My 2005 s convertible is bone stock. I want to start building it. Is there a good exhaust that will give power without being overly loud? I see 15% pulley is the way to go along with an air intake. 25mm sway bar is a must. Any other suggestions?

 

id say start with a pulley and exhaust. two things you will like and feel the most. then you can move onto your intake and sway bar but i dont think they are the most important of all modifications. then id say best things to do would be some coilovers, a header, a camshaft, some injectors, and very last would be a tune and your car will be a LOT more fun to drive. welcome to the addiction

the exhausts arent huge power adders but all relativity the same gain. the jcw exhaust might be what your looking for but i dont think any of them are really all that loud to be honest.

 

Pulley and Sway Bar are the biggest "feel it" mods.

Exhaust is awesome too, but nothing compares to the difference you get from the pulley.

Intakes on the Cooper S seem to be more about sound than they are about power. Especially since most of them just mimic the stock box, but offer more open space.

I, like you, am just getting started in the world of modding my Mini, but having driven some others, I've got an idea of what has been worth the $$ and what has not.

 

i thought the same thing too when i ordered my sway bar but didn't feel the difference nearly as dramatically as i thought i would. keeping in mind i bought the biggest one possible. i think its been overly hyped. pulley is by far the best thing you can do tho

 

You'll get some from exhaust, but the pulley is by far the best bang for the buck (night and day)! I would go with pulley and intake, then move on to the swaybar and then exhaust. Those are pretty much basic mods and you can go on from there. But that's my opinion.


It's not overhyped! I only got a 19mm on middle setting and can lift a rear wheel when entering some entrances and on hard cornering. The rear is much more stiff and it really changes the handling and it's pretty cheap.

 

i didnt say i didnt feel it but it definitely wasnt a night and day difference. iv only used mine on the stiffest setting and on a 25mm bar it was not nearly as great as everyone makes it seem to be. it is however very cheap

 

One ball is the cheapest exhaust mod to make its nice "pops and burbles" even nicer

I have been considering an invidia cat-back for a while...I had one on an old civic of mine and if you heard it, you would not know it was a civic. There was literally ZERO "ricey-ness" to the sound of that exhaust. It was deep and sounded MEAN if I dug into the go-fast pedal. I actually saw a video on YouTube today of an R53 with an Alta CAI, WMW 15% Pulley and Invidia Cat-back...at WOT you couldn't hear anything but supercharger whine...

Edit: the rest of these posts are making me want to install my pulley SOOO bad... I can't wait!