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My name is Brandon and I have been a long time lurker on this forum, learning little by little about the F56 platform. I bought my F56 in the summer of 2016 as a nice daily commuter and something to have fun with. Ideally one would just enjoy the time through the 5 year loan and then modify the car if they so wish. Unfortunately I went slightly overboard but that's what any mid 20s adult would do in the car scene. So here I present Nala, got the lovely car 32 grand out the door as it was an ex dealership demo car. In less than 3 year I spent way more than I expected on mods but I enjoy every minute of it driving this car on the road.
Current Setup:
-K&N Typhoon Intake
-Miltek Catless 3 inch downpipe
-John Cooper Works Pro Valvetronic catback
-Custom midpipe (2nd cat+Resonator deleted)
-ECS tuning 4 inch exhaust tips
-RPM tune (265whp)
-ATP intake hard pipe
-ATP boost pipe
-ATP charge pipe
-Forge Stepped front mount intercooler
-Forge short shifter
-Forge 32 way adjustable coilovers
-Powerflex Lower race poly engine mount
-JMTC Kevlar clutch
-JMTC 30% Pressure plate
-JMTC Single mass flywheel
-Wavetrac ATB differential
-20mm ECS tuning spacers
-BFI GS2 nougat weighted shift **** (250 grams)
-Sneed4speed front splitter (retired)
-Sneed4speed buddy club delrin knurled shift **** (retired)
-Cravenspeed shift well cover
-Cravenspeed shift retainer clip
-LCI blackout emblems (front/rear)
-JCW euro flares
-Custom euro union jack tail lights
-Kill all wipers rear wiper delete
-outmotoring beltline kit
-dechromed headlight/tailight rings
-EBC Red stuff brake pads (front)
-Stoptech slotted rotors (front)
-Konig runlites 15x7.5 et 45
-Continental extreme contact sport DW
PS: I know my splitter isn't sitting flat
PSS: This differential and clutch kit combination is amazing
July 2016, I traded in my 2003 EB R53 for a 2016 PW F56S Coilovers makes the F56 look like a giant height wise. Miss the old R53 sometimes Damen Silos in chicago Forge FMIC OEM DP vs Miltek catless DP Final exhaust revision, JCW pro exhaust (got it for $300) w/ECS tuning 4 inch exhaust tips. Cooper S mid pipe with resonator and 2nd cat deleted 13.5 Quarter mile pass No torque numbers due to a quick moving dyno day. But 265whp with my RPM tune, I'd say that is pretty solid 2018 Spring Photo session 2018 Spring Photo session 2018 Summer Photo session OEM Pressure plate and clutch. The pressure plate could not hold up to the torque and it wrecked the clutch over time Transmission internals JMTC 30% pressure plate picture Wavetrac LSD
Last edited by Triwingar; Jan 16, 2020 at 06:58 AM.
How was the dif. install? I've had the Wavetrac on my parts list for a while and while the dif. itself isn't that expensive I really haven't looked into what it would take to install it myself or how expensive it would be to have a shop do it.
How was the dif. install? I've had the Wavetrac on my parts list for a while and while the dif. itself isn't that expensive I really haven't looked into what it would take to install it myself or how expensive it would be to have a shop do it.
My friends handled the install which took a good 2 day period to get to the trans and button it all back together. I wouldn't know how much a shop charges. I will say that the modification is worth it as it changes the dynamics of the whole car
Really nice build! Great to see someone with the LSD... also on my wishlist some day... er, some week assuming I DIY...
How do you like the clutch kit? How is pedal fee? Grab? Is it lighter, and how does it drive?
The clutch kit is amazing for what power I have right now. The pedal grab went from down low to where it now bites in the middle. It is oem light with how it feels when I press the pedal down. When it grabs it is swift and quick, always eager to move the car along inbetween shifts. Slightly annoying in traffic because the car just wants to gooo
Juicy84 the Forge coilovers is amazing at reducing body roll and the overall dampening is very nice. I drive it with the dampening all the way up to 30 in the front and 32 in the rear. I haven't tried it on the softest setting yet. It is a solid coilover choice that many people tend to look past. I'd recommend them
ECS tuning, love the exhaust tips you guys provided! Granted the JCW pro exhaust piping diameter is slightly larger than the 2.5 inlet of the tips, me and my friend made it work. We took off the swivel design and expanded the inlet to accommodate the jcw pro exhaust diameter. One of my favorite aesthetics on my F56
Are the union jack taillights tinted? I've seen a couple cars with them blacked like that but could never find them. Link?
