Long story short, in a series of unexpected events, I ended up owning another MINI after a 10 year hiatus. My first mini was a BRG R53 that I absolutely LOVED (and regret selling to this day). Since then, I have owned everything from two different variations of Audi S4's, Mazdaspeed Miata, SUV's, the while spectrum of cars.

I recently (two months ago) bought a brand new Subaru XV Crosstrek (I was trying to act "grown up" ), I picked the car up on a saturday and the following tuesday some #$% @&!# in a stake body landscaping truck loaded down with mulch, towing an industrial chipper ran a stop sign and t-boned me at 40mph. The cop said the truck was easily 20 tons... The Subaru was totaled before I even got to fill it up with gas To add insult to injury, it turned out the guy that hit me had no insurance, so I've been fighting with my insurance company for the past two months,

I finally got a check cut with the intention of getting another XV,but a friend or a friebds dad had just posted this MINI on Facebook and somehow it popped up in my newsfeed, and I had tyo have it. One owner, VERY low miles (22k), every option but NAV, the owner didnt even know it had a "sport mode", which sealed the deal for me.

I finalized everything last night and on my way home from transferring the title stopped by my tint guys house to get the windows done. On my way into work this morning I stopped at Helix and had them do some coding for me (one touch sunroof, euro hazard update, and a few other little things). I figured while I was there I would grab a stubby antenna, poly bushings, and a short shift kit.

When I got to work we strapped her down on our dyno to get a baseline. It made WAY more than I thought it would. Now, keep in mind we have a Mustang dyno which is notorious for reading low. With that being said, on this EXTREMELY humid/hot day, the bone stock car put down 184whp/179wtq. My tuner got to work, we decided to keep it conservative until I get the supporting mods in (downpipe, filter or intake, methanol,intercooler, etc). After a few tweaks, we ended up with 213whp/234wtq... and you can REALLY feel it. I'd say I wish I had done this sooner, but I guess that would practically be impossible haha.

Anyways, I thought I would share with you all. As I add parts and keep adjusting the tune I will update the thread with the new hp and tq numbers. I would LOVE 300whp, but I don't see that happening on the stock turbo.

 

Nice. Which tuner did you decide to go with? Custom tune? What's up with that dip? Wheel spin?

 

That horsepower increase ought to throw you back in the seat!

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

We do all of our own tuning in house. The hardware we used for my car is called CMD. The dip, while it looks substantial is actually only like 3hp. Roshan (our tuner) said the dyno RPM was a bit jittery when the car spooled. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a bit of wheel spin as well.

Oh yea! Night and day difference. With traction control off it spins through second and if hammered while moving in first or second just lights the tires up. I'm happy! I have to find an Intercooler now, do you know anything about the cheapy eBay ones? Assuming they don't leak, what's the downside compared to say, Alta or one of the nice brands? I'm sure construction won't be nearly as prefect, but besides that is there any reason to spend 5-600 dollars vs. say $200?

 

Jmtc can explain this much better than I can give them a ring, price isn't too bad. Something to do with cast ends and the eBay intercooler having more smaller diameter rows or something. I'm not sure if the eBay ones flow as well and are able to move as much volume. I'm sure someone has a more scientific answer but this was the impression I was under.

So you have regular access to a dyno? U should bolt up 1 mod at a time and take readings if your willing and able. That would be sick.

 

Here's some good background info on intercoolers and a video on swapping them out if you decide to do it yourself, or just be sure your shop does it right!

http://new.minimania.com/Mini_Cooper_Inter-cooler_Video

http://new.minimania.com/Search_Resu...cooler/default

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

It looks from that torque curve like the DME is pulling some timing at about 3600 RPM. The day you stopped in was a pretty hot if I remember correctly, so it could very well have been your IATs that were causing it. If you were doing multiple runs than the stock core would have heat soaked. We have published data on temperature drop and recovery rates of our intercooler. We also have data on how our cooler performs vs. other coolers on the market. A good intercooler would no doubt give you even bigger torque deltas. Congrats!

 

I manage a large shop that has a 4wd Mustang dyno, so yep,, I have regular access haha.

thanks! I'll take a read through it.

IATs were 200.. so yea, she was getting hot. We did 15 or so runs total. I had them load up the fans and let it rest between every 3 pulls. I still havent gotten a chance to put my short shift kit on damn work getting in the way. Thanks again for having me, you guys have a terrific operation. Do you think with Meth i will still need an IC? I'd imagine the methanol will more than adequately cool the car, right? Maybe i'll pick one up anyways. You said you're out of stock for a month, right?

Thanks for the recommendation on the tomato pie across the street, my guys at the shop LOVED it.

 

Yep, if you want to get fat, come hang around Helix.

We really haven't studied how the use of meth impacts the efficacy of a good intercooler. We do install Meth kits, despite their not being my favorite solution: they're finicky and a little risky unless you have a two-stage DME management. I also don't love having to keep refilling yet another fuel source that resides inside the cabin of a car. Give me simplicity, Man.