Long story short, my wife received a job offer in Italy, we've been here three weeks, her Clubman arrived today, my Charger and Jeep had to be put in storage. I'm stuck with a bicycle. Her Clubman is begging me to mod it.

So, since I'm fairly new to Mini mods, where should I begin? The only rule of this game is that the mods has to be unnoticeable (can't alter the appearance) to my wife.

Help me build my parts list. I will put a build thread together. I will take tons of photos. I will race it through the Swiss Alps and on the German autobahn.

Disclaimer: I know this is northamericanmotoring.com, but I'm hoping that since we bought it in NA, are from NA, and speak NA, I can hang out with the cool kids.

 

my first recommendation is
ALTA AccessPort. Only when she drive. she will know the different..

and you will have a blast with it...

BTW my wife still doesn't know it has been tuned. even when she drives it..

 

H-Sport rear sway bar...it will give you serious cornering...EXTREMELY STEALTH!!

+1 on the Alta access port...very stealth too!

 

I am in the same boat, the Clubbie is my wife's car and she does not want it mod'ed, she just doesn't get it. I Agree with the Rear Sway Bar, I used a 22mm Alta but that debate is for another thread. Wife did not notice that mod. I want to try the Alta AccessPort but she already says how much better the car "goes" in the sport mode. She did notice when I put an Alta hotside pipe on, she thought I changed the exhaust. So my point is that you need to come up with a host of good excuses. And enjoy your driving location, lucky.

 

That's too funny. I will just say I changed the oil and she will believe that's what changed the performance/song.

With the Alta AccessPort, do I need to take it to a dyno after getting the AccessPort? I have the Diablo Predator (same idea as AccessPort) for my Charger. It came with a canned tune, but could be used by a dyno expert to squeeze out more power?

I'm a sucker for "matching" parts. With that being said, who makes the best front and rear sway bars.

So here's what I've located so far:
- downtube
- AccessPort
- coilovers
- swaybars
- exhaust?
- CAI?

 

Don't waste your time and money on the exhaust and CAI. They will not materially improve the car's power and you wife will notice them for sure - the car will be noticeably louder. Definitely NOT stealth.

The Access Port is *the* hot ticket, you will _definitely_ notice the improved power and torque. And the cool part is that you could easily install the tuning map when you drive the car and then un-install it before she has a chance to drive it. It only takes 5 minutes to do this, totally stealth, heh, heh...

 

There is a brand new Access Port being sold by another NAM member for $800 - JUMP ON THIS DEAL!! Alta gives you all the tunes for free, so $800 is your final cost for a serious increase in performance...

 

hmmm. I'm going to tell you to get the official JCW Tuning Kit ;-)
that way she really won't notice it ... if she doesn't look at the tips, since it is pretty stealthy... and not racuous...

but then again, you just posted this on the internet!

 

Go with FMIC, guaranteed she won't see the intercooler and you will benefit greatly with the AccessPort.

 

FMIC, check. AccessPort, check. Thanks for the help finding the best mods.

Good thing I run a proxy server on our network, blocking her access to this site. She'll never know anything has changed on the Clubman. I'm already feeding the myth "Hey, I was reading online the other day if we change the oil to a special blend, we can get 'different' gas mileage."

 

What is the performance difference between the access port and a RMW tune?