Since the release of more tuning software has become available for the R56 we have been striving to develop a turbo back exhaust system that would make the most of the cars potential. Several muffler types, piping size/ material, cats, resonators, and hardware were put to the test on both the street and the track in an effort to achieve power as well as a quality exhaust tone. After several months of testing we have finished and are proud to announce the development of the ABF TECH DIVISION TURBO BACK EXHAUST SYSTEM.


All our piping is seamless 2.5" 304 stainless steel, mandrel bent, and hand polished to a mirror finish.
No plating or coating to crack and chip. The downpipe flange to the
turbo housing is 0.5" stainless steel water jet cut to ensure perfect fitment
and seal.


No gaskets or cheap mounting hardware are used.
Only high quality Reid Washborn v-bands make it
on our exhaust systems.


Full tig weld construction.


This photo was taken near the end of testing prior to polishing,
but the excellent tuck and fitment can be seen.


Initial designs for our exhaust system included a catalytic converter, but because there are no cats available that meet California or federal 49 state standards we decided not to include one. This was done to get as much power out of the exhaust since we saw no point in adding a restrictive cat that would be illegal anyways.

The offset inlet muffler and large diameter resonator were chosen to eliminate the raspy tin sound often produced with small displacement 4 cylinder engines. The end result is a deep powerful tone.

To avoid damage to the fan and valve cover we made sure all the factory heat shields could still be used with no cutting or modifications.

The 2.5" pipe was chosen after we saw there was not a significant power loss over our 3" designs. Fitment quality and sound were also taken into consideration when making this choice as well.

We didn't want to make this exhaust available just on the merits of our R&D alone so we made sure that customers we did make it available for were completely happy first. After 10 sales and nothing but positives feedback, we are confident it is ready for the Mini community.

A software flash or tuning is required for proper vehicle function after installing this exhaust system. Only vehicles with an Alta Access Port or like device should install this product. AP maps written for vehicles with this exhaust and other mods will be provided with the purchase of this exhaust system.

MSRP is set at $1500, but we are going to offer it at an introductory price of $1350.

All the following graphs are from the same 2010 MCS and read as follows:

Solid line = ABF Turbo Back and Alta/Cobb AP STG 2 tune
Close space dash line = Alta/Cobb AP STG 2 tune
Wide space dash line = Stock with JCW Tuning Kit

This graph shows the over all HP and TQ of the test car at several points of tune and modification.


This graph shows just HP from the three test runs.


This graph shows just TQ from the three test runs.


At peak there is a 32HP and 41 TQ gain over stock and a 10 HP and 5 TQ gain over the AP STG 2 map and no mods.

In most of the mid range HP numbers increase with gains upwards of 38 HP over stock and 20 HP over the AP STG 2 map by it self.

The turbo spools much quicker so peak TQ is achieved earlier on in the RPM range. TQ also holds high dropping off very little until the 4500 range. At that point though HP is built up quite nicely and the car continues to pull strong to the upper RPM range.

We did run into some heat soak issues on the dyno because of the stock intercooler. With a more efficient intercooler the customer cars pulled less timing up top and power did not drop off as much. On the street the intake temps don't get as high and performance feels much better then on the dyno with out it, however it is still recommended that an upgraded intercooler be installed for hard driving.

Here is some video clips to demonstrate sound ( turn up the BASS! )
Idle and standing revs


Launch


Light acceleration and cruising interior


Hard acceleration interior


**NOTE** The graphs and videos were added at a later date then the original post. Some of the following post will reflect this.

 

Back when I was picking up my car from getting the motor built last year, I was talking to Hubie. He was telling me about the exhaust system he was developing for the R56, that it was meant merely for all out performance with the added benefit of a MEAN sound. It was run on the 2010 JCW R56 ABF Street Class Redline Time Attack car during the 2010 season and.... it was undefeated all season. I have heard it in person and its the best sounding exhaust for the R56 so much so at one moment you could confuse it for a V8.

 

looks outstanding.

should get a video up....

 

+1 for a video.

I wanna hear this thing!

 

No cats and it is still $1500?

Competitors are selling turbo back exhausts with two cats for under $1400..

If you sold it for $1000 I think you'd have a hit.

 

Motor Mouth,

I agree at $1000 I'd have to get mine right now. Maybe if William Shattner starts selling them on priceline we will get to name our price.

If ABF would post some impressive dynos and sound clips with Mini's at different stages of modification the value of this exhaust might be easier to understand. So come on ABF show us what you got!!!

 

A video is on the way. Right now all the customer cars we have access too have other mods and we would like to put up a video of a MCS with just the exhaust. My car was a perfect candidate, but I sold the exhaust off it to a customer that fell in love with it after a test drive. So once I get a new one back on there we will shoot a video and post it.



Your right $1500 can seem steep when compared to many of our competitors, but it is our competitors that drove us to produce this exhaust. That was in fact the first thing we questioned when designing our system, "what has the competition put on the market already". From what we found the old saying you get what you pay for came to mind right away.
It was because of this we set out to produce an exhaust system that would be made of highest quality components and material, but not so crazy that only a handful of people could enjoy it. In the end there are really only couple that come close to comparison. Even then when you look into things like muffler/resonator designs, v-band types, and material used, exhaust that look similar but priced a little less don't meet the same standards as ours.

 

I am interested and only about 20 miles from you guys so if I could see some proof in dyno form and sound clips that you have indeed developed a higher performing and better sounding exhaust I could be customer #11.

