Hello Everyone,

I just recently purchased a 2003 Mini Cooper S that I am pretty pumped about. I drove a total slew of crap cars throughout college and am really excited to be driving a quality automobile.

I love the car but I want to see whats out there in terms of giving it some modifications. Unfortunately I am a total mini n00b, and not much of a car expert.

So my question to the great wide world is, what should be the first performance mod I should get for my S?

I am looking for something small to start with, then getting bigger as I go along.

 

Most people say Intake, or software like MTH. theres a thread on motoringfile.com about it.

 

Pulley is bang for your Buck.

 

What about a bitching sounding exhaust....makes you feel like Fangio

Ceck this out: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...64043730&hl=en

peter
Team M7
562-608-8123

 

I second the opinion about the pulley.

 

Pulley. Best return of performance on your investment.

 

exhaust

....makes it sound worthy

easy 'n quick to do if ur good w/tools!

 

pulley, no question

 

ScarletA,

Aloha and welcome to NAM.

Which first mod is always a good question. Note that your mod of choice will likely void the warranty for the item you are upgrading if warranty is still in effect.

Since this thread is in Performance Mods: Drivetrain here are some common mods:
1. Cold air intake- very common, easy to do, doesn't have to be expensive. Even the Hot air intake is good and probably an improvement over the stock intake.
2. Cat back exhaust- not too cheap unless you can get one used from another MINI owner. Also consider the one ball exhaust mod- pretty cheap and lightens the exhaust weight, not louder.
3. Pulley (usually 15%)- best bang per buck but a very serious mod that will void your supercharger warranty. You will get gains but without changing intake and cat back exhaust some benefit will be muted. You'll need a shop to help do the install. $420 installed (includes part).

For Performance Mods: Suspension-
Rear sway bar is good- 22mm with three hole adjustment, try the softest setting. This reduces understeer inherent in the MINI.

Although not directly a performance mod, I really like non runflat tires and lighter rims (than stock). 16" rims with some sticky rubber would be a good place to start. 15" rims and tires would also be fine and less costly while 17" rims look nice but usually cost or weigh more. If you like your stock rims in 16" then just get the non runflat tires.

And so what is the very best "First Performance mod" in any category???
That's easy- driving school,driving school, and more driving school. You'll see that a good instructor in a stock MINI can run circles around modded MINIs everytime at the track. I was at driving school and my instructor in my stock 10 year old automatic transmission Maxima with 3 year old street tires was passing modded MINIs left and right.

And yes, the MINI is a quality car so don't cheap out on the mods.

 

This is probably a really stupid question but i know nothing about cars other then i LOVE my mini. I have some serious wanna know issues. First, why do we have to do these things? Second, what does a pulley do? Do i need to get a pulley added? geez, i just learned on here i need to buy a second tow hook. im not even sure i have a tool kit in mine. i think the guy who traded mine in really had a hey day on ebay. thanx for your help
biz
';

 

Good advice.
Learn your car before you do anything to it.
The first mod = Bentley manual

 

WAY hit this one on the head..... , this is the best bang for the buck (pully). CAI is also a nice one, but you will feel the pully.

 

Will someone please answer my about post? what does the pulley do?

 

Wow thanks everybody for the responses some great advice so far, especially on the driving school part. I think thats a great start indeed.

I think the pulley is a great follow up, is that something a total n00b can figure out how to install? I saw they have a pulley remover tool, but it doesn't seem like something I can tackle off the bat.

Cold Air Intake looks sweet too, gotta start somewhere I suppose.

 

increase boost for the supercharger... therefore, more torque, earlier.... i cant explain the technicality behind it...

sway bar is my recommendation, get a rear sway bar, set it in the middle, and watch as you cant ever get tired of the lift throttle oversteer adjustability

 

I'll be the wet blanket and ask: "what aspect of your car do you wish performed better?" Until you can answer that question, you cannot tell what mod to do first.

