I have the 2009 JCW HT. Yesterday while driving on the freeway a R53 was revving his engine trying to race me. I knew he had an exhaust and other mods so I punked out. Today I have decided to mod my car so i will never have to punk out again against another R53.

I have 2 questions for everyone.

1. Is the stock 2009 JCW exhaust good enough to leave alone?

2. I am looking for reliable power upgrades as this car is my daily driver. I am speaking of more than CAI and exhaust cuz those mods will only make the car marginally faster.

It seems most of the mods out there are tailored towards the R53 and not the R56. Any suggestions on how to build the car up for reliable power would be appreciated.

 

Where do you go from here? To the track.

 

2 cents time:
You say "punked out"
I say being the better man.
So he had mods and could have beaten you, big deal. I cannot see spending thousands upon thousands of dollars because someone could beat your car. After all it IS a freeway, not a racetrack.
Think re-sale value as well!
Leave it as is and be happy with what you got!

 

The CAI and exhaust are really necessary before to much modding to begin. You have to let her breathe first. I say start out with those and see where you are. By that time they shoud have some new software for the ecu. That's the order I would go in. Unless money is no object then go for D all of the above. As far as the guy on the freeway I would have dropped the hammer and saw what happened. I think you would have been surprised. As well as Mr. Rev Happy R53.

 

Hi flow filter for the air box, then ECU tuning... when available in the US. I know a company over here in the UK that maps the JCW to 250bhp, and that's on a completely stock car.

 

boost tubes also. good to have before you get a tune. honestly, for big power a tune is the only way to go.


and i never back down from a race, regardless of if i'll lose or not. heck i tried to race a c6 z06 today so i could hear its sexy exhaust. lol. i think its funny when civics try to race me and i just throw it in fourth and spank them.

 

I'd say to a mountainous road, so you can stop worrying about the idiot in the R53 and start enjoying the car YOU bought. Know the car inside and out, then work from there.

 

take your JCW to the track and learn how to push it first....then you can start modding until your little heart is content. max on the track, transfer info learned to the street and go with it. so many people have too much car for them, they haven't a clue how to use it and so on....I've seen guys on 250cc motorcycles beat litre bikes because they know HOW to apply learned lessons. report back with your findings!

 

Thanks for the replies guys. As far as an ECU tuning goes, it is my understanding that there is no reliable ECU tuning for the R56. Everyone is waiting for a company to come up with it and so far it is lots of promises but no results.

 

Your story reminds me of the time I owned a 2004 MACh1. The only people who would race me are the one's who were just waiting to whip my @$$. Anyone who I lined up up against ofcourse I knew I would win. So basically you did punk out because you like to Cherry pick your races too. HAha

or you could look at it this way

You are a grown up and you do not need to prove anything by racing..Racing was like cool 10 or 20 years ago. before they started throwing you in jail for going a 100 MPH. or confiscating your car just for participating. I was street racing punk for many years at least 20.. but now that I am older I really want to race but I will save it for the strip or just not to save my wallet and points on my driver's Licence. The Police do not play anymore. But then again is say this but where i live they do not cruise so i do not feel the same temptations. I also drive a Jeep and with Jeeps who cares how fast it is its more about how slow your crawl speed is. I have babbled enough

 

I'll agree with everyone who says start with the nut behind the wheel. If you want to get the most our of your car you have to know how to control it. And even then, the street is never the place. A good driver in a bad car will beat a bad driver in a good car anyday (on the track!).
After that... you'll know what you want to do when you've driven it to the limit depending on where and how you drive and what you find you want from it. Straight line speed calls for different things than fast lap times.

 

It's so easy to get caught up in this when you have a hot car. It happened to me once when I was coming home from out in the country, no one around so it's safe. I'm in a new turbo pcar, 480hp and a loud new Mustang GT wants to show off. It had to cost 1/3 of my car and he was burning out, racing along side, taunting me and i did like you- backed off. The smart thing to do for safety reasons but I backed off because I knew he would smoke me. And last week a Ferrari guy died racing a Porsche in SoCal doing the same thing. I learned more at the track, DE's, etc. It's hard to say no but it' the best thing you can do esp on city streets.