i figured ...why not? ; )

 

good choice I reckon.

good luck with it!

 

thanks. can't wait for monday!

- drew

 

i just want to give a HUGE shout out to the fine, fine folks at prestige mini in nj. yes, i live in nyc and yes, i am proud to say that i am happy to drive an hour out of town to get the absolute best mini service i have ever encountered. after just getting off the phone with them and telling them of my plan they assured me not to worry about the warranty and scheduled service on my car. they told me that anything supercharger related will of course be my responsibility, but as far as they are concerned everything is else is still completely cool. in fact, they are totally mod friendly and see lots of pulley'd cars in their shop on a regualr basis. (not to imply in a problematic way, just that they have lots of customers who are using pulleys). anyhoo - they deserve some praise for this stance, so here it is:

you guys rule!

 

Nice! I wonder if I could call my dealer mod friendly or mod smart. As they are replacing my motor and haven't mentioned the CAI, Exhaust or the pulley on my car.

 

AWESOME!!

i wish i had done this sooner. the upgrade went without a hitch and the results are amazing! no time for a full review now, but i'll post more later for sure. if you're on the fence about this...go do it!

 

 

i just got my 15% pulley on my 05 MCSa on today, and i love it!!!!!!!!

 

WOW! THAT MAKES TWO OF US - CONGRATS!

 

sounds great!

looking forward to reading your write up, especially what you thought about the people at heix.

 

and to think I only waited till 2500 miles to put on my pulley..lol

 

well...

Everything good you've read, heard or seen about a MINI Cooper S with a 15% pulley mod is true. The car really sprung to life. It pulls like mad. The power band is much more rounded and even - offering more power at lower revs - and gobs of power where there was solid power before. 2nd, 3rd and 4th are a total revelation - just a completely different car. 5th also has more power throughout its power band and pulls where it didn't use to pull before. 6th is still a highway cruiser and shows no real benefit from the upgrade. (I saved 1st for last because that gear gets wrung out really fast now - but it sounds a lot cooler!) Where the MCSa used to really come alive at, say, 3800 rpm, the car now wants to fly at 2500 rpm. It's eager. It's urgent. And it's definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a lot faster. Here is what it's not: it's not a Porsche killer. It's not a first-off-the-line drag car. It's not night and day different. What it does give you is a complete range of power that will surprise you when you least expect it. Even after a three hour drive back (I took the long way!) the car would simply take-off when I hit the go pedal where it didn't used to before. I would go as far as to say that adding this much power to the car will require some modification of your driving style - at least is has for me. All in all I am 100 percent happy with the pulley mod and would say to anyone on the fence to go for it. WIth guys like Eric at Helix and Randy at Webb Motorsports having done the amount of research on it they have - not to mention literally hundreds of cars with thousands of pulley'd miles on them, this one seems like a real safe bet.

and for the record, eric at helix rules - he's a total pro and knows these cars backwards and forwards. run, don't walk...

 

Sounds great. For me, my challenge would be to restrain myself - the moment that I give in to the modification bug, I am on a trajectory that includes new head and cam, CAI, larger throttle body, header with high flow cat and cat-back exhaust; and then I will have to run 94+ octane. What are you running octane-wise with your mods?

 

whoa dude! sounds like you have the master plan! and you're waiting because...? ; )

as for fuel, i run 93.

 

I'm running 93 octane...standard pump premium at most places down here. Some are 91 though.

 

I am challenged by the 91 octane pisswater that is sold as premium in California. Going with the "deep-end" mods will tether me to gas stations that sell 100 octane racing unleaded. My hope was that the JCW package would enable me to get closer to my end stage but still be able to run the 91 octane pisswater. Of course, if I get annoyed enough (with the non-delivery of the JCW package for the MCSa), I will just say to hell with it and go off the deep end. (And look into some sort of auxiliary gas tank....)

Does anyone have a 15% pulley on their MCSa and run the 91 octane crap with no problems?

 

I have run a few tanks of 91 in my car with the 15% pulley and it seemed a bit different. Saved me a whopping 4cents a gallon It might be a mental thing but the car didn't seem to have as much punch. And I drive my car hard most days and I can really feel the difference

 

nice!

I bet it improves driving the car in urban situations, having the power band moved down a bit.

BTW, did you have the lower heat range spark plugs installed? I've heard it's recommended with reduction pulleys.

 

The lower end torque is great for my commute. You don't really have to step on it and it has about the same power it used to when you stepped on it a bit. I had NGK Iridium IX's installed with the pulley and it seems to run nice and smooth. They are one step colder plugs.

 

Just got my 06 MCSa done by Randy Webb at AMVIV and now it just feels stronger. Now I love pushing it harder on the rpms and simply pulls very hard from 5k and up. I currently have a M7 60mm throttle body, Alta larger intercooler, and Alta CAI. The car has 5k miles now and hopefully more trouble free ahead. The only trouble I have is a flat spot at around 3k to 3.5k rpm, where the car feels flat and not smooth. It pulls smooth but then it slows down a bit at 3k to 3.5k and then it picks up again. Might have to look into doing the MTH ecu tuner file to fix this. Besides the flat spot everything else is great.

I went way over my budget over the weekend at AMVIV and got a few items sitting in my truck ready to go into my MCSa. The most exciting items are a set of Willwood 12.2 BBk with cross drilled slotted rotors and a new exhaust catback system from M7. The M7 catback is not out yet but I got a lot of mods from M7 and Peter and Randy were kind enought let me get the final prototype display system they had at AMVIV.

 

yes - city driving is a blast now ; )

and no, didn't get the plugs: eric at helix advised against it. as far as i am concerned, his word is gold.

- drew

 

yes - city driving is a blast now ; )

and no, didn't get the plugs: eric at helix advised against it. as far as i am concerned, his word is gold.

- drew

 

SurfsUp you put on the larger TB. I have been on the fence about this mod. Do you really think it helped much? And in what area?

 

Personally, I would question the value of a larger TB if you have a flat spot from 3000 to 3500 rpm after installation of the larger TB.

 

Hey I'm glad it worked out well for you!!