This past May at the Dragon I had a WAY/DDM Cooper Intake from waymotorworks.com installed on my Cooper on Saturday. Sunday I went out for an early Dragon run and I had a chance to test the new CAI, not only did I have more HP, the power was more readily available and the CAI sounds GREAT. This past weekend I attended the Phil Wicks Driving Academy (a great event) and a number of club friends were there as well. A few of my friends told me that they knew when I was on the backstretch because of the sound the Way CAI makes. It isn’t because the sound is too loud, but because the sound is distinctive, it’s a deep throaty roar, and I had a four or five people tell me that my MINI was the best sounding car at the track. The Way CAI was one of the best mods I have made because of the power boast, power response and the sound. I would highly recommend it for any Cooper.

 

JB,

I know that sound you're talking about, a club member had one installed on his MCC during the dragon and let me tell you, he has permagrin now.

 

It sounds great but I don't know about any noticeable HP gains. Love the sound at the 4K RPM sweet spot. Slightly better throttle response.

Mine started to rattle after a couple of weeks. The transmission bolt makes the heat shield rattle after a while. I added some padding. It comes with a crappy valve breather hose that kinks very easy. I would replace it. Other than that it is a good quality built part.

 

I also recently switched to DDM and am very pleased with it! Got mine directly from Dave at DDM...

 

That was caused by variations in cars. We have since made the holes for the mounting screws larger/oblonged to make the intake adjustable and move it forward more, giving more space between the heat sheild and bolt.

 

That is almost like my AFE CAI but the shield installs over the stock hose. I lost the engine sound when I got my Megan Exhaust.


Art

 

we have the exact same set up, AFE intake, and Megan CBE. My intake pipe is the old Moss Mini one they made years ago, but no longer make. I also can no longer hear my intake over the exhaust.

if anyone is interested, I have my old Milltek CBE sitting in my garage, about 12K miles on it, great shape.

 

I was with the group this past weekend at TGPR. I couldn't believe the throaty sound coming from Jbobp's MCC. I think the descriptive most fitting is "a fun sound". Glad to see more meaningful mods for the MC's...it helps to give more folks an opportunity to be "involved". I know a lot of folks with MC's within the AtlantaMINIS group are going with the new CAI Way is offering.

Call

 

he stole my idea and made them black!!! I got one of the first batch last summer and painted mine. I need to pull it out for a fresh coat....looking a bit 'weathered'.

 

Guys, we're talking about the COOPER NOT the S intake here.

 

Other than sound, what advantages does the Way/DDM CAI have over K&N or other competitors?

 

The intake increases the HP, about 6whp on the dyno. Also the throttle response is improved quite a bit. The difference in this over the others is our design has a short and straight path into the throttle. The filter has a heat very good heat sheild. The biggest thing is that we removed the resonece chamber from the air inlet allowing more air to get to the air filter and get there quicker. Also you gain a cleanable filter. All the typical things you will gain from a good intake.

But that is what we the people that sell them say. Maybe some of our customers that have them could chime in and give their real experiences and thoughts.

 

DOH! ooops...

 

It's alright, it gave me a laugh, and confused me when I started reading.

 

From what I can tell the K&N does not have a heat shield. Is a heat shield necessary in the Cooper or does it depend on the material used in the filter? I had a K&N in my old Accord and it was great but by your description it sounds like this could be a great alternative.

 

The K&N's that I have seen do not have a heat sheild. I had a AFE CAI on my 04. It worked very nice. When I can I will be getting on of these. I saw one of them at my last club's annual meeting. They showed up in a nice 07 MCS to show off the new air system. The were very nice to us. Oh my club is M2C2.


Art

 

Do you have a dyno sheet you can share?

 

I will post a dyno as soon as I can. I saved the dyno onto a disc at the dyno shop, but when I open it on my cpu it just showes the curve with no numbers.

As for the heatsheild I think it helps keep the engine heat away from the filter. But the primary reason for the heatsheild/was is to make a chamber around the air filter. This is to help increase the air pressure around the filter.

 

Sounds good. I get a great noise from my current intake, but I know that the gains are minimal, or non-existent, or hampering. I've thought about building my own heat shield to help with that, but I'm honestly not bother. Plus we had a 3am detailing accident while cleaning the engine bay. Always make sure you REMOVE THE PLASTIC BAG FROM THE INTAKE before you turn the engine on to bake in you gloss coating. Imploded filters do not score well at car shows.

 

Ouch, do you have a pic of this? Just wondering...

 

Have you guys considered a group buy on this intake by chance?

 

^^I think they may have already done one but I'm not sure. I'd be in this time around (next month would be better. stupid house note )

I'm at work so I'm not sure if I have any on the computer at home. Crush a empty can in your hand and that is what the filter looks like. Still works fine, I guess.

 

I have now had a Way/DDM intake on my 03 MINI for a little over a month now, and my wife has had one for about 5 months on her 05 cabrio. Both cars have much improved throttle response, they both start to "PULL" hard at just over 3K RPM, not 4K, (the fun zone is still 4500+ RPM) and continue to pull all the way to bounce on the rev counter. Gas mileage has also improved, both in town and on the highway, not sure by how much, kind of hard to figure when your right foot is in it all the time. Oh not to mention how great it sounds, and fun to make our MINIs growl

Waylan, it would be nice to see those dyno results

Mark

 

I have a 2006 MC with the JCW sound Kit, would I see any improvement with this intake?

 

Waylan could answer this better, but sound is not the big deal, throttle response/hp increase is

Mark