I put this up in the drivetrain area, but i figured it was a good idea to put it up the land of Factory JCW guys and gals.

2009 JCW Test and Tune

This can also be found on our site HERE...

We finally got around to retesting all our parts on the new 09 JCW. WE have very good results on our 07 and 08 R56 Minis when we tested every single ALTA part back to back. To this day we have proven these results over and over again with customer cars and new R56's we purchased. You will see below once again we have proven the same parts on this new 09 JCW.

We have learned a few things over the last couple years with these cars. The first years of R56's had some significant mapping differences than newer cars. This was evident when we tested our catback exhaust on our early R56 where the Exhaust actually made 2psi more boost everywhere. On later cars the boost stayed the same which made the gains less, but still a significant 20whp. These later cars ECU's seemed to have better logic for the boost control and was something we expected to see on this 09 JCW. And sure enough we saw evidence of this but more on this later. With that all said, the gains we saw were still very good overall. But one thing this car is dying for is more boost! The very last dyno run is evidence of something every single R56 owner will be dying to get their hands on.......


Onto the testing! To make the results as legit as we could, we prepped the car by removing the bumper(for better FMIC access and install), removed all but one or two key bolts on the turbo heatsheild, and of course a couple on the Intake system. These allowed our swapping of parts to be as quick as possible to minimize any skewing of the results. An important thing to note is every part we installed we took the averaged gain as the result. This means the first run (generally the most HP) and last (generally the least HP) was thrown out. You can see evidence of this using the colored dots on the side of the dyno graphs. The Red and yellow were never used.


First up is the most obvious and easiest to install the ALTA CAI. Some of our other tests we had done we experimented with hood down, hood up, fan in the scoop area and so on. This time we left the hood open but no fans providing fresh air to the filter. I know it sounds counter productive, but the results were still impressive.

Just as we had shown on the older R56's, 10 or so Wheel HP was had with the intake. Also just as we had shown on the older car, the bulk of the power is from 5000 on up. But some decent gains in TQ from 3000-5500 were had too. The special ALTA foam filter and smooth silicone hose could be why this works well. Next up is the FMIC on the stock car.

The graph is showing the stock car, with the FMIC only installed, then we added the CAI to the mix. Again a decent gain from 5000 RPM on up. More solid proof the ALTA CAI works! Before we moved on, we tested the ALTA turbo inlet hose compared to the OEM JCW hose. As some may know the OEM JCW hose is an upgrade from the normal R56 hose. So our ALTA hose may not actually make more power, and we were a little worried as to what we would find.

We were relieved to find the ALTA does out perform the JCW part. And while it may only make 7whp or so it is a gain! Looks like another worthy part for you R56!

For the FMIC test, we were excited to show it work on a stock car. In the past all the testing was done with turboback exhausts installed or intake and turboback. We did this because we truly thought no one would be installing them on a stock car, but what do we know! At least once a week people ask how it would do on a stock car, so we finally did it! It really wasn't a surprise that it made power, but it was a surprise as to how much and where it made power.

The test above with done with the bumper removed from the car. In one way this really helps the OEM FMIC out because the bumper covers up a good portion of the bottom of it. In another way, the gains shown above are favoring the OEM FMIC, but ours still makes more power! Because of how we did this test, we were able to feed both FMIC's the same amount of air, and very consistent at that.

This next graph is a little out of order, but it does show the gains our FMIC had when running it back to back with the ALTA turboback and CAI with inlet hose installed. Not quite as much as with the stock car, but if we had a way to turn the boost up........

Ok and last but not least the turboback results. On the 09 JCW the exhaust system is a bit different than the older cars. There is one central location for the cats, the downpipe. On the older cars there is a cat in the downpipe and one in the middle of the exhaust. And we built our turboback system to suite these early cars. On the 09 JCW, the downpipe has 2 cats, but both very large diameter, and stuck one on top of the other. This is great for keeping back pressure to a minimum and it might me our results may not be as good. The other change is to the middle part of the exhaust. There is a cat missing here that normally would suck up some of the sound, so Mini made the resonator about 2 times longer than it was.

The ALTA 3" system we were installing was the one we made for the normal R56, so it has 2 cats, one in the downpipe and one in midpipe. What this means is for the 09 JCW the entire system has to be installed as the catback or downpipe can not be installed separately with the OEM pieces.

The gains are a little lower than we had seen before on the early R56, but still very good. The things you can't see on the dyno is how much more responsive the car is. With the large 3" Stainless Steel tubing and the significant drop in back pressure, the turbo spool time is greatly reduced. Also re-spool time between shifts is another place you really notice it. One more thing you can't see with dyno graphs is sound. Finally this 09 JCW sounds like it should, mean and fast!

