exhaust has different tips than the one for the MC. I must warn you, you have to cut your stock exhaust to fit this one. It is not a true CatBack. Very easy to do and simple to install. I recommend it. To your question, yes, I saved about 15 pounds in comparison to my MCS stock exhaust. Look in the web for the European Remus sites. They have sound clips of this exhaust.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33630

ADDED NOTE: I asked RemusUSA what type of unit this was and it is ONLY a Muffler. I do not feel as good about it as the unit that I bought for about the same price that was the semi-CatBack.

Bomboasy

 

he mentioned cooper

since it is not a 2 sided system, 1-3 lbs difference you will not feel it... for cooper exhaust look more to hp gains and sound...

personally ive heard the remus on a cooper cvt, and it is very subdue...

 

Vano, I don't know the numbers, but when I went from stock to Borla, Randy Webb told me that I lost about 9 pounds, and I tend to think he knows what he's talking about. So, if you come up with either of those two numbers, you can fill in the other one. Great idea for a thread!

 

This is from a random two-year-old post on MINI2 with no documentation, but:

Stock - 44.0 lbs
Borla - 34.5 lbs

 

the only problem is that the remus is not a full cat-back...it leaves the stock resonator. The place where power is found in aftermarket exhausts for the MC is mostly in the resonator change....so the remus also produces less power than all of the full catback exhausts. It also explains the good price....its only half an exhaust



Thanks for the weights chris

 

I don't think there is a better exhaust for the Cooper than B and B. They are quite pricey, but you get what you pay for. The people who work for the company are very knowledgeable and helpful. We absolutely love ours, and the sound is so sweet. Their website is bbexhaust.com, our dealership in AZ sells them which I think is a good sign of quality. They are all hand made out of T304 stainless steal and have a lifetime warranty. I forget the weight now, but it is much lighter than stock.

 

I think I'll go with the Miltek- Good all around, I hear.

Those B&B look really nice, but $750 is way too much compared to the $500-$550 price point of many other exhausts, IMO.

I would like a subtle sound, not much louder than my K&N intake, but with a complementary sound.

 

I am asking them for the part number of this item. I am aware that some of the Remus are only mufflers. But the one I bought from them at their EBAY store retails for over $800 dollars and I paid about $275. I am looking at their website in EU and they have exhausts for the MC that go almost to the cat. I am not an MC owner and not that familiar with them, but I would assume that what is in the link below is equivalent to the Borlas of the world...?

http://www.remus-racing.com

You will have to navigate some to get to MINI exhaust, but it should not be too bad. Thanks for the correction, it is Remus.....

 

That's Remus, not Ramus and you can see the write up I did for the MC.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ighlight=remus

It's a great setup and I'd have to disagree with RallyMINI about most of the power being in the resonator. Since many people like to remove the resonator to increase the noise level, I can't see how that can could affect power. It's just a straight through tube.

I got my Remus from Remus USA for $199 on eBay and the sound is perfect, and power is noticeable. I've gotten many compliments from people with Borlas and Miltek that loved the Remus sound.

 

OctaneGuy,

Thanks for backing me up there and the correction, it is Remus. That is a great installation guide. I hope that somebody realizes what a great deal that buy is. I also get a lot of complements on my REMUS exhaust in my MCS.

Bomboasy

 

You're welcome! I'm sure you get lots of compliments too! The Remus sound isn't loud and obnoxious like some exhausts out there. And personally, I like that it doesn't include the resonator.

Since my Remus install, I've removed it once to install a Sport Link and it's a lot easier unbolting the cut portion than unbolting the hot exhaust flange bolts that are hard to access!

Also since the exhaust was smaller than one that includes the resonator, it was easy to fit 2 of them in the MINI for bringing back home from the shop which saved even more dough on shipping

Richard

 

good point

although most of the exhausts come in two pieces...so they will fit as well...i know my borla did

I assumed that because weight was a worry, HP gains would be a worry too. If you are searching for all out performance (HP and weight etc), you should go for a full catback. If you are looking for a nice exhaust note to compliment an intake or something than you will be fine with the remus(it certainly sounds great)

 

Hey I agree with that! If I were for all out HP gains I would have gotten an S or at the very leastwould have gotten a real CAI like Pipercross or BMP instead of the Moss MINI cheapie (now known as Cobalt) that I picked up 2nd hand here on NAM, but a few HP difference to save $60 was worth it to me, and the inexpensive Remus only makes it sweeter. Btw, if Remus hadn't given us such a good deal, I never would have thought twice about them. Having seen them at Moss for $400, I was leaning towards B&B or Milltek which cost more but sound great!

