Old thread, but still fun nonetheless. My Triumph Bonneville with aftermarket pipes does this (jetted to my liking, but still tad a bit lean at closed throttle) and I get same feeling when I'm driving my MINI. I guess it's a brit thing.

I wonder if they'll keep this "feature" in F56, or they listen to consumer reports and kill it again. I also wonder if those new fuel injected Bonnies do this.

The 2013 R59 roadster S I just bought certainly does it!
I'm still working on the exact thing I have to do to make it happen, since it doesn't do it all the time.
It's been mentioned in nearly all the reviews of the Roadster as a "cool thing" so I doubt it'll go away any time soon.

2010 JCW Mini Cooper Hatch
 

Just to report - I have a 2010 JCW and in Sport Mode, it 'backfires' and burbles. Love it!

I bough the car as a Certified PRe-Owned. Not sure what previous owner had done to the car.

Exhaust pop in Sport mode
 

My 2011 Cooper S (Spice Orange) had this option, but I really had to work to make it happen. First thing I noticed about my new 2013 S was how often the exhaust pops when decelerating, or after a quick burst on the gas ..... does it every time. Brilliant !!

Is this the noise my brain says sounds like a speaker paper cone moving? I hear it in my MCS12 after I took out the rear seatbacks. I did notice some diaphragm like bits when I took of the back bumper to install a hitch. I've been wondering what was making the noise.

Found this "interesting feature" today when i tried sport mode on my almost new 2013 cooper s. At first I thought something was wrong with the ecu and the engine was running rich.

Is the mixture richer in sport mode overall or just on deceleration? Anyway to turn this off? Seriously. I prefer my engines to be tuned properly and run with proper fuel mapping. Don't need fouled plugs.

Pop and burble gets old fast just like the DOS CAI whoosh sound. Makes me feel like I'm in some child's toy or something.

Hey Fanatic, you bought a mini and the pop and burble makes it feel childish??? Tell the anyone who just bought a new Panamara or Jag F type that the overrun pop and burble is childish. Enjoy the damn car

Childish yes. When you have a supercar it's a different story. That's real unburnt fuel being expelled. Whereas in the MINI's case, it's the ECU allowing such nonsense. Like I said, gets old fast. Either way enjoy your damn car.

The "supercar" Fiat Abarth pops and burbles. Every editor that reviews the Abarth gushes over the popping and crackling..
Enjoying my damn car:]

My wife's friend has a fiat. You ever sit in one? The leg room is less than half the MINI.

My apologies for resurrecting this thread, but I wanted to clear up something on the popping noise that no one has mentioned.

I found this thread because I was curious about what the Sport button does on my gf's 14 Mini S. I am a car guy and also have a modified 3rd gen twin turbo RX-7 since the mid 90s, so Im pretty knowledged with fuel maps.

Many are correct with that popping is unburned fuel. Excess fuel (running rich) flows through the exhaust, is heated up, and once it hits oxygen it ignites. Im at the extreme spectrum of this with my RX-7 being that it belches out 3-4 foot flames after a hard run since I have a fully programmable ecu on it.

The reason to have excess fuel pumping through on deceleration is to prevent the engine from leaning out. If the engine leans then it could possibly ping. And pinging is bad as it can cause engine damage. Pinging is when the engine is compressing more air than having an actual combustion resulting in engine internals voilently vibrating and breaking stuff.

I have no clue if Mini is pumping more fuel to actually prevent a lean scenario or if they did it for the "cool" factor. But I did notice the hood scoop is functional since it does bring in extra air to help cool the engine down. So I figured if Mini bothered to install a functional hood scoop then perhaps the richer fuel maps are helping to prevent the engine from running lean after some fun runs. Im also surprised the brake ducts are functional. =)

Its for the "fun" factor.