Id say the first "mod" you should do is a BMWCCA car control clinic / advanced driver's skills school (skidpad / braking / autocross thing in a parking lot), or an autocross, or even a track day. Then you'll probably have a much better idea of what parts you should buy first, and I'd be willing to bet it's not a pulley.

Perhaps start looking here:
http://www.nccbmwcca.org/index.php?driving_schools

 

The "pulley" is a smaller than stock pulley for the supercharger. There's a belt that drives the supercharger (and lots of other stuff). Putting a smaller pulley (wheel / gear type thing) on the supercharger causes the supercharger to spin faster (produce more boost / power) than it does with the stock pulley.

 

Gee Jason, you sure seemed impressed by my car with it's 15% pulley the day you took it for a spin.I think your exact words were........."Gee this is alot faster than my car"

 

You don't HAVE to do anything to your engine. The stock MCS is amazing enough. However, we do them because we can. The S engine has a lot of potential that is not being used so with the help of vendors and other geniuses we like to get dirty and make our MINIs live up to ALL of their potential.


Some people already answered this. Your supercharger blows air. The faster you blow more air: the better. (This is a very general statement. It is possible to blow air too fast, but thats due to the physics of compression and thermodynamics and the SC spinning too fast and heating up too much.)


No. You already have a pully on your SC. When we talk about "getting a pully" it is usually about a smaller pully. 15% smaller seems to be the most popular.

 

CAI (or HAI like I did - $35!) or a pulley. Possibly the VGS mod when you get more into tinkering.

And about the pulley. Yes, you already have one on the shaft of your SC. By replacing the stock pulley with a reduction pulley (smaller- 15,16,17,or 19% reduction from the stock pulley). By reducing the pulley size you are letting the SC spin faster (more RPM's) which means more boost, ie. faster. Hope that helps a little!

What the VGS (Vaccum Gain System) mod does is close the bypass valve sooner (around 2k rpm instead of 3k stock). This mod is essentially free, minus the cost of some pluming, etc. which don't cost hardly anything. Anyway, it let's the bypass valve close sooner, so you get more boost sooner!

-Cody

 

I think you have already started to make the greatest mod of all "tightening the nut behind the wheel" by joining NAM. Next join the local MINI club so local MINIACs can interact with you and your MINI love. Check out DCMM.

 

Before making changes, learn about the system under consideration. For us, that's the Mini! NAM is a good source, you may also want to subscribe to a mag (MC Squared is a Mini only mag, and covers lots of stuff) or there are a few "intro to Mini's" books. If you're really into performance, learn about supercharged motors (there are a couple of books covered in the review section), suspension theory and the like.

Decide what you want. Maybe you're happy with the way the car drives and the available power, but you want differences in the cabin (iPod interface or holder, some trim items, cow-print seat covers, whatever!) But whatever you want, the more your goals are defined, the less $ you will waste...

Then execute! Get what you want and make the changes you want to. Even if it's just the key-chain!

There are now right and wrong answers as to what you can do. But there are more and less effective ways to get there!

Matt

 

Wow you guys are throwing out some great stuff here, definetly a lot I need to mull over. I just joined DC Metro Mini, I am kind of overwhelmed by the amount of information and culture there is about mini's out there.

I think the one area I would want to improve on the car first would be a slight increase in acceleration. I am leaning heavily towards a CAI or a pulley just as something to get started. I need to find some good classes in my area that hopefully aren't too expensive.

After my first performance mod I really want to make the car my own, but I believe that will be the subject of a different thread!

Thanks so much so far guys, this has been an informative and warm welcome, keep the info coming I am scrambling to try and take it all in.

 

Welcome to NAM!

Dude ... the vendors are going to try to sell you there parts ....

All the answers here are reasonable but the most important, by far, is taking driving classes (Minihume is right).... Just think about this for one minute ...

If you can't drive the car as it is at its fullest capability ... at 10/10s ... then what good is more power??? You won't be able to use it.

 

you want more acceleration, slap a smaller pulley on the supercharger.

All the comments about driver training are right on too. You're new clubmates will be able to hook you up with stuff in your area.

Matt