Nothing ground breaking here but after 2 years of ownership i finally got my 04 r53 one balled for $30. My question is what is the average horsepower gain (if any) from doing this? I remember reading anywhere from 1-3 hp and about 1 ftlb of torque. Maybe my butt dyno needs calibration or i just dont know what 1 hp feels like but the car is pulling much harder than it used to and seems to rev a bit faster. Also found it hard to not peel out for the 1st few traffic lights. Is it possible that the old resonator was clogged up?

Other than that the sound is really nice loud when i want it to be loud and quiet when i want it to be quiet and the pop and burble is really nice too.

 

As long as you are happy with it!

 

It's all psychological. You're probably mashing harder than before now because you want to keep hearing the louder sound. There's just no way you'd feel 1hp

 

For $30 just enjoy it

 

I've always driven the car really hard so that makes me wonder if the resonator was clogged not like it really matters at the point. I will say i am totally happy with it and kind of kicking myself that i didn't do it sooner. Now that i've got the car looking the way i want it to (blacked out the chrome and got some wider tires) i hoping that with in the next 6 weeks i'll have a 15% reduction pulley on.

 

Dang, whod you find to do this for only $30?! Thats a steal. Ive heard peoples spending around $50-75 but $30? Congrats on the steal!

 

Square deal muffler in fort worth tx (camp bowie and I820 if you are around here). Had to wait for over an hour before they got started up (they were working on a 1960 seafoam green thunderbird that needed new suspension and exhaust) but it only took them about 30 minutes to finish once they got working on the mini. Best thing about is that they have pretty good prices on magnaflow so i might see if i can get a good deal from them in the next year or so.

 

I had mine done about three weeks ago, and it cost $200. The actual work - cutting, welding - was done at big-name muffler shop, and if I'd taken it straight to them, and they'd done it without dismounting, it may have cost $50, which is what the vast majority report spending, but I paid a shop to remove the exhaust, take it a couple of blocks down the street to have the actual mod done, then the first shop had to bring it back and reinstall.
I felt sort of silly at one point, but prior to taking the car in, I thought I was looking at a $2000 cat replacement, and the shop was able to "fix" it for $200, so another $200 for the one ball seemed like a gimme.
An extensive exhaust-themed thread - maybe here, maybe MINI2 - has a post from a guy who dyno'd his car, and he saw a 9hp increase with the one ball. He didn't specify where the 9hp shows up, and if it's at redline, I might never see it.
I notice it's a bit louder, deeper at the same time, and there's no arguing that the car is 20# lighter, and don't really care if it doesn't do anything else.

 

im considering this mod myself... notice any annoying cabin drone at highway or cruising speeds?

 

None whatsoever.