Just a couple quick questions for any of you MINI gurus out there.

Doing dome searching around in the meantime of waiting for my MCS to arrive. I'm looking for the right style and weight of aftermarket wheels, preferably something of that on the Hamann MCS. What I'm curious to know before settling on something, is what the weight is for the 16" X-Lite wheels that come standard on the MCS. Just so I can compare it with other rims. Trying to lose some weight for the car, making her have a better get-up-and-go.

Also, would anyone know how much boost the MCS engine would be able to take before serious problems occur? Looking around for some performance options, and am trying not to go overboard.
As well, how much boost(psi) does the supercharger in the MCS kick out?
Anyone know of a manufacturer of a pulley kit for the MCS?? MINI-Madness apparently discontinued their pulley that they had advertised on their site(?)

Thanx in advance to any light shed on the subjects at hand.
Cheers,

 

When I put on my aftermarket 17" wheels & Tires, I weighed the 16" x lite wheels I took off the car. They weigh just under 42 lbs each - inluding the center caps, lug nuts, tires(all season Dunlop run flats), and air.

 

>> I weighed the 16" x lite wheels I took off the car. They weigh just under 42 lbs each - inluding the center caps, lug nuts, tires(all season Dunlop run flats), and air.


How many lbs. of air??? :smile:

 

>>When I put on my aftermarket 17" wheels & Tires, I weighed the 16" x lite wheels I took off the car. They weigh just under 42 lbs each - inluding the center caps, lug nuts, tires(all season Dunlop run flats), and air.

holy crap. How much do those run-flats weigh apiece?

 

>>When I put on my aftermarket 17" wheels & Tires, I weighed the 16" x lite wheels I took off the car. They weigh just under 42 lbs each - inluding the center caps, lug nuts, tires(all season Dunlop run flats), and air.

That's some pretty nasty weight for wheels on a car that calls itself a 'MINI'. Not so mini in the weight department there. Thanx for replying dpayne1. That should help me in the pursuit for lesser weight wheels and tires. Anypics of your setup(style of wheels)?

 

P.S.- Would anyone know what the rim in question weighs in at without the tire? Thanx

 

Yes, the Stock wheels for the S (the "x lites&quot weigh 17.1 lbs each

Go here for all the details Wheel Info

 

Yes, I got Kosei K1 17-7 wheels (16 lb ea) with Kumho ECSTA 712 tires in 215/45/17 - As a set they weigh 38 lbs each.

Picture of Wheels

 

Thanx all. Now I have some numbers to go with when choosing a wheel and tire package.
Thanx dpayne1 for the wheel info. Pretty helpful. I also heard that every 100lbs subtracted from the vehicle is good for one tenth of a second in the 1/4 mile time. I've already been thinking on how and what I can gut in or on the car to take wawy some weight. Guess I should wait until I have the thing first.
Cheers,

 

well im relying on the weight to get me threw the 8 feet of snow i should be getting any day now... but one of my friends put yokos oh him to lighten the load might want to check those out

 

I have Yokohama Parada 2's on my 17" rims, and they are great. At the meet last Sunday, however, one of the S owners had a different type of yoko on his MINI and said they basically had no grip at all.

David V.

 

>>Just a couple quick questions for any of you MINI gurus out there.
>>
>>Doing dome searching around in the meantime of waiting for my MCS to arrive. I'm looking for the right style and weight of aftermarket wheels, preferably something of that on the Hamann MCS. What I'm curious to know before settling on something, is what the weight is for the 16" X-Lite wheels that come standard on the MCS. Just so I can compare it with other rims. Trying to lose some weight for the car, making her have a better get-up-and-go.
>>
>>Also, would anyone know how much boost the MCS engine would be able to take before serious problems occur? Looking around for some performance options, and am trying not to go overboard.
>>As well, how much boost(psi) does the supercharger in the MCS kick out?
>>Anyone know of a manufacturer of a pulley kit for the MCS?? MINI-Madness apparently discontinued their pulley that they had advertised on their site(?)
>>
>>Thanx in advance to any light shed on the subjects at hand.
>>Cheers,
>>
>>

The problem with adding after-market modifications to anything is that you'll end up having to change the crank shaft because of the greater strain, along with the fly-wheel, and clutch. Then i'd be worried to the reliability of the tranny with the extra strain. Plus, are you trying to tell me you feel a lack of power with your cooper S? wow

 

>>
>>The problem with adding after-market modifications to anything is that you'll end up having to change the crank shaft because of the greater strain, along with the fly-wheel, and clutch. Then i'd be worried to the reliability of the tranny with the extra strain. Plus, are you trying to tell me you feel a lack of power with your cooper S? wow
>>


I think the motor in the S can take a lot more then just the basic 164 hp that it is putting out now. How much more it can take will have to wait till someone does a complete tear down on the motor and/or someone pumps a new motor up till it blows.

Most engines are built to withstand a lot more hp then they put out. I am sure the crank in the mine can take 225 plus HP at the very least. I would love to find out wout the torque rating on the getrag is though because I bet it is insanely high.


Good example of a motor with a extremely overbuilt crank is the SR20E from Nissan. The motor went into the top of the line extremely fast sentras from a few years ago. It only makes 150 or so hp but the crank can take over 500 hp without any modifications. Take a look at the 500 hp plus turbocharged and/or nitroused hondas out there. Most of them are still running the stock manual trans without any modifications.

 

I also heard that every 100lbs subtracted from the vehicle is good for one tenth of a second in the 1/4 mile time.

If you can get 1000 lbs off the mini, it will go a blazing one second faster in the 1/4 mile.....what do I remove after I have removed all the seats except the driver's seat?

