Folks, here’s the tale.

My ’04 Works Cooper S has had an OEM drive train since I bought it. For nine years I’ve raced it with the SCCA New England Region, and during all that time I’ve never found anyone that I trusted to make changes to the engine management system. Even when the second motor went in at 126k miles I still left the software alone. I just wasn’t willing to gamble with a table stake that could easily exceed ten thousand dollars.

But this year Bren Tuning turned up on the forum where the Mini crazies live, and I thought – ah-hah, a local business! That’s a step up from some of the itinerant magicians that pop into town, tune a few cars, and then return to whence they came. And then a gentleman from New Hampshire came down to Ayer and had his R56 tuned, and then had nothing but good things to say, and I thought – perhaps? Is there someone that can crack the encrypted Works ECU firmware, and not leave the engine fragile and hypertensive?

So I screwed up all my courage, and signed that scary paper that says if it breaks on the dyno that’s my problem. Then I chain-smoked and paced while the finest car I’ve ever owned howled up to redline eleven times – each run a mix of exhilaration and anxiety.

When I saw the baseline versus final run graphs, I was astounded. I don’t care about horsepower, as the measure of a good autocross car is how well it can claw its way out of a slow corner and grab a few tenths on the way to the next braking area, and that is all about torque. Bren gave the car 30% more torque at 3k, and the average gain from 2,600 to 6,000 was over 20%! Folks that is not an incremental change it is a whole new ball game. It has the same effect on the car’s acceleration as leaving the motor alone but removing 500-700 pounds from the chassis.

Now I’ve put a couple of hundred miles on it, and cannot wait for the season opener in April. The throttle response has gone from workmanlike to eager, the quick downshift that has always been needed to get the car on the power band is no more. The top gear roll-on that used to make me grin a little now makes me chuckle out loud.

But best of all, the air/fuel ratio at wide open throttle is now actually richer than before so my paranoia about reliability is addressed. And just to put a bit of icing on the whole deal, my mileage has actually improved too.

So here’s the deal Cooper S enthusiasts… The next time you are headed towards Greasy’ s, or find yourself wondering whether you are getting all the power you paid for, contact Bren in Worcester.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Folks, I've just run a "mileage tank" by which I mean I have driven with my usual light touch on the throttle for a few hundred miles. The last tank measured in this manner returned 30.4 mpg.

This tank returned 32.6 mpg.

One robin doth not Spring announce, but it's an encouraging bit of data.

And now that I've done that I do believe I'll spend the next tank enjoying the power!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Excellent stuff! Too bad I'm all the way on the other side of the planet...

 

Damn! Look at that jewel of a car!

I'm working in Chennai India with a gent that just finished up a large project in KL. Sound like an interesting place to be.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Good to hear a tuner is now plying his trade near Greasysgarage!!! That should make lots of folks happy!! Second the fact a good tune is more about drivability and tourqe than just hp, and a good tune transforms the car, and make it soo much fun on the street, i can only dream about the track!!

 

I love DC's paint too.
It's all in the tuning, even with my mods I'm still seeing this kind of mpg:

70-75 mph = 29 mpg
65-70 mph = 30+ mpg
60-65 mph = 31.5 - 32 mpg

And that's with 550cc injectors

People tend to forget or just don't realize that tuning isn't about "Cranking It Up To The Max", it's more about balance & efficency, hp will come with efficency, the less strain a motor has to endure to achieve it's goal (efficency) the easier it will reach that goal.

It's all aboit making the parts you have work to the best of their ability.

 

Thanks for your comments gents - I surely agree with both of you.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

Thanks Charlie! Cool. Look me up if you're ever in KL and I'll show you around.

Regards,
Leo


Thank you! Not many can pull off the Lamborghini Verde Ithaca but I think the Mini does it pretty well! Thanks again for helping me with the projector fogs. Even with the current halogen H11 bulbs, they're plenty bright. Most of the time I don't even switch on the headlights anymore.

 

Never seen a dyno in the states that quotes flywheel figures (common in the UK) instead of power at the wheels- What brand dyno is it?

 

That is a Dyno Dynamics 450DS AWD, installed at Kaizan Tuning in Ayer, Mass. Mind you the Kaizan folks are great, and ran that dyno for Bren. Kaizan does not do the Cooper S however - they have other strengths.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Charlie you are sound a pusher man....hanging the baggie in front of craving junky! LOL

I am the junky right now...I'm trying to define the best way to spend money on my mini that will bring the best output at the best cost possible. right now in the selection process of a 15% pulley and a CAI. But the tune thing really makes sense to me. Just for benchmarking purposes (and you don't have to be very specific), would you mind mentioning ballpark figures for the tune?

