Well, after much research and thought, I took the plunge and modded my Mini!

I have an '05 MCS, and I've loved the car ever since I bought it. That being said, after driving for a while, there were a few areas that I wished could be improved on. Driving through corners, I felt it had a tendency to "float", especially if there were undualtions in the road, not to mention the AWESOME understeer the stock set-up has.

The second area was the engine. Now I know that with the small 4cyl engine, it would never be a torque monster, but I was disappointed with it's low-end performance. At least in my mini, there was a very jarring hump when I'd start the car with hard acceleration. Which, coupled with the stock motor mounts, always felt like the car/engine/drivetrain was flopping back and forth.

The third was shifting. The stock throw was just a little too long for me, and I'd find myself trying to shift too fast and not quite making it to that next gear, usually 2nd to 3rd, or 4th to 5th.

After a bit of mental dithering, I finally called up Alta to figure out what I could do to help in those areas, and also because they're just up the road from me. They were extremely helpful, and we came up with a package that they would install once I brought my car up.

Did that yesterday. Had them install a 19mm rear sway with their lowering springs. Also did a CAI, plus a 15% SC pulley and 2% lightened crank pulley, along with upgraded engine and transmission bushings. They put in a short shift kit as well. I dropped the car off about 9 in the morning, and 4:30pm, they had all the parts installed for me. I picked the car up, and after some instructions on adjusting the short shift, and a blast around the block to make sure everything was in order, I took the car home.

All I can say is WOW!. After a day of driving the car in the city, on the freeway, and over some of my favorite twisties, I'm a happy camper. Solved all of the issues I'd been having with the car and then some.

The suspension is just about perfect for me. A bit stiffer than stock for sure, but not bone jarring. It still has a comfortable ride. But I feel much more sure-footed in the turns. Turns that would always make me nervous at speed are kind've a bore now. ;-)

The short shifter is nice. I don't miss shifts anymore, although, I do need to play with the height and position to dial it in just perfect.

The engine stuff really helped. First off, the motor / transmission mounts did the job. The engine doesn't feel like it's playing with a hula-hoop anymore. Lifting off the throttle or hitting the gas hard, it feels a lot more solid. The pulleys definitely did the job. While I don't mind horsepower, top speed wasn't my main concern. It definitely helped down low. It's not a rev machine by any stretch, but it improved it enough for me that I'm very happy. Although, in general, I find myself reaching speed limits a LOT quicker now. And the CAI definitely allows me to hear the engine and SC more. I can see why some people have said they don't like it. It's definitely not as quite as stock, so if you don't like race car sounds, you probably won't like the CAI.

I haven't had a chance to dyno it yet. I'm hoping to go back up in August and get some of the ProSport gauges installed, so I'll see if I can set up some dyno time as well.

I want to give a big thumbs up and thank you to all at Alta that helped me. I'm glad I took my car there, and look forward to seeing them again in the future.

Sincerely,

Brian C.

 

You have bought some quality stuff there. Stay out of trouble.

 

im so jealous!! all that in one day!! ive installed my CAI, 15% SC pulley and 2% crank pulley myself and both SC and crank pulleys were 8 hour jobs, the CAI wasnt a big deal but still... wish i had alta right down the road from me

be careful, its addictive

 

Congrats on the new parts. I'd be in SERIOUS trouble if i lived near ALTA! (Not like living on the other coast has stopped me anyway...)

 

Heh. Yeah. And I'm going back up for their AirShow Sale on the 9th.

Alta has been pretty cool to me. Hopefully their gonna let me put my car on the dyno with my current mods, then plug in the Alta P-N-P ECU for the R53, and do another dyno run to see what happens. Then I'll take it for a spin around the block, and if I like, I'm gonna buy the ECU.

After 20 years of hand-me down cars, this mini has been my dream of putting together a great sports car. I'm lucky I'm at a time when I have the ability to do it. The nice part is, it's still very economical around town when driven gently.

I'll post again after the 9th to let people know how it went.

Brian

 

8hr jobs? Ok I'm looking into a pulley and a few other things for next spring and I will be doing the work myself. You say it took 8 hours to do both pulleys? holy crrrrrr..ow stuff I was figuring like 4 hours. I'm just trying to get a rough estimate on how long it will take since it is my only car now. Did you have air tools, pulley pullers, and all that good stuff, or just hand tools?

 

That is awesome! i want alot of ALTA products!!

 

i had everything, air tools pulley pullers wrenches out the wazou, very knowledgeable help, and the like, the supercharger pulley was MUCH worse than the crank, the crank shouldve been a 3-4 hour job but we ran into a few speedbumps along the way

the main problem was getting that darned supercharger pulley off in the first place, gotta unmount the engine, jack it up a half foot, take off the belt hook up the pulley puller, have at it for a long time with an impact wrench, GAH! after that it was pretty smooth sailing

 

whew, ok you had me worried there for a bit. I thought that I may have my car down for more than a day. It sounds like I shouldn't though. But then again thats probably next spring/summer lol