I have about seven thousand dollars to spend. I find the cooper to be a little sluggidh do i definitely want to make some more horsepower. This car also has to be a daily driver. I would like to have a good all around car. Does anyone one have any good ideas on what to buy?

Thanks,
Ben

 

Not to come off the wrong way, but if you have 7K extra to spend, your better off getting an MCs, and doing some mods to that. There really are not that many mods that can give you the feeling that you want, and keeping it a reliable Daily driver.

If you do want to put the money into mods, you can get an intake, and exhaust. It will give you a bit more power, for about 800. Other then that, there is a turbo kit by 1 or 2 other companies, that are out there.. but I do not know about the reliability of them.

 

no offense taken, i just bought the cooper and it is an awesome car. There are two reasons for me not getting the S. one i have no fingers on the left hand and that would make it hard to shift and steer at the same time. two i wanna go a different route than anybody else. The car doesn't have to be as fast as the S just has to be faster.

Thanks,
Ben

 

I'd look into a borla exhaust, pormini intake. Those are 2 presse easy upgrades, that give some power. Star there, then see if you need more. It's always fun doing it in stages. Feeling the car progress. Send me an e-mail if you need some prices.

 

Thanks for the help. I'll look into those!

 

do you know where i would be able to find the supertrapp exhaust online?

 

Given you have a CVT Cooper, you may want to spend that money on suspension mods or interior upgrades. It would be pretty tough to get major acceleration from a CVT without a turbo or nitrous (I don't think either of those options has been tested on the CVT yet).

 

I've never driven a CVT, but wouldn't a CVT driver get more OOmph out of his performance if he used the manual shifting mode-which can be done from the steering wheel? What I'm getting is that, I have a Cooper too (5speed), and love it, but there are days when I feel things could be faster, and then I realize that I have my AC on, or that I'm shifting way too early. Then I remember to put the fun hat on, and shift at 5-6K all the time.

5,500 RPM in 2nd or 3rd gear is quite fun.

 

>>no offense taken, i just bought the cooper and it is an awesome car. There are two reasons for me not getting the S. one i have no fingers on the left hand and that would make it hard to shift and steer at the same time. two i wanna go a different route than anybody else. The car doesn't have to be as fast as the S just has to be faster.

Ben,

Aloha from Hawaii and welcome to NAM.

If you really like your MC then great. Some people really enjoy the looks and styling while others like the challenge and like to be different. Doesn't matter. There is plenty to do and you have come to the right place for ideas. We have many extremely nice MC examples. $7000 is more than enough to do some damage. But don't spend it all in one place.

Forming a budget is wise. Just because modding for the MINI is such a black hole for $$$. Simply break up the mods into categories based on what your interests are and prioritize. Here are some examples.

Performance mods-
For the MC it isn't easy to do a lot for power gains. Realistically speaking a gain of about 10-15 HP would be quite a bit to ask for. On the less expensive side things like a cold air intake, cat-back exhaust, magnecor wire upgrade, and ECU upgrade are options. On the more expensive side both John Cooper works and DINAN are releasing upgrade kits for the MC with warranties. Then there is a M7 turbo kit with lots of power (about 155+ HP) coming.

The other approach is to lighten your MC which usually means get some light weight 15" or 16" rims and non runflat tires. You'll still have a compact spare so you are lucky. A word on wheel weights. The continental 175/65-15 tires on 7 hole stock 15x5.5 rims weighs only 26 pounds each. With the same tires and stock 8 spoke rims it is 3 pounds more per wheel. Both are already fairly light.

Then there are suspension mods that will improve handling for cornering and for autocross or track events. If you do only street driving then stick to the stock suspension. Lowering springs, a 19mm rear swaybar, or rear adjustable control arms are common upgrades.

Appearance mods-
Common upgrades include aerokits and painted wheel arches, side skirts, and bumper trim areas in body or contrasting colors. Painted interior panels and dash pieces and changes to the upholstery- either cloth covers or leather, even custom work on the headliner. Tinted windows, mirror covers, Carbon fiber pieces, MCS gas cap in chrome, cowl scoops, tail light mods/tints, interior chrome trim rings, arm rests, rally lights, etc.