Thanks!

 

Lol. Here ya go kid - the first one's free, and I'll be here on this street corner if you want more....

Bren's pricing is no secret mate - here. One of the many positive impressions on the day was Bren's evident willingness to see the job done well, as opposed to just hitting the marks and on to the next....

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

This is excellent news, Charlie; I'll definitely be keeping Bren in mind once I'm a little more modded up.

Hope all is well on the north shore....

 

Great numbers and story. What mods have you done to the engine??
or is it all still OEM except for exhaust??

 

Pure OEM JCW, except for the exhaust - just as you say.

The car has 176,000 miles on it at the moment, but I put a Works crate motor and fresh blower in it at 130,000.

The header and cat have 25,000 miles, and I'm running a fresh K&N filter.

So nothing fancy...

Cheers,

Charlie

Ps: the tag line on your signature is funny as all hell.

 

Hi all,

We can do remote tuning with handheld flash tools we sell. So this is not set for New England only.

Flywheel figures: Keep in mind the figures in the dyno is using a fix Shootout mode (Shoot4F), which allows dynojet-like numbers and has no tolerance for zero manipulation. It is similar to using a 1.15 correction factor.

Thanks,

Bren

 

Well folks, this tank has been dedicated to the pursuit of happiness, and I have caught it!

More impressions, now that I've had about 450 miles after the tune, and 250 miles of using the loud pedal when appropriate...

1. the mileage is much better even when cruising over 70 mph, which used to be the cut-off point above which Gollum would start slurping gas

2. it is rare that there is sufficient traction to open the throttle fully in 2nd gear (1st gear? fuggetaboutit, even with the Quaife). however 3rd now pulls the way 2nd used to...

3. roll-on acceleration from 3k in the upper gears is just delicious

Too much doggone fun!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

And so it begins!

We Have You Now!

 

Luke - I am your father.....

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Now you own a mini....or maybe your mini owns you!!!
sounds like the fun has really begun...your tires will be gone in no time....then brakes...then clutch....lol.
but it is fun!!

 

You will surprise some of the regulars at the track. A tune really is the best bang for your buck. It is so much more than peak power and hard to put in words.

 

Hmm.. there's a lot of folks here on the dark side - quality too.



We shall see.

It is often said (and I reckon I too have said this) that autocross is at least 90% driver.

So hmm....

I was getting my butt kicked to the tune of less than .5 on a 60 second course - so we'll say I need a 2% improvement to be safe...

Given that the car is only 10% of the problem, and it got 30% better, that's 3%, right?

So I'm covered? The mean men that schooled me last year in their shiny 330 ci should now be afraid?

 

Just a postscript. Part of a reliable tuning service is the ease of following up if any little issues arrive. This was certainly a factor in my willingness to do business with Bren, as his locality ensured that we could get together if needed.

I did indeed have a code a couple of times in the 500 miles following the initial tune - it is a throttle position issue that is quite specific to the JCW R53 Cooper which affects many but not all cars.

Since the code cleared itself in all cases within 50 miles of appearing, I was not too concerned.

Bren however was eager to correct this intermittent issue, and made it easy for me to stop by and get the latest Works firmware (spliced into the very successful tune I had) applied to my car.

That level of perfectionism, and the grace with which the whole matter was handled, is further tribute to someone with a great approach to their business.

Again, I would recommend Bren Tuning without hesitation to R53 JCW owners up here in New England.

Kind regards,

Charlie

 

And now the car is up at Turner's, and the prospect of a fresh suspension is tickling my fancy.

I asked Marco to ensure the car is at least at its current ride height, and we chatted about the challenge of finding the right 15x8 rims for the front end.

I'm also curious about the numbers that will come back from the corner-weighting process. Have I managed to get it under 2,500 lbs I wonder?

I'll have it back tomorrow, but until then the BMW station wagon is a nice loaner.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

And all is well, with fresh and shiny bits on all four corners!

The car weighed 2,560 with about 25 lbs of gas. That'll do though because I just cannot bring myself to use Recaro over the stock seats in a daily driver.

The Bren Tuning work is standing up very well, with no codes and great power.

Today we race!

Cheers,

Charlie