I have a 2011 Mini Cooper S.

Everything is stock on it except for the Alta Air Intake.

I noticed the group buy for the Helix FMIC and am wondering what can that do for my MINI if I do not plan on Tuning it, nor change the exhaust or downtube on my MINI. I do however don't mind changing some tubes at the same time as the FMIC but that would be the extent of my modifications.

What do you guys and girls think? Is it not worth it, or even on a stock MINI a FMIC is still the best performance mod to do on a R56 N18 engine?!

Thanks for all your input!

 

It will lower charge temps a bit, and help combat heat soak keeping the charge temps closer to ambient for longer than the smaller stock FMIC will. So, what this means is that rather than making more power, it just helps prevent you from losing some power due to heat soak. You'll have to make up your own mind if this is worth it to you, I know that I'll likely be picking one up next year, but I'm a little further south and probably deal with hotter temps in the summer than you do.

 

Whoever said that an FMIC was the best performance mod? CKeffer is correct so I won't go over that. That said, cooler air is better... If I were ever to mod (egads the thought!), I would want to do things to make life easier on my engine (CAI/DoS, FMIC). No real gains, just better/cooler air. While there, discharge pipe (2011 doesn't need charge pipe). I would also think rear sway bar to get a handle on under steer and perhaps a short shift kit.

 

Sorry for spewing miss information! I should of said I THINK the best performance mod was a FMIC.

Must of read it somewhere if I think that as clearly you can tell my level of knowledge on the subject by the question I asked. I just didn't pull this out of thin air!

As for the FMIC question I had, It doesn't seem like I would be putting my money in the correct mod for my MINI. I was even considering of going back on what I thought previously and perhaps get a Downtube as well, but then im running close +/- $800 from a factory JCW upgrade.

Food for thought! This opens up a whole new round of questions I have for that!

 

Just a quick update.

Looks like I was wrong again! I called MINI thinking that the JCW upgrade was between 1700 and 2200! Wrong! Its $2900 plus tax! Pushes it past the $3000 mark.

Looks like ill go with my plan B, suspension mods!

 

Suspension modes won't do you wrong, my friend. The stock MCS is sweet powerful. I've had trouble from time to time keeping up with Justa's on the twisties!

 

I can tell you that a tune is great, but it creates traction problems if you don't upgrade to sticky tires. That is probably the best performance mod, ironically the one I haven't done.

Have fun.

Mike

 

My next mod after the NM tune this week will be a Quaife LSD to help with the traction issue. After recently dropping $3k on The Dread Pirate, it will be a little while!