 

Nolan,
Actually.... with 1000 lbs gone.... I would bet... you would see better numbers than that.
As far as loosing the weight.... the seats are a start... but they are of the lightest items in the car. Your Sound insulation, carpeting, gauges, dash, etc... are all good for several pounds. Then you have to consider the 67/33 weight dist. This means that most of the weight is in the engine and drivetrain. The next logical step is to lighten existing parts. ie wheels, drive shaft, fly wheel, exhaust, etc.
I imagine that a fully race modded MINI would weigh in close to 2k or 1-2 hundred pounds less....
The wheels are one of the best places to start on most cars. The stock wheels on the S weigh in at around the 20 lb mark give or take..... put some 9 lb wheels on there and you're already going to see an improvement.
SW

 

Just increasing the 'boost' on the supercharger isn't really the right way to go as you will then need to to do all sorts of other things. if you want to go fast start with the exhaust system (cat back) and then go after the intake and exhaust manifolds. Port/polish/blueprint - all the normal stuff.

Cooper Works in the UK is offering a WORKS kit which will up the horsepower to 220 AND because it can be dealer installed will preserve the factory warrenty. if i was going for the power I would just inport or copy Cooper as nobody knows more about making MINIs perform than they do.

 

Sport Compact car did a article a couple months ago on how to make Nissan Sentra I think go a full one second faster for free.

They took the hood off, took out all the interior, the trunk and get the roof off of the car along with all the glass.


It was a funny article.

The general rule of thumb is that 100 lbs is worth 1/10th of a second in a street car. When going to a street/strip car or more radical pure drag car this is not always the case.

This works the same way that hp increases work. If you have a car that makes 250 hp and increase that hp to 300 you will see a significant increase in 1/4 mile e.t. and speed. A car that makes 800 hp will not see as signifigant a drop in et by raising the hp by 50 then the 250 hp car did.


Reducing the weight of the wheels/tires will have a much more dramatic effect then reducing the weight somewhere else in the car. This is because the wheels are unsprung rotational weight and slow down the car the most. It is much harder to accelerate rotational weight (wheels, tires, axels, driveshafts and such) then it is non-rotational weight. This is because you have a lever arm working agianst the acceleration of a rotating object.

The inertia for a simple object that has all of its mass centered at a single point, a sphere is an example of this, is Mass x radius^2. To calculate the rotational inertia for a wheel tire combo you would have to calculate the inertia for the wheel first then the tire and then add them together. T

he wheel I think you could assume to be a disk and therefore use that equation. The wheel could use the equation for a hollow cylinder. By calculating that you could get a very good idea about how much more difficult the heavier wheels/tires are to accelerate then you could by simply looking at their weight.

I don't have the formulas for those two shapes handy but they would not be too hard to find. A college freshman level physics book would have them and so might a senior level hs book.


ahah nevermind i did find them

Equation for a uniform solid cylinder is 1/2MR^2. This would be used for the wheel even though it is not truly a solid cylinder it is close.

MR^2 is the formula for a thin walled hollow cylinder. This would be the best formula for use on the tire.

I got these formulas here. http://www.mit.edu/~8.01/Fall00/general/fif-00.pdf

You could calculate the moment of inertia for every part of the wheel but that would be much more complicated and you woudl have to either guess at the weight of the various portions of the wheel or cut a wheel a part and weigh each part speratley.

 

With all of the equations floating around and the weight loss discussions can anybody come up with the stock boost pressure of the MINI from the factory? Haven't seen the figures anywhere yet.

Thanks

 

justjoe,
The figures have been posted in the forums in the past.....
If I remember correctly..... it's 0.8 bar or 11.8 psi

Hope this helps.
SW

 

Thanks. 11.8 PSI is quite a bit of pressure for a stock motor. dont think that increasing it would be much of an option for an upgrade. I think a breathing treatment (removing exhaust and intake restrictions) would be more in order. Than a diet or a pressure increase.

 

Well slap me **** and call me spanky.

 

one owner on the mini2 forum put in gauges and measured 9 psi max boost.

 

If there is enough room in front of the radiator behind the grill for a front mount intercooler and the various plumbing it requires then that would be a very worthwhile mod.

Where the intercooler sits right now it has to get a lot of heat soak from the engine and that reduces its efficency. A much larger intercooler could be placed in front of the radiator which would help to reduce air intake charge temperature even further. For every 10 degrees F that the intake charge is reduced the engine will make 1% more hp.

So if the intake charge before the new intercooler was 180 degrees and if the intake charge after the new intercooler is 100 degrees then the motor will make 8% more hp after the mod.

I also think that right now the hood scoop is being used as both an are inlet for the engine and the inlet for the intercooler. Moving the intercooler to a front mount position would clean up the air intake track and provide a larger footprint for the motor to suck in cool air.

 

Azwed,
I agree with most of what you said......
One thing I wanted to correct..... The air intake for the MCS is not through the hood scoope. It is just below in the grille.

You can see a pic Here...

By the way..... I had the same idea some time ago....... My thoughts were to move the intercooler up front..... Replace the stock MCS hood with a stock MINI Cooper hood. Talk about a sleeper..... Just don't know if it's really worth trying.

I just can't wait to start playing....

SW

 

Ah i see. I had seen that inlet and thought that it opened up into the side of the hood scoop.

Well if a company made a front mount intercooler they could also make it so that the scoop was used as the air inlet. The car would breath a little easier then and would get more cool air. I don't think you can replace the S hood with a regular hood because of clearance issues with the super charger.