Is anyone familiar with the Alta supercharger...I recently bought an 03 Cooper S with an aftermarket Alta supercharger..it also has a cold air induction, a header and aftermarket exhausts...I bought it from a dealer who didn't know diddly about the car or its history. Is it common to have this brand of supercharger installed? is it usually necessary for the types of mods this car has had done? How much horsepower should all of this produce?

thanks

 

Alta is the brand of supercharger pulley you probably have. Alta doen't make superchargers. The MINI has an Eaton supercharger. If you look closely at the pulley you'll see a number with a % to tell you what size it is. If you post pics of it we can tell you more about all the mods you have.

 

Don't know much at all about superchargers, but the unit on top of the front of the engine has the alta name on it...sorry, don't have pictures right now. I know that it looks different than the stock s superchargers...this one has a chrome finish and I believe the stock one is black...hope this explanation helps

 

It might just be an Alta diverter on top of the stock intercooler. Does it look like this? (Color and finish may vary, and the black post at the middle of the front edge might not be there.)







Alta also makes a replacement intercooler that looks like this:



As WayMotorWorks said, Alta doesn't make superchargers. There are companies that have put out replacement superchargers different from the stock Eaton unit, but it's a pretty major (and challenging, design-wise) upgrade, so there aren't a lot out there.

 

My supercharger dosen't look like any of those pictured...it must be an older one...the alta letters on it are very small...I will have to take a picture of it and get yall to give me more feed back...anyway, thanks and I will get back to this later

 

I think you're talking about the intercooler, not the supercharger. The intercooler sits on top of the engine - air from the SC runs through it before entering the combustion chamber. The SC (supercharger) is under the curved silver 'horn' on the left of the second picture above. If you have an aftermarket pulley, you probably also have an aftermarket pulley usually 15%, 17% or 19% (as a % smaller than the OEM pulley.)

 

O.K....I do believe that it is like the one in the first picture...however, it does not have that top piece on it...it is just the square piece with the cooling element and there are screw holes where top part goes in....is this a messed up system that will effect performance> What is missing?

 

if you have an Alta reduced pulley, it might look something like this....