While looking through the MINIUSA website, the build a car section for the Cooper lists a sport exhaust.

However, the way the description looks on the web site, this is totally cosmetic. It apparently has a "nicer" growl but is mainly about looks.

Is there any performance benefit to this option?

 

i was wondering about this too. hopefully someone knows about.

 

That's the same exhaust used on the John Cooper Works kit for the MC. That whole kit is not available in the U.S. As for the Sport exhaust, I've heard here on this website that the dealers did not think it was available here. I don't know if that was true or not. I even asked for it from my dealer last summer, but was told it was not available here in the U.S. However, I've also just heard recently here on NAM that it is available now and dealers know it. So, you should ask your dealer about it.

 

I saw this exhaust at my dealer, they had installed it for a customer. I didn't get to hear it but it was described as moderately louder. It has that same $30 tip that is seen in the accessories brochure. The consensus on NAM and MINI2 is that it is overpriced.

 

I was at the MINI dealer again last night. What a surprise.

I asked the very nice gentleman about this. He said that it's all sound. No extra horsepower. He didn't know if it was the exhaust for the European JCW MC option.

Well, that decides that.

 

I don't think all the dealers know a lot about this stuff. It is in the MINI accessories book and all they say about it is that is makes a good sound, so that is probably all the dealers know about it. However, I believe that it probably is the same one in the JCW kit or why else would MINI try to sell it. They could not sell it if that was all it did, as you could just add a new muffler for a different sound. Plus, since it is louder that means to me that it is a freer flowing exhaust, which will make more power. We have learned that the bottleneck with the MINI is that the head port to the exhaust is too small, so that any aftermarket exhaust doesn't make much extra HP. MINI must know this or they aren't good engineers (or at least they know the sport exhaust did not add much HP), so they are not marketing it as adding HP. This is just my opinion. If you want to check more on it, then find out how big the diameter of the exhaust is and see how much bigger that is than the stock exhaust diameter. I still think it's probably a good exhaust for power or at least is not a bad one, expecially if you want to keep your car stock or basically stock. My initial intent was to get it and keep the car basically stock with JCW upgrades (and get them somehow even though they are not sold over here), but quickly canned that idea when the dealer would not get it for me. Although, I'm very happy now with my aftermarket stuff and will just keep modding with aftermarket stuff. If MINI doesn't want to support that market over here for the MC, then boo hoo to them. Factory parts are overrated and you can do just as well or better. Good luck.

 

I had a nice long talk about this with one of the head guys at aftersales from MINI last summer. In fact he had it on his MINI.

So yes it does exist and is quite a nice product. My first question to him: is this the JCW Cooper exhaust? A: He said it was not and it something that they've did on their own. Secondly is it 100% stainless? - A: Yes it is

It sounds great (although I prefer my remus personally) and looks perfect on the car. It's not too loud and I would imagine fairly quiet on the highway.