BMWs figures themselves are inconsistent, even for the same vehicle. I have seen the R56 MCS listed both with an 'official' 7.1s and a 6.8s 0-60 time. I never rely on the manufacturers' performance figures. Depending on various factors, a manufacturer can choose to slant data one way or another to suit their needs.

 

so, to your first point, i agree. i was hoping for someone who owned both and had tracked both so the reference would be the same driver. driver to driver ability varies too much.

toward your second post --it's a difference in how the power is delivered. i agree that the turbo flat runs out of power past 5500rpms at which point there is no point to going to redline. unless i'm gravely mistaken, my sense of looking at dyno plots comparing the tritec to the prince motors was that HP was always the same but the torque number was usually favoring the turbo. how off base is this thought?

 

The 1.6 Tritec makes less torque than the 1.6 Prince yes.

 

I drove an '06 JCW back to back with my car at an autox school. I wanted to because I had read so much about how much I was missing. He wanted to because he figured he had bought the wrong car to compete.

Plusses for the '06:
Light steering and gearshift, better clutch pedal feel.

Plusses for the '07:
The engine actually does make more usable power. Slightly quicker launch.

He preferred his car, I preferred mine, go figure. It was much easier to get going way too fast on the tiny (very tiny) autoX track we were on in my car than it was in his.
His engine did have the auditory appeal of the pops and more linear delivery of power that mine did, but on low speed corners, you could just leave mine in second, but had to grab first to stay in the power on the '06. The inputs were a little heavier in mine than in his, but both cars moved about the same as far as transitions, rotation, etc. The only modification from stock was that he had non-runflat Goodyears, I was still on the stock rubber.

In the end, he did agree that he had bought the wrong car to compete, and I agreed that the JCW was unfairly classed in the extreme. It should be in the same class as an r56s. Considering that I could not have afforded his particular car, I am happy with the r56. I would have been happy with the with the regular r53s, but probably not competitive in GS. Not that I am competitive in the r56, but it's certainly me. I'd also be about a 1/2 second slower in the 1/4 mile without modifying it, from what I can tell.

Am I really missing out by not having an r53? I didn't think so from my short test drive. YMMV, esp if you are running a race team, and will need parts, lots and lots of parts.

 

how much power in there in the tritec before you need to rebuild the internals to deal with the boost? i don't know much about this engine or the prince: are either closed deck design? when you write that you get 200hp at the wheels --is that on stock internals?

i am asking because i think it will be interesting to see how much boost the Prince engine will be able to handle before it absolutely explodes. it does not sound like there is the margin of error like there is for the Tritec engine.

 

True, aluminum generally has less oops factor to it than iron. Engineering can make up for a lot of that, but we won't know until people start to go a bit more crazy with this engine. I don't know if that is going to happen soon, as anyone who wants a really high horsepower mini can get an r53 and go to town on their checkbook. I wish I understood French, maybe the Peugeot folks can tell us.

 

i think it's pretty telling that for the CooperWorx factory car they basically have a handbuilt engine with some nice little bespoke bits that the standard MCS engine gets.

I'm still curious to see where the limit for power (in MCS standard form) is on the Prince engine. I guess I'd still like to know how much the stock Tritec will tolerate because fragging the motor.

 

To me the Tritec feels solid, heavy with quick response time when mashing the pedal, The Prince felt like I was being dragged like a child trying to hold back a great dane.. what a ride! Very different feel between the two. In the end I might just go with an R53 because the seats are a bit wider and don't pinch me. While the R56 seats seemed ok during a test drive of all of 15 minutes, but those seats look suspiciously narrow.. I have had cars that felt fine and become horribly uncomfortable AFTER you buy it.. ( of course) and they pinched my hips and crowd the boys.. Which ever one I do eventually get, I will drive for a while to make damn sure I am comfortable and that means no kids, no salesman etc... so I can concentrate.

 

i haven't gotten a chance to drive an R56 yet, but if the peugeot engine picks up like that, i'm gonna need to check that out. i'm happy enough with the tritec, though, and i think the biggest advantage that the new peugeot engine has is fuel efficiency....there must be some people who bought a mini mainly for it, i know my R50 gets double, if not triple, as many miles per gallon as any other car in my household. i'd be getting 4 times as good mileage as my mom's truck if i had the R56.