 

If you want light, why not supertrapp? Cut stock muffler off at inlet and weld on supertrapp. Can even change number of disks for hp/torque. For the Cooper, I think Garfield (HS Champ) found 10 disks to work well.

 

Recap:

Stock - 44 lbs
Helix - ???? lbs
RSpeed - 24 lbs (+4.2hp)
Milltek - 23 lbs (+4.6hp)
Magnaflow - 25 lbs
Borla - 34.5 lbs
Supertrapp - ???? lbs

I've been looking at this issue for some time. I'm really attracted to the RSpeed, since it's so subtle. Plus, the difference of one pound, when you've already dropped 20, is negligible. The difference of $50, however, is not.

 

Yeah... that whole "cutting" and "welding" thing-- that's not really for me. I like turning bolts and doing reversible procedures.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. Performance is definitely the key here. The lightest and highest HP gain is what I am primarily looking for. Second metric is sound (as quiet as possible). I have also read that the Supertrapp is the best for power, but I wasn't sure if that was for the MC or the MCS. Does anyone know just how much power one can gain on the MC with Supertrapp and 10 discs?

I have also heard that the Supertrapp is really loud and doesn't have the nicest tone. If the weight/hp gains from Supertrapp not much more than the Milltek or the RSpeed, I may go with one of the later two just because they sound a bit more tame.

 

One of the guys in our local club has the SuperTrapp on his MCS, and it's not pleasant to drive behind him. I can't imagine, unless you're competing in exhaust shoot-outs, that you'd actually personally enjoy your car sounding like that.

 

Anyone out there know how much the helix system weighs? It is supposed to give the most power for the MC.

Another question is, when the manufacturers post their HP gains like 4.6hp and 4.2hp - where in the engine rpm range are the power gains seen? I think the car needs as much help as possible down low and midrange - i spend way too much time at the autocross just sitting there with the pedal floored waiting and waiting for the rpms to build so that the car will actually go. I nice bump in low and mid range torque would go farther than an increase in peak hp at 6000rpm.

 

I'm actually not sure that the manufacturers posted those numbers. They're on Randy's site, and I'm guessing that they're based on his experiences. They're probably irrelevant, as anything less than 5% could be just the difference between any two given dyno pulls. They could also be based on the factory difference between two cars running stock. Some cars are stronger than others.

I would, however, almost guarantee that those numbers were seen somewhere around 5800rpm.

 

Personally, I like the sound of the Supertrapp, very "modified British" sounding IMO.
It's actually not as loud as many would expect, but it is loud.
On a Cooper S, I've had more 'spotty' dyno runs. All I know now is that it makes at least 5hp and drops 30+lbs of weight, depending on where you mount it.
On my '02, the stock was cut off just before the first chamber and the 17" long Supertrapp was pointed out the passenger corner. Now on my '05, I decided to loose more weight and not deal with the exit at all...
We cut the pipe about 2ft before the battery box and mounted it underneath the car. It's louder inside and a little louder outside, but works well for racing.
The other option I was going to do was cut it in the same place, add a Magnaflow "cherry bomb" muffler, then curve a pipe around the battery box to exit at the center exit. Couldn't tell you how loud it would be or what kind of power it would make, but anything's an improvement over stock.

Have fun!

Brian

 

And, with no exit channel for the 500+ degree exhaust gases, you're not worried at all about damaging anything under the car? I would find myself worried about the battery being directly in the path of those gases.

Also, what about the lack of back-pressure? I've heard from numerous folks that back-pressure is a good thing, although I'm still not clear on the principles of why.

 

Brian, do you have any photos you could post of the 2005 set-up?

I've been looking at different options for G-stock as far as mounting the supertrapp and your set up sounds interesting.

Thanks.

 

No recent photos, but you can imagine it pretty easily. If you look under the car, you can see the Supertrapp droop down a little from the center tunnel, ending about one foot from the battery box.

To answer the previous concern, there is heat shielding all around the area for the stock exhaust. And, the Supertrapp doesn't "fire" directly rearward, it mostly fires downward. It works fine and I haven't had any issues.

Brian