I agree any standalone would be optimal, but for $2k you better be a track *****, race team, shop or pushing 400+hp. Or else just do the AEM or Haltech for ~$1200, or better yet build a Megasquirt system for ~$400 without modules. At $2k+ you'd think the car would be stripped and you'd have HUD display not needing some PnP standalone, therefor saving yourselves $800.

The Haltech($650) and AEM($380) piggybacks like I said will get the job done for about 98% of R53 owners, on the stock fuel system, it can scale up to 450cc injectors before needing to convert to a fpr/returning fuel system. Should not have any issue with ECU changing maps as the piggyback wont allow this, like **** stated would happen. What's it going to take for people to actually realize there is a cheaper solution over $750 software or $2k EMS?

I'm not going to mention BT because it's software tool, I'm strictly trying to stay hardware related in this topic.

 

I agree the standalone will be way overkill for the majority of mini users

As for the Haltech it is a good system and I even had dual maps set up on mine that you could change at the slip of a switch. There are several guys in Australia running Haltechs for several years with good results.

 

@ bytetronik and stock ECU

Standalone FTW!

 

lol..people spend that on rims and never drive over the speed limit. Just because $2K is a lot to you, doesn't mean it is a lot of money.

If you compare the money people spend on mods just for looks, $2K is cheap.

 

Unichip wasn't up to task, but it's not the same as the AEM and Haltech units. So you can't right off all piggybacks because of that POS. Now TrickleX's old SAFC with his turbo setup is the worse of them all, D-MAN used Haltech(now using BT), I've known people who use AEM FIC with no issues. So If I had to choose between $380 AEM FIC that allows me to stay legal versus $2k Vipec that wont pass inspection/emissions for a 250whp street MINI and they both got the job done safely. I'd pick the AEM unit.

You're lucky for the fact BoostCreep is an authorized dealer/tuner for ViPec.

$2k is steep, you're right but you can't base the price of it to BT at $800, which is painfully overpriced and glitchy anyways. BT should be $400-500, then if you base ViPec off that then you'd be $1200-1300 which is a normal fair price for a PnP standalone.

See that's the mentality with MINI guys, X sells product A overpriced @ $500. Y sells similar product A for $800 because X's performs less than Y's, so Y says it's worth more not taking into account X was too much in the first place when X and Y have no competitors. In other tuner worlds a shop makes something another make's it better and charges the same price or marginally more because they care about the community and it's customers.

For Kimball too, so when someone uses "secret" tunes, fuel mods, not so popular rotrex chargers proprietary to them, doesn't post pics of his parts much and doesn't explain how they are made or why they are better then you can only question his motives and lack of competitive edge. He doesn't want any.

 

Oh I've done my fair share of wheel whoring, at one time I had 5 sets of wheels over $12k in my garage, but you can use Kosei or Enkei and be totally fine on the track. I don't know what was your point was, but at this present time I'd could buy everything in your signature plus the Vipec system but that's beyond the point.

The point is $2k is not cheap for a PnP R53 EMS. Not even a Supra TT, Evo, STI, S2K standalones go for that much. ViPec is supposed to be cheaper than the common major offerings, yet he managed to make it more?

Aesthetics are a different story people will spend $4k on wheel setup and lip kits to be different but only $1500 on bolt-ons..

 

Haha nice Nelson. You figured out the screen name lol.

Every tuner including myself uses "secret" tunes. I don't want what I know how to do, that I had to pay for and learn on my own to go to somebody that just reads the bin file. The fuel mods arent secret either, as we had a conversation and you figured it out really fast. Its not that hard, hes jsut not going to plaster how he does everything. Thats smart business to me. Competition should come from innovation not coping.

Now as far as a piggyback go....all of them are junk. You are taking what the is on the way to the ECU and changing it. Then feeding that to the ECU. Anybody that ones one making any sort of power is a idiot. I wont even touch one. They are that sketchy and I've tuned just about everything.

You dont have to be a race team to buy one. Should you buy it if you just have a pulley, intake, exhaust? Nope a tune on the stock ECU will be just fine. Now as soon as you step it up to a BVH, cam, built motor like myself. Yes you should get one. Also the amount of features that it includes makes it awesome for a turbo car. It has a fantastic boost control system. Plus with the mini becoming my track car its really going to help.

I am a very big person with using the stock ECU, being that my EVO run's 9's on a stock ECU. Just the mini ECU doesnt have the people working on it like the subie, evo, honda world does. So it will never amount to anything worth running on a big hp car.

As for D-man. Its based on the V-44 not the V-88....Colin has one in his car...Not a hack and wire job, its a plug and play unit. I think your guy is a little off base two months away is the ETA. 2K is the price or right around there.

 

Jan isnt setting the price....AEM is a shitty system, period end of story. Hell David Bushur wont even run one in his car anymore. That how crappy they are. Get a Motec 800 fully unlocked and see if its cheaper then 2k.

You also have to remember they are going to sell A TON MORE UNITS. Then the mnis because the base for those cars are HUGE. So that also drives the price down.

 

Who's setting the price then?

Either way I hope with this release that AEM will look into the R53 realm now. I don't mind spending $1100 for a "shitty" AEM unit. Others have had issues, I have not on my Integra or CRX. So I haven't blown anything up to date on AEM, neither have the 2 shops close to me who run them. So go figure.

