*Please note, the following was done in a controlled environment, not on public roads*

Well, this weekend I found out the ultimate top speed of my 05 MCS. The only mods are: JCW intake, RO_JA LT5 17'' wheels with Toyo T1-R tires.

On a long flat stretch : 224KM/h (140MPH)

 

Anyone care to guess what differance would a Milltek + 15% do?

I'm guessing not much, maybe 5-10 MPH.

 

Very doubtful. The car is an aerodynamic brick. To gain more top speed you need MUCH more HP and its not linear. You will be lucky to see a minimal gain. ... my guess.

 

How did you break past the governed speed?

 

To be honest, I dont get it. I was under the impression the car was "locked" at 210kmh, but when I saw the gauge just sweep past it and keep on going, I just didn't understand. I switched to the digital readout on the tach and it clearly read 224.

Could it be a Canadian thing?

 

Well my bet is that when you got the JCW intake they updated software with that from JCW, which may have moved your top goverened speed t o the JCW electric limit 142 MPH then b/c you just had the intake not the whole sytem you didn't have the power to go past 140.

 

I didn't get the JCW software upgrade, I just got the intake and installed it myself.

 

Another thing to consider BMW has a 5% tolerance over report and I have seen my speedo surpass the 10%, so if you can setup the conditions again I'd take a GPS and compare the 2 (I've run through radar guns with 2 GPSs on board and the only two that matched the same speed were the GPS recievers, radar was a bit all over but generally under, and the speedo was always high) but the DME would go off of the displayed speed so that still owuld effect your reading. What RPM were you at?

 

there is no governed speed on these cars!!!!!

 

So all the stuff about being electronically limited at 134 is marketing BS and the cars can go faster that doesn't make a while lot of sense (unless MINI wants to save me money on my ins. bill)

 

the cars are not governed at all...they top out due to aero ability...

 

from what I remember, I was in 6th gear at about 5200

 

Why would MINI say they are (and whats that rev limiter consider then when you hit 6th?)? Reason for asking what the revs were at 140MPH.

Also they top out as a result of gearing not being able to go any faster, then after the gears were tweaked there is a hp limit, and than if you can increase that in large increments there will be even more speed gained. the Aero just dictates how much HP is needed to raise the top speeed and how stable the car will be.

 

If the car truly topped out there then speed was still left to be gained, just need more time at WOT and patience or you hit a rev limiter which was acting as a governor, a lack of patience can be compensated for with HP.

 

could my speedo be really off?

 

time at WOT and patience is not what was needed to go faster. I needed either more power or less air resistance.

 

Pretty much all are as Euro Regulations have severe penalties for over reporting, thery're close but not quite what the real speed is.

 

And if the ECU would have let you bring the engine speed up to 6500 RPM or more you would have had the more power to go faster.

 

BMW/MINI says they are governed, I don't think they have any reason to lie about this...

 

so, we can conclude that these cars are not limited to 134MPH... at least not in Canada.

 

I wonder if B/c of the conversion the kph models have a higher limit than US models so it would be 134MPH US and 224kph (140MPH) in the rest of the world maybe? But I do think they are limited.

 

I had my 03 on the autobahn doing an easy 135-140, pedal to the metal for anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour. It is fully possible to do better. All I have is 15% and cai.
A friend of mine in the army had 15% cai, MTH and some suspension bits. We went up to 150 on the speedo and north of 7000 rpm on the tach in 6th. He has an '05.
Granted: once we hit 145 (on the speedo mind you) it took about a minute to get another 5 mph past that. There is a major flattening of the acceleration curve after about 140-145. I'm not sure the speedo is necessarily accurate after the 120's either.
Aerodynamics can be overcome, but it takes a lot.

dan

 

well the factory set the speed at 138 for mine dont ask long story on how i know this

 

I think the math behind car aerodynamics at speed is pretty interesting. (I suck at math so someone smarter than me may want to check my calculations)

Using the drag equation we can calculate the force of the air resistance at that speed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_equation

Fd = 0.5*p*v^2*A*Cd

With
Fd (force of drag)
p (density of air) = 1.22 kg/m^2 (this will vary a lot)
v (velocity in m/s) = 140 MPH = 62.58556 m/s (conversion is MPH*0.44704)
A (area of the front of mini in sq m) = 2.0 sq m (estimate I found online)
Cd (drag coefficient) = 0.36 for MCS, 0.35 for MC

so Fd at 140MPH in MCS is 1720 Newtons (387 pounds of force pushing back on the car from just the air!!)

To then find out how much power is needed to overcome air resistance, you multiple force of air resistance by speed

P = Fd * v

P (power in Watts)
Fd = (Force of drag calculated above)
v (velocity in m/s)

P = 1720 * 62.58556 = 107667 watts

107667 watts = 144 horsepower (conversion HP = watts * 0.00134102209)

So 144 HP to just overcome the air resistance at 140 MPH. The rest of your horsepower was used to overcome friction and resistance in the drive train and the tires on the road.

Since the power needed to overcome air resistance increases by the cube of the velocity, it requires a ton of power to increase small amounts of speed at that point. To go just 5 MPH faster, you would need another 16 HP!

At 150 MPH the MCS needs 177 HP to overcome air resistance
At 200 MPH the MCS needs 420 HP to overcome air resistance
At the current land speed record 763 MPH, the MCS needs 23,375 HP

 

Wait a sec. The cars does NOT have a speed governor. Your thinking, maybe, about BMWs, Audis, and other German makes that have a gentlemen's agreement NOT to exceed 155 MPH and hence DO electronically limit their cars to 155. This is mostly due to liability issues with tires (Porsche, being the exception).

Pre-05 cars have a theoretical top end of 164 ... GEARING limited if you had the HP. Go look at the Silverstate Classic results for 04 and 05. There is a MCS in their topping out at 164.

05-on cars will have a LOWER top speed because their final drive ration in sixth is higher.

If you go here ...http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?s...l&titlesonly=0
you will see the gearing formulas and top speeds in each gear.

Top speed is aerodynamics limited and the curve versus HP is NOT linear. For example, a 100% increase in HP may only yield 25% increase in top speed.