I think this is very fitting of the GP guys as it was done on our GP! Just another way to get more power from your already fast GP!

This can also be found on our site here!

We’re at it again proving more ALTA PARTS! One question we always wanted to answer was “Do the ALTA parts make more HP than the JCW parts?”. We get asked this a lot as customers are torn between parts they can get at the dealer, and aftermarket parts from us. Our selling points used to revolve around the prices of JCW parts vs. ALTA. Now we have another angle! We can now say ALTA parts WILL make more power than the JCW, at a fraction of the cost. What more can you ask for!

The car we started with was a newly purchased 2006 Mini Cooper S w/ JCW GP package. For those that do not know, this is highest rated HP of any Mini Cooper produced to date (214hp and 184ft-lbs). While this a rare car, (only 415 were allocated to the US) we still had plans to modify it, and make it better.

First off a little history of Mini S’s on our dyno. With a 15% pulley, intake, and catback we would see around 190-195WHP. This is very typical and we have seen with many other Mini S’s. The GP’s averaged runs were under 180WHP, and while these are the highest rated HP Mini’s ever made, the 180 is pretty close to what we would expect it to make (using a 15% drivetrain loss, and 215 engine HP). So naturally getting to that HP should be easy (even with the GP’s bigger than 15% pulley) with our intake and catback installed.

The first step in our quest to prove we make more power is installing the Intake hose. We see about 5whp on regular Mini S’s with 15% pulleys, so I would expect similar on the JCW/GP packages. Sure enough it was pretty close to that. The gains with this part were at the upper RPMs where the stock hose becomes a restriction.

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With 4whp gained from just the hose, things were looking good! Now for the part that we have all wondered about making more power than the ALTA Intake. The JCW intake! For those who do not know, the JCW intake uses a slightly different air box than the normal Cooper S. 2 things make it very different, one it uses a cone type filter (although still paper??) and it has a vacuum actuated flap at the back to allow more air to get into the box. The flap is a good way to add power, and not add noise. While the ALTA intake definitely adds some cool Supercharger Wine to you car, the customers that want to keep it quiet may stick with the JCW just for that reason. But we now have another reason or two to buy ours over the JCW.

Reason number one. Cost! The JCW intake system costs well over $400 where as the ALTA intake costs about $260. While more money means more POWER/better materials/cooler looks, in this case, we can prove that 2 of those features don’t work. Which leads to reason number two, More POWER! While the results are not the 12-15WHP we see on a stock Mini Cooper S, the 7WHP, and 6ft-lbs of torque is definitely a repeatable and accurate gain over the JCW intake system. Also this makes me wonder what kind of power the JCW intake makes on over the stock Air box on a Cooper S?? Hmmmmm…………….

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So far we are on a high with our gains over the JCW intake system! Next up is another JCW part people buy before they buy our part. The Catback exhaust!! Looking at the exhaust there are a few things to take note of. It uses 2.25” diameter tubing, and were it splits into 2 mufflers it goes to 1.3” tubing. The ALTA exhaust uses 2.5” plumbing through out with no split. So bigger should make more power?? The weight of the JCW system was 40.8lbs, were as the ALTA system is 28.0 lbs. So our save a bit of weight over the JCW, which you would expect with the single sided system. So onto the dyno test. This test was also done back to back, and the car was left on the dyno between run sets.

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So while 5WHP and 5ft-lbs isn’t a huge gain, it is more HP than the JCW system, which is supposed to be an upgrade from stock. We see about 12WHP on a 15% pulley car, going to our 2.5” exhaust, so we can conclude that the JCW exhaust might make about 6-7WHP. The exhaust system prices online vary quiet a bit anywhere from $1000 to $800, where ours is $300-$100 less expensive. From this testing of the catback exhausts, we now have 3 things that make our system better than the JCW. Cost, weight, and HP!

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This is the final gain we saw with replacing the JCW intake and catback, with an ALTA cold air intake, and catback exhaust. If you are trying to eek out that last bit of power from your JCW packaged car, here is an easy way to get 10WHP. Also if you are thinking of buying JCW parts vs. the ALTA parts, you will see about 10WHP and 10ft-lbs more torque along with seeing more money in your pocket, from overall part costs, and shipping costs.

