I'm just getting out of break-in and took it (MCS) WOT too 100 for the first time. I'm not too impressed with the performance above 5k right now. Does it loosen up significantly, if so - when?

I have a JCW airbox coming next week, and will put on a 15% pulley and GAIC software the week following, in hopes of improvement as well.

 

Your new chip and pulley will fix your problem, but a stock MCS does a whole lot better going fast while turning than accellerating on the straights.

 

agreed, this isn't a straight line car. but get into a nice gentle turn and accelerate the entire way thru and u'll see just how fast it is:smile:

 

After looking at results from a bunch of dyno runs, it looks to me like 5K is the point where torque starts to drop off. Your HP is still climbing, but torque is the measurement of the engine's ability to spin up quickly.

Even though MINI disagrees with me, I find my car is most powerful from 4K - 5K, especially in the higher gears, where we also have wind resistance to overcome.