Now that the cars have been available for awhile I'm looking for some info from folks that have done some mods on the MCS...chip, intake, exhaust...possibly head work and cams.

I'm curious to hear about how those changes have affected the reliability, and drive-abilityy of the car. (Most of my driving would be on the street, but I do participate in a couple of time trials per year as well as 4-5 auto-x's and a dozen or so spirited TSD rallies here in and around the hills and twisties around the Upper Mississippi River Valley).

If anyone could provide some real world info (no marketing propaganda or dyno bs please) it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

-crashgearbox@yahoo.com

 

crashgearbox,

Great question, and one that's not usually asked.

From what I've seen so far, the ECU is an absolute incredible machine. It really does adapt to whatever you through at it. With Exhaust and intake mods, we haven't seen any idle or drivablity issues. When you start doing cam work, you probably will see some idle issues, but I haven't personally had any experience with that yet, so I'll leave that to anyone who has. I will be doing a cam in a cusomter's car soon, so I'll let you know.

The pulley mod under development hasn't shown any adverse effects either. So far, it seems the ECU has adapted to the increased air requirement, but development is still underway.

ECU tuning has no negative effects on drivabilty or idle yet, and in fact has helped some cars with the cold start issues. We'll see how the new tuning from GIAC does - I'm thinking it will be spot on.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I'd be glad to discuss the performance modifications out there with you and design a system based on what you would like to get out of your car.

Randy Webb
Owner, MINI-Motorsport
randy@mini-motorsport.com
720-841-1002