Comfort and convenience mods-
Storage mods like center console and glove box organizers, euro parcel shelf, ipod or cup holder, audio/video upgrades, boot storage bins/cargo net, roof racks, rear tail trailer attachment, etc.

Best thing is to search far and wide on NAM and look at the pictures and go out to some local or national events and see the MINIs up close before you choose what to do.

 

OctaneGuy wrote:
I wouldn't think so. By its nature, the CVT will hold the engine at its horsepower peak while continuously varying the gearing to achieve maximum acceleration. Running in "manual mode" would artificially create dips in acceleration where the engine is above or below its horsepower peak.

 

>>OctaneGuy wrote:
>>>>
>>I wouldn't think so. By its nature, the CVT will hold the engine at its horsepower peak while continuously varying the gearing to achieve maximum acceleration. Running in "manual mode" would artificially create dips in acceleration where the engine is above or below its horsepower peak.

I would agree with andy. I have driven a CVT extensively in all it's various modes and while I like the CVT manual mode I really like the SD mode or maybe use a combination of these. Had I been aware of this I might have not bought an MCS but that is all behind me now because I wouldn't give up my little MINI anyway.

 

There's a guy in our local club running a fully modded MC with the CVT tranny - and I mean, he's got every mod you can name:

Intake, exhaust, header, heads, cam, software, springs, wheels/tires, swaybar, etc. I think his total damage for everything was only around $7K with installation. I must admit, his CVT is pretty quick, too - at least compared to a stock one.

If you wanna spend all $7K, you should be able to build up a killer CVT Cooper.

If I were doing it and spending all $7K, I'd go with the BMP/Promini intake (~$196), RSpeed cat-back (~$500), MiniMania or other head of your choice (~$1500), Shrick cam (~$500), Powerchip software from Webb Motorsports (~$600), coilovers (from Webb most likely, ~$1000), 22mm rear swaybar of your choice (~$150), and 17" Comp SSR's with Kumho MX's (~$1600)... and that's less than $7K! :smile:

 

Suspension, suspension, suspension.

I recently took all mods off my Cooper, and the most noticeable difference was suspension by far.

Going to a set of nice sticky tires will also do wonders, but I would search these forums for what the opinions are of 16" versus 17" on the wheels.

 

I don't know anything about it, but you might have a look at this Turbo Kit.

 

Fully understand why you went for the CVT, but be careful with engine upgrade performance modifications. The CVT will be the weak link in the chain, and cause you nothing but headaches. It simply was not engineered for more than 115hp. Go for an exhaust and intake, and leave the engine alone. Spend the other funds on wheels and tires (Best bang for the buck) and stop right there. I think you will be happy at this point.

 

>>Suspension, suspension, suspension.
>>
>>I recently took all mods off my Cooper, and the most noticeable difference was suspension by far.
>>
>>Going to a set of nice sticky tires will also do wonders, but I would search these forums for what the opinions are of 16" versus 17" on the wheels.

So did you tell us why you took all of your mods off of your cooper?

 

I wanted to bring it back to stock as much as possible, in order to sell / trade in. Had I decided to keep it, the suspension mods I had done would have remained intact - they were that noticeable.

On Friday, I did trade the car in : https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ic=26567&4

 

>>>>Suspension, suspension, suspension.
>>>>
>>>>I recently took all mods off my Cooper, and the most noticeable difference was suspension by far.
>>>>
>>>>Going to a set of nice sticky tires will also do wonders, but I would search these forums for what the opinions are of 16" versus 17" on the wheels.
>>
>>So did you tell us why you took all of your mods off of your cooper?


Lease??

 

Not a lease. But car is easier to trade/sell stock and then make some $$$$ on selling parts.

 

Head out to ALTA, they have lots of good stuff, having 7,000$ to spend should be like a kid in a candy shop

 

whoops didn't like at the date, brought this back from the dead..