It's been a few years since I've looked at tuning software for the R53's.....just wondering if anyone has came out with anything new? The R53's (and MINI's in general) have very limited options when it comes to doing your own tuning. Bytetronik FA was about the only option I could find a few years, but from what I found on the NAM site....it was marginal at best. Other than that, you're only option was to pay someone like Jay or Jan to do a remote dyno tune for you (big money after you pay for the download tool, and a dyno session)

Has anything new came to the market over the last few years? Or are R53 owners still stuck with limited/no tuning options?

Something like HP Tuners (that the Chevy guys use) would be awesome!! ...but I doubt we will ever see anything like that.

 

The Bytetronik FA53 self tuning kit is one of the best tuning options on the market; of course, one has to be knowledgeable in order to maximize the effectiveness of our tool. Even with HP Tuner and/or Cobb tool, if you give that to a non-tuner, then it is still GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out). Between our own Custom Remote Mapping (CRM) Service and through our dealers, Bytetronik has many many happy customers world wide. Our biggest advantage over the competition is our Data Logging capabilities and with our data logging capability, we do not need a dyno to perform our tunes

1320MINI in the UK is our exclusive Tuner/Dealer/Distributor for the UK market and they are known to be the top R53 tuners in Europe... and they use the same FA53 Tuning software and GUI to perform their tunes. In fact, they have clients drive over from Europe just so they get tuned with FA.

At the last Lohen Dyno, the top R53 was a 1320Tuned MINI powered by Bytetronik FA:
Lohen's April 2017 Dyno Day (Gen 1 Results)

 

Are there any dealers here in the US....or only UK? If so...who are they?

 

You're a long way from Spokane Wa but Advanced Auto Fabrication in Spokane has done wonders with my car. I have FA on a couple of my Minis and love it. I'm probably due for a retune but it seems to run so well and I haven't bothered downloading any runs.

 

List of dealers are located here (some of actual Tuner/Dealers, I think those are the ones you want to contact):
http://www.bytetronik.com/contact/

 

Are there any "stand alone" options for an R53 that would work for a daily driver?

 

It's not the DD issue that makes the stand alone a possible problem, it's the OBDII compliance that creates issues with inspections and the like.
Right now there's Vipec which I don't think is OBDII compliant, and supposedly ECU Masters is working on something.

 

Shaun bailey is running a 22 % pulley? That would be neat to try, not sure if meth could keep up with keeping it cool on the track though

 

I thought the main issue with a stand alone controller for the engine management was that the stock MINI DME is still needed to control everything else in the car (lights, blinkers, brake lights, windows, airbags, gauges, traction control, ABS, on and on). How do you run a stand alone just for the motor, but keep the MINI DME in operation in order to work everything else? Isn't the MINI DME going to freak out when it realizes that it's not getting inputs from the motor? Maybe my understanding of how all of that works with each other is not correct. ?

My state doesn't do any emissions testing.....so the whole OBDII thing doesn't really make a difference to me.

 

With some maybe, but the Vipec for the Mini is just that, setup to work with the other Mini systems, and includes a few base maps.
My county in Missouri does require emissions through OBDII, so the only way I could use one is to swap it out two weeks before inspection, but that would require three factory ECU to work properly for those two weeks, so why not just tune and run on it if I can.

 

Just out of curiosity....where do you live in MO? And do you know any good tuners that are local? I'm in Springfield MO.....anything MINI is an oddity.

 

I'm up here south of St. Louis, and there's nothing Mini related up here either, hence the remote tuning with ByteTronik.

 

MiniLink - #MINI+

Link owns Vipec now.

 

Any idea on price for that stand alone DME? Also, I'm assuming that all of the other oem controller functions (ABS, traction control, DSC, lights, power windows, blinkers, on and on) still work?