I got a F56 Cooper S a few months ago for a steal. I ran into this forum and started looking up "performance mods." I'm not new to tinkering/modding forced induction cars, i knew basic mods (intake, exhaust, dp, and tune). I started researching those parts when i got the mini. I've heard nothing but good things from Milltek and Mario Kart's downpipe. Main reason I went with Mario Kart was due to the fact he was a few hours away from me (support locals, haha) and the amount of positive feedback from the community here. I messaged him and he answered all the questions I had about his downpipe, his tunes, etc. I bit the bullet and purchased his downpipe. I'm not going to lie, the downpipe was a pretty piece. Now for the install....sweet jesus, i'm never wanting to this again! I've done downpipes on a few 4g63 gst and gsx cars, mk3 supras, and a few GDB Sti's, but this cooper was a pain in the ***! Removing the factory downpipe was a pain and installing the new one was even worse! For anyone tackling this by themselves, have patience. A second pair of hands help when installing the new downpipe. A lot of wiggling from the top and the bottom. And yes, the bottom heat shield needed to be "manipulated" in order to get the downpipe installed properly/lined up with the factory turbo for a secure seal. I honestly didn't put the factory heat shields back on. I had the downpipe ceramic coated, so i'm not worried. So fitment was tight, but manageable. I took the car out for a test drive and no rattles, no leaks just a noticeable increase in turbo exhaust sounds. I had an appointment to have Mario tune my car. yesterday. He was in SoCal and my training session was in Socal, so i made a trip a day early to have him tune my car. Great guy, knowledgeable, again answered all questions I had. I think i read in the popular "Building F56 2.0 Downpipe" post that some individuals had a check engine light come on due to the missing "cat." I had it come on in my car when i was driving down to see him. I told him about it, and he told me he'd take care of it with the tune. Wasn't expecting a check engine light, i was told it wouldn't come on. So, not a deal breaker for me since i was getting it tuned anyway. I figured it'd be the shitty 91 octane gas we get here in Cali. Mario worked his magic on my car and I could not be more impressed. Untuned, i felt the boost building so much easier, it came on sooner, stronger. After the tune, sweet Jesus! Completely different animal! Stock, the car felt fun in the midrange of the RPM band and kind of runs out after 5K, now power comes on early and goes all the way to redline. We took my car out for a drive, just to make sure everything went right and it did. Mario suggested a few things i should upgrade which i will be doing soon. This new power completely changes the car. I had the best 3hr road trip back home and i had nothing but a huge corny smile on my face. The car just wants to go so effortlessly. I honestly can leave the car in mid mode and be completely happy with it, but the immature lil kid in me switches it to sport for the pops from the exhaust. I can't say enough positive things about Mario and his work. He takes pride in his work and he made sure I left satisfied with what was done to my car. I think this might be my first post here, i'm usually just lurking the forums searching for answers, but i felt inclined to make this review. Great guy, great service. I'm very happy with how my mini turned out. Thanks again Mario!

 

Mario is a great guy to work with and agreed his downpipes are top notch. As far as the check engine light after install it is very very hard to get the o2 sensors set out to the exact length the car wants to see for accurate oxygen levels. I know when I installed my Milltek dp it popped a check engine light and they sent me out a few different spacers to change the length and one of them did get the light to shut off.
Having a tune on the car makes a world of a difference though especially a custom tune. I have done the basic plug and play NM unit, the more advance plug and play JB4 then a custom download map from Bytetronik. If I was closer would love to have Mario do a custom in person tune on the car.

Enjoy the new mods!

 

I mentioned in that other thread how the CEL came on for me. After adding that spacer, the CEL still hasn't come on so I'm super happy with that alone... the OCD in me lol. I think when I banged around on the bottom heat shield, I may have left it at point where I gave the DP enough room to finally clamp on, but also enough space where it is rattling against the DP. Feels like it has gotten worse over this past week. Weekend project now for me to see if I can push it further away. Got to look into how I can do that.

Mario has been easy to work with. I got in touch with him a few days ago and he's working with me to swap mine to the coated one since I had to take off the top heat shield. Hopefully later on I can get a custom tune from him, just need to research that part some more. Not sure how that'll work with my JB4.

 

So, is a downpipe required for a Stage 2 tune?

 

I didn't feel like i was getting anywhere banging the lower heat shield, but i had some vice grips i was able to pull away to create room and so far, three days of driving and no rattles. *thank you jesus!*

He is very easy to work with...i never had a JB4 or a nm power module or anything, i just went straight from stock to downpipe, 1 step colder plugs, and then to Mario to tune. I'm pretty sure, if you get the tune, you won't need the JB4 anymore. For a reference, i was hitting 11-13 psi, after the tune i'm at 22-23 psi.

 

I believe a set of one step colder plugs was needed too per my conversation with Mario.

 

Yeah, it took a long time doing it that way to fit the DP for me. I didn't have anything else to help bend that away, and I was in an awkward position on top of that. We'll see how the second round goes for me this weekend.

Nice! I have it default on my JB4 still, so it's only going to about 14.5 to 15 psi for me. Without, I was getting around 10-11 psi. If you don't mind saying, how much was his tune?

 

If you can, get a extra set of hands to help, someone from the top and someone on the bottom wiggling that downpipe in there. I unfortunately went at it solo, and it sucked having to go under, do some wiggling of the downpipe, get back on top, do some more wiggling, repeat. It was worth it when it finally went in. Hahaha.

 

He did an RPM Stage 2 tune for my F56 S and the tune itself was $1000.

 

Correct, a downpipe is required for stage 2

Mario

mQubed Motorsport RPM Power Tuning

 

F series stage 2 is $849 and an extra $249 if you want to buy a Powergate Module so Tuning can be done through email, instead of overnighting the ECU to me

Mario

mQubed Motorsport RPM Power Tuning

 

My bad. I forgot that it was like $150 to overnight my ECU to you. $849 for the tune + shipping.

 

Hi Mario, just wondering, I already did buy a PowerGate Module for my gen 2, can I use the same module to manage and load flashes for gen 3?

 

The Powergate would have to be unmarried from the original car and it would have to be sent me to calibrate it to work with your Mini.

Mario

mQubed Motorsport RPM Power Tuning

 

Got it, good to know. And once I get to the F56 MCS and ready to do the tune, I'll ping ya. So far the RPM stage 2 works very well on the R56. Can't wait to play with the B48 motor soon. Thanks.

 

hey Mario I’m in SoCal looking for a tune what is the best way to get in contact with you

 

hi there you can email at MarioPalza@gmail.com or IG @mQubed_Motorsport
Thank you
Mario