I'm about to get my mini on wednesday and am already looking into upgrades, just to see what i can do to make it my own. I hear the turbo is pretty darn small, what is the next best size? what can the 2010 S handle? any recommendations?

 

I'm not sure if you should be thinking about a turbo yet. It is pretty small but it is also a pretty small engine. You should do the basics first, intake, exhaust, downpipe, intercooler, tune, and see how you like it. If you still want more power then you should start looking into turbos.

 

+1...but you don't need an intake, it's all noise no gains but you'll feel a slight push at higher RPM's.

These engines are good, but you have to be careful since a bigger turbo would stress out your rods and you'll be super pissed, unless you feel the need for it. Just be prepared for future issues that will arise.

What year is your MINI?

 

+1

Plus good wheels,tires, suspension and brakes
the gen 2 engines have a lot of week points so be careful.
the jcw turbo is a little bigger than the standard s one but you start bumping up the boost and your engine is not healthy or not been looked after it's a waist of money as you will just push the boost past the rings defeating the object of a bigger turbo.
Sometimes a bigger turbo is counter productive

 

Honestly, the best money you can spend to make your car faster and more fun is to send yourself to a really good performance driving school.

 

Bigger turbo means dreaded TURBO LAG...

It'll take a higher volume of air to turn a larger impeller wheel on a larger turbocharger. This means that you'll have a noticeably longer amount of time between you mashing down the go pedal, and the whoosh of turbocharged power.

Getting rid of the ugly turbo lag is something that MINI and many other small car companies strive to do when designing engines these days. And they've done an incredible job of that, compared to turbocharged cars from a decade or two (or three) ago... These modern engines are very well balanced. You'll throw that delicate balance out when you get a larger turbo, and while it will deliver more boost, it'll be likely only in the upper half of the RPM range. At low RPM's your engine will be struggling more to get that bigger impeller to start turning.

I personally would find that lag really, really annoying, especially in a daily driver.

 

while we're here though, how much boost is the stock turbo making? I just feel like it would be capable of more if the inlet wasn't so tiny. if I read correctly, it's only a 33mm opening?

 

I can't get my almost stock S to hook up off the line now with sticky non run flats.

 

And you can take that upgrade to anything you drive.

 

the stock turbo on the R56 is a 39mm turbo...the car pushes ~10-12 PSI....the most the stock wastegate will allow you to push is 20PSI.......its plenty large for a car this size.

with a proper tune, a lightly built mini can put down ~200-230+ HP to the wheels......it gets a lot more expensive and requires a lot of custom work to get much more than that....not to mention you wouldnt want much more than that for a daily driver.