In conclusion, every part by them selves works very well, and makes a noticeable difference. But as we had seen on the newer cars with somewhat limited boost, they don't all add up the same. So from start to finish, our Mini started at 197whp peak, and after all the parts were bolted on we ended with 217whp peak. This is only a difference of 20whp peak, the real difference is seen before and after these peak numbers and the overall drivability. The car gets to a point and the difference they make becomes less and less. What this car is really crying for is a way to turn up the boost and put those parts to use. As we had teased earlier, here is something you can expect to get in the near future with your 09 JCW...

 

Pretty impressive stuff guys! I have been waiting to see some figures on this. I would probably start with the CAI, FMIC and boost tubes but the factory JCW has so much power already I can't help but keep asking myself - Do I really need more power than the car already has? I know...stupid question. Hard for me to justify changing the stock JCW exhaust cause it just sounds amazing! So much character- the farts, backfires, burbles. How did your exhaust sound compared to the stock one?

 

Yea. Can you post a video??

 

Thanks for asking! The power hungry, get hungry often so I know the feeling!

The ALTA exhaust maintains all the farting, burping and backfiring. It is a programming change in the JCW vs. the Cooper S, not a function of the exhaust. The ALTA system sounds just GREAT on the car. Especially on the dyno! I had friends from neighboring businesses messaging me to say how good the car sounded.

UberAndreMan :Let me know what kind of video you want and I will see what I can do. Happy to help!

 

Jeff: Why do you always get to show your best side? Not fair!

 

Adam, are you guys going to be open on this Friday?

 

The employees have the day off. However a few of us will be floating around. What do you need and we would be happy to see if we can help?

 

Just a video showing the new sound coming from the engine as well as the exhaust.

 

Yeah, I'm interested to hear the new exhaust but more interested to see how the CAI changes sound. I'd love to get some more of that turbo goodness to my ears.

 

I may be down in the Portland area on Friday and wanted to get a idea on which engine mods to do and the order in which to do them. I can do this via the phone but its nice to see what all is involved. thanks.

 

We will get some sound bites together. I know we do not have a before and after of the JCW exhaust and ours, but we do have some of the normal Exhaust and ours. Intake sound clips we for sure have, we just need to put them together.

 

i'd love to hear the intake sound on a JCW

 

PM me your cell phone # and I will ring you on Friday and let you know if I am in the office or not. Always happy to meet with another MINI enthusiast!

 

We will have more videos and sound clips up ASAP! Thanks for asking!

 

Nice writeup

 

How much boost does the factory JCW produce?

 

Can't wait to see the videos / hear sound clips. This is all very good news as my JCW is in production this week.. Thanks for all your R&D time for our cars..

 

19lbs

 

Adam... I have stopped by and talked to Chris. I am buying the rear sway bar, lower control arms and end links first up. When I spoke to Chris I asked him about your ECU retune project. As your article says, the JCW is crying out for more boost. What is the ETA for the debut of your JCW ECU system? ...and can you tell us how it works and what gains you expect to see?

 

Thanks for asking, the business and for stopping by! Sorry that I missed meeting you myself.

The JCW and Cooper S ECU Upgrade Hand Held Tool, will come out as soon as possible. It will be a small hand held unit that is shipped to client (they get to keep it) and it contains maps tuned to the specific mods, fuel and altitude of your car. The client then simply connects it to the OBDII data port on the car, follows some simple prompts on the screen menus and viola!

You will also be able to change the mapping at any time and those new maps will simply be e-mailled to you and loaded onto the Tuner via PC or Mac. Then simply plug the tuner back into the car and choose the new map. You can also change the car back to stock at anytime including prior to any service work at the dealer. Very slick stuff!

Gains will vary but you can see from the bottom graph Jeff posted above the HP is huge! Much more to come.

Hope that helps! be sure to come out for the Open House / Garage Sale / Show-n-Shine on June 6th 10 am-3pm.

 

Sickness!!!

 

Thanks, I thought it was close to 20 lbs.

 

wow - count me in for that device when it is out!! approx cost?

 

So Adam, when is the date for release of this product.

I was kind of excited to read your information on the ECU box, and I mentioned my interest in the Alta ECU upgrade at a Mini rally I went to last weekend... and a couple guys said "Ah don't hold your breath, Alta has been saying that they were coming out with this since last fall". I think it would be cool if you had the product... Now I know trying to build a product that really works can take time, but can you narrow your response. What does as soon as possible mean?

 

Hey folks,

Expected MSRP is $695.00 with a introductory discount.

People can hate away on the time needed to get this 100%. After the UniChip we endorsed turned out to be such a turd quality wise, we are making this ALTA Product to be beyond perfect before its release. I am using it on my personal R56 JCW and R53 GP right now and we are continuing to develop mapping while the actual hand held electronic unit is being finished up.

ASAP means just that. As soon as the product is 100% and in boxes we will ship. thankfully the manufacturing of the device itself is already done. it is simply the programming and ECU to tool protocols that are being finished.

We will continue to update this community as we always do!

Thanks again folks!