Also when AEM sells 12000 of the same 4cyl units, you'll have a higher publicly known failure rate over say ViPec selling only 1000 v44 units, let it be known that ViPec and other system are no different and have their own issues too.

 

Different levels of boost per gear, or a speed dependant boost level would be possible with the Vipec. All it would take is somebody to design a new electronicly opperated bypass valve to bleed off the excess pressure. (Simmilar to an electronicly opperated wastegate.)

I am still against piggybacks, if I wasnt I would of had one in my car before ByteTroniK came along. I ran a TurboXS piggy in my EVO when I had it, and that thing was a PILE!!! But nobody had any tuning capabilities to do much else at the time. (AEM did offer their EMS for right around $2500, no base map's included, and no tuner's in my area that had a clue how to set one up.)

I'm sure that the price of the Vipec will eventually drop, just like anything else. Somebody has to pay for the R&D, and they arent going to charge the EVO/STi guys more so the MINI's can have their fun. It's just bad buisiness to raise the price on one guy, in order to recoop money spent on R&D for something he gives $.2 less about.

 

Straight from the horses mouth... he who shall not be named stated it is a v88 unit

http://www.minitorque.com/forum/f719...88/#post395121

As for the ETA I would believe the company who makes and sells it over a re-distributer

 

He might want more inputs available for us, 8 injectors capability, external map sensors or knock sensors inputs that only the V88 offers? Then there's the drive by wire controller needed for v44 unlike the v88 possibly having it built in.

 

Eh..might be wrong. Used to see the ones for EVO's.

Well we will see when it gets released to the pubic how long it takes.

@***** when did you have a EVO? ECU flash has been around A LONG TIME.

@PA import. Read around man you will see A LOT of failed ones. Glad you haven't lost a motor on one. The NEW I-10 ECU they are coming out with looks VERY VERY promising....

Vipec sets the price and then whatever Jan sells it for is up to him. He might sell it for 100 over what he pays. Never know. We will find out when it come out.

 

The V88 is the more suitable version for our application if you want to run everything off of the stock sensors, that's why I used that link on pg1.

PAI, I dont know where you get that our cars are anything like your HONDA's. It's kinda like apples to tuna fish, the CRX is OBD1 sad to say it's ancient technology. There are no adaptive values to work around in those ECU's so the piggyback systems work better. With th 64bit Bosch/Seimens systems that are in our MINI's, they try their best to keep people from making changes to the programing, making them want to over ride the piggyback's.

 

Bought it new in '05, got rid of it in '06. Made 300 and some change off of a Dtec @MAC here in Denver.

ECUflash was just coming onto the market, and nobody was realy using it here. TOBZ started with the S/W in '05 but really didnt come onto the radar until after I got rid of my $700 monthly payment.

 

I was using it in 2005...It wasn't anywhere it is now but it was tunable with fuel and spark.

The problem was there was no EVOScan...that software is the best thing to hit the market for the evo's.

Glad to hear you aren't a supporter of piggybacks.

Anyways back to the topic.

 

Pa Import tuner, have you ever used any of the systems other than Bytronic on the mini that you were talking about?

 

I dont even think he has used ByteTroniK, he's not a member over at (another forum), and he is always going on and on about how it is too expensive.

Pretty much anything for MINI's (Well besides the 15HP sticker mods) is going to be more pricey. This isnt the HONDA croud, we dont buy the lowest quality crap we can find off of Ebay, or trade cars once a year to get around state or local regulations to have a fast car. You actually need to PAY to PLAY with MINI's, especialy on the stuff that works. It's something the NEW HONDA guys just dont get.

 

Well Mr.D I agree.

 

Maybe I could have said that better, but WHY!? Truth is truth no matter what flavor.

 

Lol 2K for a standalone unit is pricey these days? People down here in aus pay that for a simple reflash.

PAImport, I don't know where to start with your posts. My fingers don't have the stamina required I think.

 

Very true I spent 2k on a dimsport tune that was crap

 

This works out as a win - win for me, if everything works out with my Sprintex as is, It's all good....
And if not and something does happen to my motor, I can just rebuild it (hell it's got 180,000+ now I figure as hard as I drive I feel like every day is icing) and use this system, it should have no problem tuning for it, after all it's just a twin screw air compressor, they've been around for a long time.

 

these Americans are spoilt.

Even 2k in america barely buys you a decent set of coilovers, so for a standalone ECU with big res and other functions, it's actually very affordable.

 

Yes, I have used the other systems but not on a MINI, it should not be any different. I'm not in a spending $600 to prove a point mood so I'm not going to get the AEM FIC. Tuning is just that no matter where your background was in. I once consider the R53 to be a glorified Neon and I've always liken the MINI to being the love child of VW GTI and Honda Civic. Sorry I had to say that but it's my observation after having both the R56 and current R53. The point is stop making the R53 out to be so high tech and hard to work on. For you it is, for me it is not.

I'm not a Bytetronik supporter(due to price) though I'm support open competitive markets. So that's the only thing about it that I like, it's an option. Now with that the RMW camp will say ViPEC is the only solution, they are going to say Bytetronik is a total waste, that it will blow your engine, and that spending 1300 more on top of the $750 is 10X better. I disagree for the 98% of the R53 owners, blame the tuner not the software.

There is no amount of typing that anyone will say on here that will change my thought process. I'm quite surprised Kimball is part of the RMW camp, as someone like him could be in his own. I fully understand the capabilities of ViPEC, that is not the argument.