Quick review here. It's 2025 and yes we are still tuning R53s.

I purchased my 2nd R53 a few months back. Decided to go OEM+ which for this car means 15% pulley, stainless steel DDM intake/filter, stratmosphere exhaust, ATI damper, Bosch 380cc injectors. I did massive research on tune options and decided to go with @adriancl due to recommendations here and on Reddit. Now folks, there are many remote tuning options out there and I looked into many of them. I am in USA and he is in Romania and of course there are many questions we might ask about this sort of thing but that is the reason I am posting this.

Adrian has excellent communication and is very knowledgeable. I purchased the cables he advised and we set up an appointment for the remote tune. He said it would take about 2 hours which is how long it took. The process was very easy and he is very easy to work with. When finished he happily made a slight modification to my tune as requested after a test drive (more pops and burbles).

Now let me review the tune: Amazing. The car is incredibly smooth. I am in shock at how much the injectors + tune helped with throttle response in all rpm ranges. Engine engagement after shifting gears is smoother. Smooth smooth smooth. The car pulls harder, it's not like a turbo upgrade or anything but the difference is noticeable. Redline is raised to 7400 and a few other changes were made for when fans turn on and that sort of thing. I have not revved past the old redline yet (6500) as I've only driven it once but I will eventually...but I can tell the power builds toward redline even more. My crank hp estimate is 220. So there is much fun to be had.

Side note, people keep asking about this so I will comment. The Bosch injectors can be had on Amazon (Bosch has a store) for under $200 for qty 4 and the install is very easy, it took me 20 minutes.

I am very happy. Thanks again Adrian for your help. The tune was very affordable as well. Here is a 2nd gear pull to 6500 for your enjoyment.

 

You made a wise tuning choice. My R53 has much the same mods as yours and Adrian tuned it also. I performed a before and after dyno run. Before mods/Adrian tune: 176.5hp at the wheel (already had a Dinan tune). After mods/Adrian tune: 197.5hp at the wheel that specs out at approx. 222hp at the crank so I can confirm your HP estimate above. Made quite a bit of difference in performance. I noticed it first when driving 70mph in 5th and it was incredibly easy (and very fast) to pass cars on the highway without a downshift. Enjoy.

 

Another satisfied tune by Adrian customer here!

 

^^^Ditto^^^
04 R53 - similar mods with jcw 380cc's + Adrian 210 tune.
Very patient, a pleasure to work with and oustanding noticable results after tune.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Would you mind posting your dyno sheet? I'm curious where peak hp is at and what the curves look like since we're likely on a very similar tune/hardware setup.

 

This means nothing but just for fun I used my USB dongle device + Dash Commander app to estimate hp...this interfaces with the ECU to give some real and some predicted data...anyway I did a 2nd gear pull today and it estimated 190whp at 7221rpms. That's pretty close to the numbers quoted early, and this isn't a real dyno. I did just one run, might do more when the weather is nice here.

 

@cooper48 Also with that dyno sheet I'm assuming your best numbers were in 3rd gear right? The pull I did with the estimate above was 2nd.

 

Curious if anyone in So. California had Adrian tune their Mini and had any problems with the bi-annual smog check ?

 

Adrian fixed my tune last year. I bought a header, tune, cam, injector package and it caused a cel for overly rich. Adrian figured out that wrong sized injector spec was the problem. Fixed the tune and the car ran great after. Adrian is also just a great guy. I really enjoyed our chats. I agree with the OP. Great choice for a tune.

 

The Dynojet sheet calculated only Max Power (193.5hp), AFR (12-12.5) and Speed (95mph). Four runs at 175.67hp, 173.79hp, 169.32hp and finally 193.50hp (I misread it on my first post where I indicated 197.5). Differences in readings are indicative of the shop searching for the correct 1-1 gear (third in my case).

 

...and yet another satisfied customer here. Adrian delivers!

 

Thanks. Yeah 3rd gear is usually where they get peak numbers. Would you mind posting the graph, or if not, at least tell me what RPM peak HP and TQ arrived?

For reference I attached a stock graph (crank hp/tq), 168hp at 6000rpms, 162tq at 4000rpms. So on a stock car the power drops at redline. Curious about a tuned car with our mods.

 

The dyno sheet for some reason did not detail RPMs nor TQ. The shop (Speedtek Performance) blamed that on not being set up for a European Mini. Make of that what you will. They've been around for over 25 years so I trust them and all I was looking for anyway was HP numbers. The tune increased the redline to 7,200 but I would estimate from my driving experience that the max power is around 6,500.

 

OK cool np thanks. That's interesting, I would wonder if the very reason for redline being increased is to achieve max power available at a higher rpm....in my case, and it's just a computer estimate using parameters from the OBDII (though dang was is close to your real numbers, 190 vs 193), it calculated max hp at 7221rpm. I need to run it to redline (7400 and see if it estimates any differently. Of course there are too many variables to really know, but it's fun.

 

Likely my final post on this review thread, just wanted to report back MPGs after tune changed. I've seen this on other tunes on other cars where a new tune brings better fuel efficiency. Here are my numbers:

Before Adrian's tune (stock tune) I was averaging 27mpg on my usual commute.
With Adrian's tune I am now averaging 30mpg on my usual commute.

No variables have changed, and as you can see below I'm nearing 300 miles so far and I'll get more than 400 miles to this tank. Yet another benefit of this tune!

 

Interesting, but I found just the opposite but only because I haven't been able to keep the accelerator off the floor!!!

 

You'd think with better flow injectors plus the new fun factor that mpg would decrease, I did too...but I drove it the same as I always do on purpose to see how mpgs did and they increased. As I mentioned I've seen this many times as a tuner can make the car more efficient especially when given high-flow hardware vs. OEM restrictions in places like the intake and exhaust.

 

How do you contact Adrian?

 

Adrian is user adriancl on this forum. Contact him via message post here.

 

Hi @adriancl ,

I purchased a 2002 R53 and in need of a tune. I am a new member so I can't send private message yet. Can you please get back to me here with your contact info?

thanks,
Tom

 

Can find me at this FB profile:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Aae1Mitcq/

 

Folks, if you can't message Adrian here you need to post a few more times so you have that privilege.

Another option is create a Facebook account and find him. Here's a screenshot of his profile:

 

I had Adrian tune my car a couple of times and I am really have with the final tune.

 

Can a car that already has a Unichip benefit from Adrian's tune?

Hard to believe gas mileage improves after installing 380 injectors, but the numbers don't lie.

 

FWIW, I just tried to PM @adriancl and no joy - he needs to clean out his PM storage to receive new PMs on NAM.

I'll keep trying to PM every few days, but if @adriancl sees this, just know that I'm ready for the tune on my (2005 R53S - Otto) and need info on the cables to buy.

Once the cables are in hand, we'll start the email and tune process on his schedule.

John