So now there are many communists made TMICs on Amazon starting at $88. Only if one of these factories know if they copy and reproduce the GP they can fetch handsome profit. Most are pretty rough and even the one that Looks most OE you can see the difference on the cross tubes. And that is just a start until I examine the inside closely.



And if any of you are reading this, you will need to include the mounting hardware if you decide to make a GP TMIC knockoff.

 

I would tend to agree from the stand point of smoother flow for the compressed/cooled air. However it seems that Pro Alloy's current design emphasized on maximizing the air to air heat exchanging surface area by compromising flow smoothness. There is a long IC thread over at Minitorque and the introduction of the newer Pro Alloy design starts here.

 

I am not one who is actively shopping for a IC. Mr. Blah is. However this discussion piqued my interest so I waste more time of my life.

I have not paid much attention to the Mini intake air path until today. Here is how disgusting the intake manifold looks after the TMIC output horn. All the attention on smooth air flow at the IC is just pouring perfume onto a hog . I am not accusing MINI engineers of doing a lousy job. It is the packaging, stupid. In fact each time I cuss at busting my knuckles working on it, I cannot help but to appreciate how they made all these fit under the tiny bonnet.

 

there is a thread on here where the guy that designed the engine went into great detail about the packaging change to the manifold, I do not have a link to it handy, but he mentioned the sneed manifold looked like what they wanted to use

 

Anyone done a pure "airflow" test just on the various inter-coolers/radiators ?
Like is done on cylinder head ports and intake manifolds... No engine needed, just an air flow test.

Force air in... What's the delta between the inlet vs. the outlet pressures.
Air could be pulled (vacuum) also, just for reference, but should be pushed in to simulate what actually happens under boost.

Mike

 

So have you made the decision which to get yet?

 

leaning towards water to air, I may leave it alone, meth keeps it from exploding. I picked up a 135i a week ago, it may become an alternate track car

 

I do not want to bother with meth, nor want to lose the AC so FMIC is out for me. The red Mini that I regularly run with has FMIC and everything imaginable for a track Mini. The expense for our Mini climes fast disproportionally when you want it to go faster.

 

That is why I picked up a 135i, paid 5k for 400hp. I was shopping big valve heads & cam for the track car. ~35 hp giving me 235whp for 3000 $ is a hard sell I am a budget analyst for the government and I really lost sleep thinking about that return on investment.

 

R53 Mini is so much fun to drive on the track though. I cannot imaging stop tracking it. It has been the funnest car for me and stands up very well against the GT4 in the fun department. It is a hero car just like the classic. It carry over the no matter what you do to it it will always be not competitive with other cars. Just look at Nick Swift. He drives the pants off the mini and seldom wins.

Horsepower and torque solve a lot of problems, and if you chase that path the Mini is definitely not the way to go. I want to be able to jump in any cars and drive reasonably well in them. That alone is good reason not to give up tracking the Mini. I have to do so much more than someone driving a high power car, especially one with twin clutch automatic or very good slush box automatic.

I can image the additional fun if you fit a sequential gearbox, or even a dog box into the Mini, rather than spending the money on monster power which tend to make it extremely unreliable.

 

I'm definitely not giving up my mini track car, we have a couple high HP tracks that would be more fun with the 135i though. Getting passed by cars going twice my speed gets old

 

There is no more satisfaction than walking past Porsches and the badass modern American cars in technical sections of the track, and have the driver come over to scrutinize the Mini, and too embarrass for them to ask what I have in that little square box. Also most often after giving them the point by at the straights, they embarrassed themselves at the first turn because they are just bad drivers in which their cars make them hero.

I want a late Lotus Exige with V6 SC that this continent don't get. I understand you can import one if it is built for racing from the factory. Of course it would not be a road car and I am fine with that.