You know the real question is have anyone of you put one of these kits on and acctually seen what it does? If not, what do you base your opinion off of? I have in fact and still do own one of these grounding kits. I do not currently have it on the MINI. As stated before they do not add power to your car in terms of Horsepower or torque but the will help better stabalize the electrical current going through the car. Not everything is grounded in a MINI or every car for that fact. And why not enlarge the ground wires? And the Nissan I drove was not made in Japan it was made in Mexico and the kit didn't do anything bad to the car.

 

The Japanese Mini crowd is actually quite active. I was surprised to even see Mini specific kits sold in big chains such as Autobacs, Yellow Hat…

I don't know much about the big names in the Japanese tuning scene, but for the Mini, when you browse the Minkara forums for instance, the recurring names are Garbino, Janspeed, T.M Works, DUELL…

As for the "earthing kit", the most popular kit (because it's precut at the correct length for the most used grounding points) for the MINI comes from Seotune, apparently a small garage in Aichi prefecture.
But brands like Splitfire also have MINI specific kits.

As for MINI tuning garages, the ones I hear the most about are :
ex-form
Mini Delta
bond MINI

Long story I am a shipbroker (chartering, sale and purchase…). Been living in Tokyo for the past 10 years.

Very true. You are right, this fact should be highlighted

 

There is a local guy here in California who makes a kit for subi's and also an r53 kit. he said it will fit an r56 also, I will try to find a link and post it. It was only like 30 bucks, or 50 bucks if you want gold connections.

 

Grounding kits are also very popular for Rx-8's. My friend has been raving about this grounding kit or that grounding kit for his 8.

Kurisu, thanks for sharing about Japan's MINI scene. I knew their have a huge MINI crowd over there and I always wanted to check out their forums and stuff but unfortunately I do not know about Japanese to comprehend. Are there any U.S. products that are popular over there? At the same time are there any big Japanese products over there that's a "must have"? I see that Janspeed is making a pretty good international name.

 

Yes, Janspeed is making a good name for itself.

Uhm, popular U.S. products in Japan ? difficult to say… A few people seem to import Alta intakes for some reason, I've seen a few Cravenspeed flexpods, but otherwise I don't think so, since the same types of products are sold here, and you don't need to pay for shipping/import taxes, then.
(for example, personally, I believe DUELL's CAI looks way more interesting than Alta's, price wise and engineering-wise)

As for "must-have" Japanese products, I'd say the smaller accessories are the more fun… like the Pivot X2mc gauge (OBDC based water temp/boost gauge), Garbino's 1DIN console replacement, or MiniMax's odo/tacho faces for example. For bigger stuff, I think the current ¥/$ exchange rate and the shipping alone will just make it non-sensical...

 

Kurisu - some of those gauges are cool, but we'd need them in MPH. edit: I just realized they show mph under the kph
duell's CAI also has lots of promise.


Know anywhere I can get some of those rear spoilers or tailpipes that stick 20 feet up into the air?

 

Ha Haven't seen those yet, but give it time…

To be honest, while some of the stuff for the interior is actually functional, and under-the-hood parts look interesting, some body parts are just…. well, let's say it's certainly not my cup of tea…
stuff like this or this for instance… ok, sure, everyone's entitled to their own taste, but…

 

This is one of the shorter ones but you get the picture




Edit: ahh found one!

 

Do you ever remember seeing that Toyota Echo rolling on the island that had that had the pipe like that? Not nearly as high but the same concept. That was my friend Ashton and it was a fence pole.

 

Bet it looks neat when you fire one of them up after sitting in the rain.

 

It was funny as hell when we put confeti in there. It was like a New York ticker tap parade

 

That Duell Intake is genius!

without the stupid Air flow meter Restriction.. it's made life so much easier

and the filter is right at the front, where the opening is..

if the filter could be sealed around and to the intake duct.. than it would be the ultimate!

What does those Retail for?

have the japanese Cracked the ECU yet? or have tuning options for the R56?

 

I think you posted in the wrong section

 

As far as I can see, the Duell intake retails at JPY 88,200 for the cotton filter kit and JPY 98,700 with a stainless steel mesh filter.
I've been asked before, but as far as I know, there are no Japanese stores that offer simple shipping solutions to destinations abroad…

In Japan, the R56 ECU tunes are based on DME (the vast majority, it seems), for instance here : T.M Works DME Tune. They claim to get 212PS / 308Nm with a stock R56 Cooper S (stock being 175PS / 240Nm).
No idea if it's real, I'm not so much interested in that, especially with my car still being in the warranty period.

 

is that a typo? is it really $1,000 for a stick with a filter on the end?

shipping isn't a problem.. after owning an FD and 2 FC RX7's.. u need japanese contacts to help with the lack of parts..

they can be my middle man.. no problem

 

Unfortunately not a typo…
Dunno why it's so expensive, I can't imagine the relocation of the coolant tank being something that drastically jacks up the price… And at the moment the strong yen doesn't help.
Looks nice though :D

It's a relatively new kit, thus price might come down at some point…

 

it's usually that way with all cars

the japanese always come up with some new cool mods

and the americans take and mass produce it for peanuts

it happend with the 46G3 and the SR20 and the 13B and the 2JZ etc etc

HKS stroker kit will run u $5-6,000 an Eagle stroker kit from the states will run u $1.5-2,000

before the Drift craze, there was no american made SR20 products..
before the Evo 8 there was no 4G products either

now look at all of them!

if the US spec mini had no MAF i'm sure a similar mod would be available state side as well