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2012 Countryman S ALL4 Manual. 91 oct from 76, Helix intercooler, NM eng intake. Alta hot side pipe. 2.5" Magna flow exhaust with 2nd cat delete. It was near 100 degrees outside.

Nick loaded a "stage 1+" and stage 2 tune on my ecu, I need to pick up some colder plugs and a catless downpipe to run the stage 2, so those are ordered and on the way. So the car is running the modified stage 1 tune right now.

Got my tune on Thursday. I wanted to wait a few days until I drove it to get an idea of what really changed. I've put about 800 miles of all sorts of driving on the countryman after the tune. Stop and go traffic, beach cruising, boring interstate 5 driving. Launched it a few times and a decent run in some mountain roads.

I bought the countryman not expecting to mod it at all and coming from an M3 this thing is ridiculously slow. The car is by no means fast after the tune but its much more bearable now. Before the tune, passing people above 70mph was doable just needed a very long stretch of road. Anything above 80mph, forget it.

I'd say power levels are a little bit above the JCW countryman with this tune currently. The power delivery is pretty linear and the car doesn't stop pulling after 5k rpm. It keeps going till redline. The car is quite a bit of fun to drive now.

Is the tune worth it? to me yes, very much so. It has a very smooth power delivery and being able to switch maps through the OBD is something I really wanted/needed. It exceeded my expectations quite a bit and can't wait to try the stage 2 map when the DP and new plugs get here.

If you're not expecting something ridiculous like 100hp/tq I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. If you have an ALL4, i'd say this is a must have, and i'm sure you'd see quite a bigger difference if you just have a regular S. The all wheel drive system and 4 doors just seems like too much weight for the 1.6 liter.

Pretty tired right now as i just spent the last 8 hours driving back home but feel free to ask me anything i've left out

 

A catless DP will change things, these primary cats are horrible and very restrictive! I believe that since you have to turn 4 wheels instead of 2 wheels is slowing you down abit and the extra weight. A catless DP will give you that extra hp and torque that you need to get moving.

 

Removing the cat may gain a bit of power but in CA and a few other states there is this to contend with .

According to Title II of the EPA Clean Air Act (Enacted Jan 1 1988) there are multiple regulations concerning the use or misuse of aftermarket catalytic converters, or the removal and/or modification of a stock catalytic converter. According to various parts of Section 203, all aftermarket catalytic converters must be EPA certified, and your car must have a gas conversion device of some manner. If not, both you and the installer are punishable of a Federal Offense by Section 205 (a). The operator's fine can be no more than $2,500 and the installation agency no more than $25,000.

 

You know recently my nephews friend got written up for this very same thing, by CA standards the fine isn't high enough for the operator.

 

Love my tune! Especially with the SPS switch. I love switching in between the maps. You can do all this on the fly, when the car is on, even as you are driving. Stock map is about 13psi, Map 1 is about 16psi, Map 2 is about 19psi, and Map 3 is the race map which I have not touched yet. My car is much more alive! I had the JB+ and the JB feels like my Map 1. I was boosting about 18psi on the JB+ but it feels like 16psi with the tune. Map 2 flies to 100mph, without even trying. I can run more boost but Nick says the gap in my spark plugs is too big and it doesn't like it. So when I upgrade to a smaller gap plug, I will be able to run more boost. The torque on this car is vicious. 6th gear pulled hard in the highway before but now it really really pulls hard. In the economy gear! It's ridiculous. I dyno'd on a hot day, Turbo sounded heat soaked, 100 degrees outside. It dyno'd at 214.4whp and 240.9wtq. Estimating a 16% drivetrain loss, that is about 250hp and 280tq. It is great! On the stock Cooper S turbo! Very much looking forward to Stage 3! I am in talks with Manic and Frankenturbo

 

You know you have no model listed in your signature, what year and version?

 

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So was this a one time thing, or are these east and west coast shops going to offer this tune?

 

I know EuroCode will turn into a Manic Dealer. Just prices will go up. Whoever did it with Nick gets special pricing. Also I have a 2013 Cooper S (N18). I feel like the switch is a must. Feeling the difference from stock to a performance map is a great feeling. I switch through them constantly because it literally takes 1 second. Can even do it as you are driving. Also if you are not stage 2 yet. You can be tuned for stage 2 and when you get the supporting mods you can switch to that map without going back to a Manic Dealer.

 

I also got the linear throttle map. Which makes launching the car much easier. More control of the wheel spin. I got the check engine light removed from the Catless Downpipe. And the speed limiter was removed.

 

I love my tune from Manic. I replaced the spark plugs as I was at Eurocode to the ones that Nick recommended.
The maps I got are: low boost, high boost, high boost + meth. He didn't have an SPS so at the moment it's set at high boost + meth but hopefully I get one soon so I can do a dyno run with the stock map and then with the high boost + meth.
It's a huge jump from stock or even the JB+. With the JB+ I felt that torque was missing down low and past 4.5k/5k it doesn't pull. But with the tune there's gobs of torque down low which is really easy to modulate with the linear throttle. If you keep on going till redline the turbo just keeps on going.
The car feels like a rubber band that keeps on pulling harder the harder you push it. Even the map without the meth is amazing! It is slightly less crazy that the tune with meth but not by much.
So far the car has been great after the tune. It eats meth like crazy now since it's hard to keep off of the right foot.
Overall I'm really happy with my tune from Manic and the ppl at Eurocode were friendly and just great.
Can't wait to go stage 3 once I get the funds for it.

 

What meth kit are you running? Nick said you should base it on map not IDC.

 

He's the first person I've ever heard say that.

 

I'm running the Aquamist HFS-3 kit. Nick told me that so I'm going to get the HFS-4 and set it up for 100% boost. But I'll wait till I get my hybrid turbo next year.

 

Any reason why your Aquamist HFS-3 kit is not good enough? I've seen people use the Aquamist HFS-2 kit which is just a Aquamist HFS-3 without the gauge.

 

He'd recommended having a meth system run off of boost instead of injector duty cycle.

 

And did he even say why to run it off boost only?

 

He said that the ECU sees the increase of fuel so it backs off of the idc and in turn the meth gets decreased also and then the ECU adds more fuel and it keeps on bouncing around like that. With a boost based system it's more consistent.

 

Yes, exactly. He told me, "generally the system can chase itself while trying to hit target lambda. The ecu is chasing and when the extra fuel (from meth) is linked to it then it can go in circles instead of finding a consistent offset." Many cars in the UK use the AEM kit and it works perfectly. I might do that with a Howerton tank if it works.

 

Stupid question... How are you guys getting your tunes? From where would be the better question.

 

Not sure where you are located. Nick from Manic came down from the UK for about 2 weeks and tuned our cars. We are currently looking for dealers in California that want to be a Manic Dealer. I believe there's one in the east coast called RedLine or something. May have to read the other thread.

 

On a stock tune the car hits near max boost almost immediately while the rpms are still low. If you're triggering on boost only then the flow rate would be nearly constant though out the rpm range (actually boost tapers off and so would flow). I would think that you would want to increase the flow as rpms increase when you're more likely to pre-detonate. Running on IDC and boost will do this - increase flow when you need it. I see what you are saying about see-sawing but how pronounced is the effect and most importantly which is better?

Here's a data log of my boost curve, they are almost always like this (stock tune):

 

I've searched and couldn't find an answer, so does anyone know if there are east coast tuners on board yet?