I put a RSpeed exhaust and a K&N intake on a standard Cooper. I want to know if it's really worth it to buy an exhaust and intake. If I'm not going to be as fast as the Cooper S, I figure it's a waste of time. I'm already assuming I won't get that much faster and I'll be paying for sound. Is there any advantages of upgrading to these choices?

 

I'm really not an expert on tuning MINIs ( I used to tune Jet Skis, whole different ballgame), but in my personal experience, you would have to do more than that to be as fast as an MCS.
I have a friend with a standard Cooper with a similar set-up to what you are asking about, he has the K&N intake and another exhaust (I forget which) and although his car sounds really nice and pulls a little better than it used to, it's by no means as fast as my MCS when we compare our cars' performance. It's definitely harder for me now to leave him behind on the highway, but eventually I do.
Logically speaking, to match the performance of an MCS you would need to add something close to the 48 extra horses of the MCS, which is gonna be hard to get out of just an exhaust and intake.

In my opinion, regardless of performance, the Rspeed exhaust will probably improve the sound of your car a good deal and that might be worth it to you, considering the care you've put into making your car look as sweet as it does.

If you've got some money to spend, I say go for it and enjoy the sound and whatever extra power you can get from it.

Cheers!

Did I mention how sweet your car looks?

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I was wondering if there is any aftermarket turbo-charge for the Mini Cooper because HKS do have turbo-charge for many car out there.

Wonder what kind of HP with the aftermarket have on the Mini Cooper.

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jivanivan,

You will get some HP from those mods, but nowhere near an MCS. You'll see an improvement especially @ 4000 RPM's plus, and in second or third gear. My recommendation is to do one thing at a time and see how the car adjusts to the mod. Do the exhaust first, break it in a bit and do some really spirited driving - take it close to the redline on an onramp in 2nd, whatever. Once you're used to the exhaust, do the air filter / intake change and drive the same way. You'll gain some more power, a little more torque lowdown, the car will feel gutsier, and sound more aggressive. I put the Rogue exhaust on last October, and did a modified air filter / intake last month. Not sure if I could switch back to stock now, after getting use to the growl I get when I floor it. I think it's reasonable to expect 10HP from those two mods. But your best bet is to do dyno the car stock, then dyno it after each mod to see improvements if you really want to know for sure.

There was also an aftermarket company doing a bolt-on turbo kit for the Cooper - close to $5K, can't remember who it was.