You say you have sold this exhaust to 10 happy Mini owners and I would think it is safe to assume that the 10 Mini's were not all modded alike so of the 10 happy customers some one must have dynoed or if not for sure you must have dynoed for your own company's product development. So please post some dynos and sound clips so we can see why your system is better than some of the less expensive.

BTW I have a 2009 factory JCW with Helix I/C, NM hot & coldside tubes , JCW round intake,and Cobb A/P so if you have any results for someting close to this configuration or any other please post.

 

That should not be a problem. Most of customers that bought the exhaust also had us install intake, I/C and the AP with our map. Typically we sell KnN and Forge for intake and I/C, but i think the results will be similar given what you have installed. We'll get that graph up soon.

 

MCS with the ABF TD turbo back exhaust, Forge I/C, KnN intake, and the Cobb AP with one of our maps.


This is still a pretty conservative tune designed for safety and daily driving. This owner hits the canyons and track quite a bit though and loves the way the car feels.


**NOTE** The graph that was here was removed to avoid confusion with the graphs in the O/P **NOTE**

 

That JCW is tuned? Numbers look way low...especially for an AP-based tune on a JCW.

I'm assuming the gain shown on the graph is the gain from your turboback only? (seeing as that's what your trying to showcase here...)

However, the "before" dyno is right on par for a stock JCW. So I'm a little confused at the "after" dyno....you say the car is tuned and has the TBE, but the gains don't add up here.....

Also, another side question, doo you sell the DP only...it looks too long to be sold by itself.....(aka will hook up to stock-length catbacks...)

 

I'm also very confused by the results... seems like a lot of $$$ spent to gain 20-25hp and maybe 30 ftlbs torque?

 

Thumper,

I was thinking the same thing the way ABF is presenting this info it look like a JCW with the ABF TD turbo back exhaust, Forge I/C, KnN intake, and the Cobb AP with one of ABF maps is producing total gains of 26HP & 31lbs of torque.

If this dyno is showing the gain of just the addition of the exhaust then that is HUGE but the way it is posted it looks like this is total gains of all mods listed. So for right now confused and disapointed.

 

Sorry, but I'm thoroughly unimpressed. I have much more with just an IC and tune.

edit: with the update that it was not a JCW but an MCS it is better. I'd rather see the before and after numbers without a tune though as those numbers ar every similar to what I had on my 07 S with a tune, IC, intake, and stock exhaust. The after graph is purely only from more tuning which tells us nothing about the exhaust.

 

I do apologize for the typo and the confusion. The graph and info posted above are from a MCS and not a JCW as a few of you noticed. I'm not goign to lie i would have taken a double take too if I thought that was a JCW. The rest of the information is correct however.

To add some further clarification the before portion of the graph shows mods added with the Alta base map. The second is after further tuning. Also keep in mind the map was written by cobb to improve the cars performance, but keep it safe for daily use.

We are working on getting track specific maps that utilize these mods a little more, but are still in the process of working the kinks out before making them available.

 

At this time no we have not made plans to sell the downpipe separate.
Currently we only have the system set up to be a full turbo back. The downpipe is longer then stock to place the V-band in the open space just behind the oil pan letting us tuck it up in a little more. It is also turned more towards the trans to move it away from the sump in the pan and creates a straighter connection to the rest of the exhaust.

Depending on the response and general satisfaction of this system we may offer a options like a separate DP, cat back, pipe size, ect.

 

Are you guys working with Mynes on creating maps with the Cobb Access Port? How is that coming along?

 

This looks like a remake of the riss racing version. The akrapovic exhaust is starting to look better

 

We were rather fortunate to have Cobb SoCal open up about 5 miles from us.
Tuning and maps are provided by them.

 

Those numbers on a MCS, even with the mods listed, puts this product in the realm of a worthwhile mod.

I would suggest you consider offering your product in as many configurations as is economical. The market for MINI exhaust systems is pretty limited to begin with, no point in limiting it even further.

You might also consider a turbo back for the Clubman, besides Alta, I don't think anyone offers one.

Good Luck

 

So the before numbers are all the hardware and mild tune? The after numbers are the same hardware with a little more aggressive tune?

Why even show us? It tells us nothing about the exhaust. It only shows that a more aggressive tune gives more power.

I had a virtually identical numbers on my 07 with just tune, ic, and intercooler.

I'm not trying to be a hardnose, but you've shown us nothing of substance.

What you should do:

Show us a stock car graph, then put only the exhaust on the same stock car and show us that graph.

Then you can show us a modded car with stock exhaust, then add your exhaust without changing anything else and show us that one.

 

Have you been able to tune the air/fuel mapping so the car doesn't think it's running super lean with this cat-less design? I'm not totally sure, doesn't the R56 ECU run a richer A/F ratio when a downpipe related CEL shows up?

Thanks for your insight!

 

Does this mean that the base map and the more aggressive map both came from Cobb.

 

The exhaust looks nice...but their pricing is WAY out of whack here. Especially for a catless downpipe. Maybe if it was Ti??

You can buy a hybrid K03/JCW turbo for around the same price as this exhaust. Something that actually, without a question, provides huge gains.

 

This ABF exhaust offering sure has alot of members interested and posting and it seems like many of us want to see some reason to consider the ABF exhaust for purchase but so far there is no proof that it offers any performance gains above any of the other much less costly products. If ABF can't show some simple before and after ABF exhaust dynos then how are we to determine if the ABF exhaust delivers any power gains.