We have a few more tests we will be doing with our GP in the upcoming weeks, one of those is the ALTA PnP ECU! Be on the look out!!

 

Thanks for the post Jeff!

I am excited to build upon this in the coming weeks with the ALTA R52 Plug-n Play ECU to see what happens next!

If I can answer any questions or concerns PLEASE let me know!

 

Nice set of comparisons. Believable too - well done

 

Thanks! We have a few more things to show you in a week or so!

 

Since I believe that most GP owners are not going to throw away their JCW air intake it would be interesting for Alta to take a slightly different approach to their GP mods. I agree that the JCW intake is no the best but I suggest that tests be performed with a modified JCW intake instead of replacing with a Alta intake. I suspect that mods can be made to the JCW intake to get similar HP/Torque increases.

What about modifying the JCW intake by removing the flap and associated flap actuator parts (to make it similar to the JCW Motorsports intake) and then replacing the paper filter element with a higher flowing element. How would that compare to the Alta Intake? A second set of JCW intake mods could include cutting a bigger hole in the intake box at the cowling and maybe a mod to the bottom plug. How would the combined mods on the JCW intake compare to the Alta intake. If close, I would think many GP owners would be interested and you could still sell them replacement filter elements and modification instructions.

Then, add a Alta hose to the modified JCW intake. Test to compare.

Then, add the larger diameter cat-back exhaust. Test to compare.

I for one am interested in more horsepower but I do not plan to throw away (or try to sell used) my JCW intake because I think it can be modified to perform very similar to a Alta intake. Only if there is a big horsepower difference would I replace the JCW intake with an Alta intake.

However, replacing the intake hose and cat-back exhaust make sense to me and I would be interseted in doing those mods with a modified JCW intake.

Maybe Alta already went down the modified JCW intake path and has the horsepower/torque numbers to compare to the Alta intake. Maybe there is already information to sell me on an Alta intake instead of a modified JCW intake.

 

quikmni: Thanks for the post and the interest. we did show the inlet tube with the JCW intake box does perform better and thus makes that a viable option for JCW / GP owners. And if you don't want to remove the JCW box, then the options you mention may very well be excellent options. At some point we might play around with that to see how it compares, but as you may be eluding to we are a mfr. and of course we would like to sell more of the mfr'd parts. Soooooooooooo that is why we then removed the JCW box and replaced it with the ALTA. We also tested the exhaust separate from the intake as well to see the gains there.

If I can answer any specific questions (especially since I have been driving the car used in the dyno results above) about the best options for you, just let me know!

Thanks again and have a Happy Holiday!

 

So, Adam, can an Alta intake hose be used with the JCW airbox - just to replace the ducting from the box to the tb? Do you sell one that's black and doesn't scream ALTA! at me? (OK, I added the exclamation point for emphasis )

 

We also thought that most people are not going to throw away their JCW intake for the ALTA. But that was before we found gains with the ALTA. The overall gain of our intake system (7WHP) we feel is worth the $260. Considering an Exhaust makes about the same HP for 3 times the amount.

Modding the flap to make it breathe better is an option, but the flap is open at higher RPMS, which is where our intake makes power. Replacing the filter might help a bit, but have you looked in your box? There is hardly any room in there. There is a huge vacuum tank, and a large filter that doesn't allow for much breathing room. At this point we do not have a filter to test. I am sure it will make power, but........
If you compare our hose only test to the complete intake, and the fact the complete intake made 3WHP, i can't see a replacement filter crammed in the JCW box making that much of a difference.


So yes, the hose is a great mod, and works, but lets consider this. The hose is $120, then add your $100 high flow JCW replacement filter. Your at $220, plus shipping. If you got a packaged deal like we might be offering, i think we would be able to get very close to this price. Or if you call us on a good day, we might be able to do that. Just a thought.

Sure can!

 

Bump for a new client trying to find these.