SMPS2012 is Facebook page with those blacked out Euro UK tail lights. I like them, prior to this I had halogen tail lights which I accidentally cracked when I wacked it with my snow brush. But hey the upgrade was worth it, didn't need too much coding off of bimmercode
On the union jacks we carry the euro ones, they flash amber in the center vs the stock red. And some other options. Those black line Union jacks look cool,
The clutch kit is amazing for what power I have right now. The pedal grab went from down low to where it now bites in the middle. It is oem light with how it feels when I press the pedal down. When it grabs it is swift and quick, always eager to move the car along inbetween shifts. Slightly annoying in traffic because the car just wants to gooo
Juicy84 the Forge coilovers is amazing at reducing body roll and the overall dampening is very nice. I drive it with the dampening all the way up to 30 in the front and 32 in the rear. I haven't tried it on the softest setting yet. It is a solid coilover choice that many people tend to look past. I'd recommend them
ECS tuning, love the exhaust tips you guys provided! Granted the JCW pro exhaust piping diameter is slightly larger than the 2.5 inlet of the tips, me and my friend made it work. We took off the swivel design and expanded the inlet to accommodate the jcw pro exhaust diameter. One of my favorite aesthetics on my F56
Awesome, looks good and aggressive, the stock tips dont stick out much at all. Nice you are running forge coilovers. They look really good and i like the black on blue combo.
Your build is very good and i like how you changed things up over stock.
Wanted to get a better photo of the tail lights and 4 inch exhaust tips
I will say the tail lights really did change up the rear quite a bit. Thanks ECS for being available with some of the mods on Nala! I still have quite a ways to go but I really am enjoying the way the car is sitting right now
I like the look. I take it the Vertical piece lights up when you brake and the horizontal is amber?
Kind of correct. Only the vertical portion lights up, amber is only used for signaling. Its still kind of funky as I need to figure out how to set up the coding for panic braking. It will only throw a malfunction code for that. Past that the euro lights were plug and play, no issues
I got around to installing the ATP piping for the F56 which I ordered from ECS. The old oem rubber piping on the intercooler was slowly developing stress cracks and the rubber flexed very easily. It was on its way out, 23k miles into the RPM tune. Installed it with some friends which took 3 hours and some fooling around. The overall boost response has increased and the turbo noise has really opened up with the intake hard pipe. I'd say these mods definitely are needed for reliability and smoothening air flow
Very nice! I'm still chasing 300 WHP myself. I don't know how I missed this the last time I read this thread but you got the JCW Pro exhaust for just $300? That's a killer deal especially if the car has a different tune anyway. As far as power goes we've got fairly similar builds although Nala has way more work on her.
3000 miles in the rivets failed on the Jmtc clutch unit, definitely will be having a talk with them about that. Reused the JMTC flywheel and had the Clutchmasters Fx300 installed in its place. Definitely takes more pedal effort to disengage the clutch granted it has more pressure plating compared to the Luk based JMTC unit
To add to information in the forums the FX300 unit completed the break in period. To be clear it is a full faced kevlar clutch kit that claims 110% increased clamping pressure over OEM specifications. Those numbers are higher than the JMTC's 30% pressure plate, but as a surprise the pedal pressure isn't unbearable, actually feels better honestly. It holds up to quick shifting and light launches without any real wear, love the kit more than the JMTC clutches. Roughly the kit is less than $800 vs the JMTC kit being around $1500, people can have their opinions. I am still running the JMTC single mass flywheel paired with this FX300 with no issues at all, although the clutchmasters single mass flywheel unit might be lighter by the specs. I definitely would recommend the Fx300 to any bolt on+tuned F56
Swapped out my Sneed4speed knurled delrin shift **** for a Black Forest industry GS2 nougat weighted shift ****. The added weight feels amazing and the shifting feels more direct with the change Leap Chi carbon spoiler added as a small visual enhancement. Removed the Sneed4speed front splitter also.
This is a nice build, seems like you're local (Bolingbrook) to me going by where you've had dynos done. Hopefully see you around,
unless I have at a Chicago Mini meet and just don't remember
@peterpan101 There is a drought of modified cars in Illinois honestly. I will PM you when I have the chance
@LostbutFound The designated mounting points that my friend made was pretty secure but the splitter was getting beaten to hell with the ride height. I wish S4S had clear instructions on what would be the best mounting points with the holes predrilled, but nothing is ever perfect
Photo of the trans removed from the Mini, 78k miles. 4th time the transmission was dropped in a 14 month period Clutchmasters Fx300 hub spline failure, best guess from poor clutch hub spline tolerance and/or poor hub material. Clutch was on the car for 5 months roughly 10k miles. Contacted Clutchmasters to see if they can resolve this issue. Transmission is currently at a shop to have an extractor tool used to remove the jammed clutch plate off of the input shaft
PS: The metal shavings was from drilling an access hole into the trans to reach the pressure plate housing bolts. With the way that the clutch plate and pressure plate jammed on the input shaft the trans pretty much became impossible to take off.
Just providing a recent update regarding my car. Not having the best of luck with clutches as one can see
Last edited by Triwingar; Apr 21, 2020 at 04:36 PM.
Ouch, that sucks! Hope they make it right for you. Pretty great solution to gain access to undo it at the flywheel. Though I can't picture what you did from there- a 90-degree attachment on an air impact?
