I've received my very own Automatic 2006 R53 MCS, which I quickly named Gyro, as a going away present from the parents. Sure beats my old car by a long shot! It was obviously bought as a used car, and it was used and abused for sure. Poor thing was in a small collision a few years back, although it was all patched up when I became it's owner. Then after a 3,000 mile trip across the states I realized it had more issues than anticipated.

I've had;
A few oil leaks patched up
Power steering lines replaced (I was curious why it was so stiff for the first month)
Brake System replaced (Including the ABS computer)
And most recently replaced the rubber intake hose (Which had been ripped up and jury rig patched with electrical tape by the previous owner )

Now I'm in the market for performance mods to bring it up at least 30-40 Ponies, fix up the exterior and the cracked stripes on the hood, I was wondering what the more experienced Mini owners would suggest for the new fellow.

 

The best upgrade for the money is a smaller supercharger pulley and belt, also would include a cold air intake and colder spark plugs, that should give you a nice sound and pull. If you want to spend a little more i would do a header and one ball mod. A tune would help after all this. But honestly you will notice a big difference with the supercharger pulley upgrade. Heres a good website and Way is a great guy.

http://www.waymotorworks.com/02-06-c...-r53/packages/

 

Also... Because of the questionable maintenance history, I would have it really checked over by a true MINI tech, get his list of recomended repairs and deside which ones you want to do and which ones you want your mechanic of choice to do.

But for the most part make it breath better, smaller pulley to ingest more fuel/air mix, and make it exhaust easier (*). That will give you the HP boost you are looking for... But don't ignore the suspension and brakes. Make sure you can stop and turn as well as it can accelerate.

* note: you can also throw some JCW injectors, fuel rail, plugs, wires and coil pack at it.

Motor on!

 

Thanks for the input! I will probably go for these after looking into them they look like pretty good deals for how much more performance they give.

 

Yeah I did just that for a majority of the repairs because I'm no mechanic, the only thing left is the get the front bumper fixed up a little, it hangs about 15mm low on the right side, which is a bit of an eye sore.

 

 

Oh my, that's good to know, thank you. My car is up to 61k and who knows the last time it's been changed, I've only personally put about 7k at most on it. I'll have to do that.