R53 Speed Limiter?
 

Hey so I got a '02 R53 6 days ago and driving today I decided to see how fast I could get her to go until I chickened out. 4th Gear I hit 110 mph and it stayed there would not go any further just stayed at 110 and the tach was stuck too at whatever RPM (don't know I was watching to road). So I was wondering if it is governed?

Since you were on a closed course and not on the street.....
Yes it's governed, but not to 110. I believe the advertised limit was 134.

You may be down on power from the blower not making full boost anymore.

Yes of course it was closed course.... I live near a Dyno and want to see what it is making right now, as far as I can tell it has a 15% reduction? Cannot tell it just has ALTA Version 2 or something on it. aftermarket injectors and spark plugs and I think an aftermarket exhaust? I've heard it pop a few times (the good pop not the bad kind).

Is there a way to temperately disable it or disable it completely? Truly for track days only. I don't do extreme speeds often and going about over 90 in my cooper kind of scared me... never been scared going fast before..

Were you at RPM redline in 4th gear? There is a fuel cutoff at redline which will not allow any more power thus you will stay near redline and at the same speed.
Did you try to shift into 5th gear to see if the car would accelerate past 110?
If not, you might want to try 5th gear and maybe even 6th gear.

unless its a certain model, but i have been past 110 on closed roads

I agree with the above, perhaps shifting into the next gear. If you are unable to look at the tachometer while driving those speeds, you should probably avoid them. While we are on the subject of boost loss, you could possibly use a new bypass valve if it hasn't been replaced yet. Your mini will absolutely surpass 110 with stock limiter, drive safe.

I had my '03 R53 Past that marker a several times. I would say, as others have already, shift to next gear!!!!

If you can only get to 110 then you have a different issue....
Top speed on a stock r53 occurs in 5th gear as per BMW/mini (both 5+6 are both overdrive).....

I remember reading somewhere that top speed for the S was drag-limited at around 199 km/h (124 mph).

Nah, I've been past that in my stock R53.

yea that's definitely not true.

No reason to disable the speed limiter. Seems to me yours should be dialed back to about 85 for street use. :wink:

The fastest I've had my MINI has been 124mph on the back straight at Mid-Ohio just before the braking point for next turn. With a car shaped like a brick I'm pretty sure that's all it would do even on a longer straight.

It will easily go past 110, ive had mine to 125 before, only thing ive done to the car is an m7 cai.

I do 117-118 on the back straight of PIR before hard braking with a lot of room left to go in regard to speed. That's the fastest I've had mine but I'm sure that 124 is easily passed and I've only got a few mods.

If I had a BBK maybe I could charge the corner more & gain a few MPH. The car is faster than I am.

Overdrive? Are you sure Zip? My 6th gear ratio is 1.08:1 which is a shade shy of direct 1:1 which the M21 tranny on my 442 has. I've had my '03 to about 122 more or less on I-64 in So. ilinois and it was still pulling. Did not feel like overdrive to me. I have also read that the limiter is set at 134, maybe for tire and racing reasons? For racing the faster you go the more safety add ons you need...fire systems, roll cages. Don't think many stocko R53s would get much above 125 anyway. Anyway, agree, shift to 5th and 6th! You have the rpms.
BTW, gear ratio and theoretical speed calculators are on line and interesting. But they don't account for tires, wind, humidity and so forth.

Based on what I have always been told/heard about r53, 5+6 are BOTH overdrive when the marh is done to take wheel size into account...but since wrong info can somehow become fact or internet lore, if you have a better scource, please post!!
The info I Have...
and the 134 is due to a euro manufactures "gentleman's agreement"....but a few tuners can remove it...

Don't know if this will load right for the 2003 tranny. Anyway, my experience with od is it is hard to get past the previous gear's rpm, hence od. My mini keeps climbing in 5/6. But, wtf do i know.


Gearbox:

Getrag

Transmission type:

manual




3-4th and R gear values effective, actual ratios 1.333/1.089 R 2.75

Number of gears:

6

Gear ratios (overall):


I

4.167 (11.43)

II

2.619 (7.18)

III

1.968 (5.4)

IV

1.608 (4.41)

V

1.333 (3.66)

VI

1.089 (2.99)

VII

()

VIII

()

R

4.06

Speed range


(max speed on gears,


top gear value theor.):

(km/h/mph)

I:

72 / 45

II:

114 / 71

III:

152 / 94

IV:

186 / 116

V:

224 / 139

VI:

274 / 170

VII:

/

VIII:

/

1000rpm speed:

(km/h/mph)

I:

10.2 / 6.3

II:

16.3 / 10.1

III:

21.7 / 13.5

IV:

26.5 / 16.5

V:

32 / 19.9

VI:

39.2 / 24.4

VII:

/

VIII:

/

Torque converter factor:


Final drive ratio std:

2.742

optional:

I thought the agreement was at 155 not 134.
My stock R53 has a Mini rated top speed of 150.

Might be...heck have heard lots of different numbers tossed around...never gone that fast...who has a long enough straightaway and is willing to blow tires and die at that speed..so never worried about it..it simply does not matter for most....few can ever go much above the low hundred plus a couple teens...be it on a track or closed runway....

I have consistently hit and maintained 131 mph (verified by both Torque app and GPS). It takes a bit to get there, but I'm not sure if that was on the limiter or drag induced. I that was in 6th with the pedal down on the floor. Mine is completely stock with 127k on the clock. I run a 215/45/R17 Goodyear Eagle Authority on the stock S-lites.

I second the gps verified 131 claim. I had a 2004 r53 6 speed up until 2 months ago.

In August I had it to 131 in 6th a few times. That was all she had.

I had the car packed down with the typical travel stuff...entire rear area level with headrests, and a passenger.

The car had a k&n filter, and the one ball exhaust. Almost 130 k miles.

The last time I tried to go faster on a very long straight, the windshield a pillar trim on the drivers side tore away from the car at 131 mph and sucked the window gasket out. It scared the living ***** out of me and my passenger.....lol

Needless to say, I didn't do it again.

This was all done on a closed course and no birds or insects were harmed during testing.

Luckily I was very near the end of the first leg of my trip. I put the car in dads garage and took his on the next leg of the trip. I called ahead to the mini dealer in Sacramento and ordered the parts to fix it. 68 bucks total.

Came back to Texas, fixed the mini, and went on about our route 66 road trip. Before I made it home to tampa, the supercharger developed the death rattle. About 20 miles from home, I passed by the dealer I bought the r53 from. There was a JCW mini on the lot. Traded r53 in for r56 JCW few days later.

Sad to see it go but just didn't have any way to fix it right then, and the trans is out in my spare car.....so r56. The new car is much faster than the old one, but not as fun to drive.

No idea how fast the JCW is yet, but I will know in a few days as I am going back to Texas Saturday.

So this was back a while ago, I didn't know really anything about the mini. I eventually found out my bypass valve spring was broken in half, but it was stuck back in the chamber so it would make about 3lbs of boost. I dyno'd it and got 100whp and 105 ft-lb, with what was done it should have put down 200 whp. So this was really what happened was it was running out of power and since new car never had any idea lol. I went up to 115 not too long ago racing a MR2 hit 115 like nothing could have gone a lot farther but backed off due to coming close to traffic. I will probably try and get her to go a little faster come summer, I need to take care of some other things before doing so lol.

To think you're the same guy who posted all those videos complaing about other drivers:roll: