I have had my car for about 3 weeks now and I love it. Reading all the posts here has really got me considering so many mods.

I am considering the Alta CAI. I love to drive and I am a very aggressive driver. I returned my leased 06 BMW 330 xi for the MINI. Does it make sense to swap out the factory airbox and get an aftermarket CAI?

I also have the M7 STB. I understand that I will need to shave away a bit of the aluminum top of the airbox so that the STB will not come in contact with the CAI.

Any comments?

 

I have the Alta intake for thousands of miles...real easy install and will definitely add some awesome sound.

 

You don't think the factory JCW makes awesome sound!!!

 

I've actually never heard one, but either way there's no way it sounds nearly as good as my car...with one key being the intake, which will unlock alot of sound.

 

I'll take your word on it, but my JCW makes plenty of noise to make me happy!!

 

Not interested in "noise." I am looking for better performance. Will I get any with an aftermarket CAI? Is an aftermarket CAI a good first engine mod?

 

yeah you'll get some added performance with the cai, and I'd say it's a good first mod cuz it's simple to do.

 

Maybe get added performance over the MCS box, but I wonder if the situation is the same on the R56 JCW as with the R53 JCW, whereas the JCW airbox is actually quite good.

 

well courtesy of my friends at Alta.....

 

As mentioned in a recent thread the factory R56 JCW is not using a JCW airbox found on the "bolt on kit" for the regular S. Just uses the regular S box.

 

I'd wait a bit. Most of these after market products are designed to boost the performance on an S. Your JCW is tweeked pretty good from the factory. Get to know your JCW better and wait until more info is available!! As mentioned above the out of the box JCW equipment is pretty high performance already. Tweeking an S is a lot easier since there is more improvement potential.

 

Sikamini, I like your advice. I will wait a bit. Maybe think about this again in the summer. I have more pressing things to consider like replacing some speakers from the awful "HIFI" upgrade waste of money stereo.

Since I live in the NYC suburbs, maybe some snow tires on new rims would be money better spent.

 

By next summer there will probably be more upgrade products for our JCWs!!! There are a couple of good threads on snow tires, read them recently, take a look!!!

 

I agree....love it

 

Red Bull,
Did you also install the boost tube upgrade Kit and the turbo inlet hose, what do you think about those upgrades?

 

As far as intake noise the Factory JCW intake is really quiet...the Alta intake I just put on sounds great and you get the blow off sound...you don't hear that on the factory one.

 

I hear the blow off sound with my stock JCW. Not a train whistle level but it is still there and I love it.

 

There is a sound that I can hear when you drive it a bit more agressively! Sounds pretty good to me too!!! But, I'd rather start with suspension mods if I didn't have them already. That 10-12 WHP may not mean much if you can't control the MINI!

 

I'm considering this upgrade just for the blow-off sound. :D I can really only hear it now in the summer when I have the windows open.

 

The Alta has a really nice Blow off sound.

 

I would do the Alta CAI. I had one on my 03 MC. Made a big difference. I'll be ordering one here shortly (after some suspension mods).

 

Ah yes, but this is not exactly like the R53 JCW, which just had bolted on parts. The R56 JCW has reworked pistons, camshaft, compression ratio, uprated transmission as well as a few bolt-ons, so the potential of the JCW is quite good as well....

Alta intake would sound awesome with the high boost of the JCW

 

Anyone with the JCW cai from the kit instaled in the factory JCW?

If so, any performance diference noted to the stock filter that comes with our factorys JCW?

How about the noise?

Regards,

Afonso

 

Screw BMW! Don't get their CAl as just just a matter of principal. Lot of great aftermarket CAls

 

^^^yeah what he said!