Way back when, there was an article I read where they compared 3 different Mini tuners and their modified cars. One of them fitted an exhaust with one exhaust tip on each side of the rear valance (rear valance modified). This eliminated the crazy bends in the pipes to have the tips in the middle together. Does anyone know anything about this. I would love to know how to get that setup...

 

if you're really serious about it, you could get an r50 rear bumper cover, cut an extra slot on the left side of it, and run a custom exhaust set up. I've seen a few r53's set up this way. It would probably be cheaper this way than getting a set up from one of the tuners (think about the cost of jcw or gp parts versus an aftermarket company, huge difference in price!) Also with a custom set up, you'd be able to do it however you wanted, so you could have a quiet exhaust, a loud one, or get a selector, and have one side run a small resonator and the other side run a hushpower or something quiet like that, and you'd be able to choose between good sound, or not having a headache, all with the flip of a switch! If you're willing to tackle the job, or have a custom exhaust shop do it for you, it'd definitley be a very cool way to do it!
just some thoughts,
-Austin

 

One thing to add...
Since Mini's have an inline 4 with a single header...there is actually only one exaust pipe...(one cat, etc)..any more pipes are just for looks..on the r53 it it one pipe till the muffler, on some aftermarket exausts, the split occurs in the final piPe section.
Not sure how you would get less bends than with most aftermarket exausts...the stock is crazy, but most aftermarket ones are much better. Most of them utilize a y pipe and then use 2 mufflers, in parallel, to reduce/prevent droning.
In the world of custom cars almost anything is possible with some time, money, and constant upkeep...some things look cool, but can be troublesome from a mantaince point of view.

 

Ok, I figured it out... it is a BBR modified MINI. It really is pretty cool. I am looking for the quietest system that does add HP. I liked the idea of elimination of extra bends with a secondary gain of being able to put a hitch on car for occasions where I wanted to take a bike on the car.

 

JCW and Stratousmosphere/Milteck are usually the quietest with a good gain...
The rear hitch with them are doable...but may require bumper modification...that is why they often list a rear hitch for the r50, but not the r53.

 

If the rear hitch is really what your after, you might want to just get the mini do more hitch. And as far as making it quiet, but still gaining power, you should look into the magnaflow hushpower mufflers, many people on here use them for their custom exhausts, when looking for something quiet!