I know the horsepower and torque issues have been discussed before. The point of this post is to dispel rumors regarding horsepower and durability of the engine and gearbox. The gearbox has an rpm limit, I'm sure, but it is more likely the torque limit that the engineers are concerned with exceeding. Horsepower can be made at low rpm with a huge amount of torque or at a higher rpm with much less torque. If we simply extend 200lb/ft of torque to 7500 rpm, 285 horsepower would be available that would be relatively 'gearbox-friendly'. This not that much more torque (a bit over 20 lb/ft) than the JCW kits make. On the other hand, it would require 250lb/ft of 'gear-crushing' torque to make 285 horsepower at 6000 rpm. These torque numbers would not necessarily be peaks, either. The horsepower numbers are peaks. A turbo system on the MCS engine, with all new intake and exhaust plumbing and fuel injection, could make these numbers easily.
I believe a number of tuners are getting this power already. They are not necessarily on MCO. There are other cars that have more capable chassis' for putting down big power/torque numbers.

What a shame that no front wheel drive chassis can properly utilize this power. If you have an MCS that is already up to 200-210 hp you know you can burn your tire (tires, if your lucky) furiously. What fun! But not condusive to a fast e.t. Like a rear wheel drive chassis, a front driver squats back on it's outside rear tire when exiting a turn under power while unloading the inside front tire. The huge difference is that the rear wheel drive car is putting the power through the tire with the most traction while the front wheel driver car tries hopelessly to send power to the unloaded inside front tire.

The result is more and more horsepower without the corresponding performance gains in acceleration at lower speeds. At higher speeds it's a different story. But how much top speed do you want in the Mini? It is not gaining points for its high speed stability. Your call. Whatever you decide, we can do it.

PerfPow

http://www.perfectpowerinc.com
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SPUD

 

Good posting PerfPower. Let me just step in to remind people that the definition of Horsepower is

HP @ some RPM = (Torque @ that RPM) x (RPM)/(some number)

If we use English units of foot-lbs and horsepower, the constant is 5252, which means that at 5252 RPM, the number describing torque = the number describing HP.

All the tuning tricks thus invented strive to get more HP by either raising the torque curve and/or by changing the red-line RPM.

A couple of reference sites you might find enlightening are here and here.

Tom