Following our ‘benchmark’ performance MINI review of the John Cooper Works MINI Cooper S (here) MINI2 have been busy driving other companies fast converted MINIs for review. The first place we visited on our UK tour was Graham Goode Racing in Leicester. The following is a review of their 225 BHP MINI Conversion.

First to answer a few basic questions regarding the conversion, specifically, what does it cost, and what do you get for your money? The conversion as tested will set you back £3495.00 + VAT, fitted. The fitting takes around three to four working days as Graham Goode keep a stock of modified cylinder heads in store, ready for eager ‘S’ owners wanting a little more punch.

So, what does that buy you? First of all, it buys you a claimed 225 BHP @ 6716 RPM, and 190 lb/ft of torque @ 3565 RPM, which is a nice leap in power, this is achieved through a combination of modifications to the supercharger drive ratio (pulley), gas flowed cylinder head with larger exhaust valves, free flowing fabricated stainless steel exhaust manifold with sports catalytic converter, free flow stainless steel exhaust system and reprogrammed engine management system. The price also includes all of the usual fluids, gaskets and so on needed to carry out this work, as you would expect. The GGR test car also has an uprated AP braking system, which is pretty neat in itself, but would set you back even more hard earned cash. The demo car is also lowered all round.

Unlike the recent (disappointing for Graham Goode) EVO magazine article, we took the car out on to normal dual carriageway and open country roads for a our ‘real world’ work out of the car, after all, this is probably where most people will spend most time in their tuned MINIs, it’s not really a ‘track day only’ car for most of us.

First impressions of the GGR 225 conversion were pretty good, the exhaust sounds nice and burbley from start up, and it started cleanly and without any strange goings on, which is something I always look out for when testing a ‘tuned’ vehicle. It idles nicely, and sounds ‘ready for action’ as a tuned Cooper S should do. Crawling through slow town traffic the car felt perfectly civilised, very little difference from a standard Cooper S, apart from the brakes clamping down that much firmer, and the exhaust bubbling away at the back. That said I’m not a terrific fan of larey exhausts, and during and after the test drive I did feel this system could become quite tiring, and I am used to a PlayMINI system gurgling behind me, this just seemed a bit much inside the cabin, but I am sure others will love it. It certainly sounds the business when tearing up the streets, it just completely lacks any neighbourhood manners.

Once I had a chance to open up this car the engine came to life, the suspension mods did little to improve the car, and made it feel crashy on anything other than smooth tarmac, I couldn’t live with this setup where I live, with less than perfect lanes to enjoy every day, but that’s not part of the kit, it just didn’t add to the ‘experience’ for me at all. The engine picked up nicely and the big flat torque curve could be felt in practice making the car much easier to drive than standard S. The Cooper S chassis always feels happier with 200 or so horsepower than it does with 163.

The car is quick, you’d expect that, but the power delivery was not exceptionally smooth. Other tuned S’s I’ve driven have leveled out the power delivery and smoothed off the acceleration, however I could feel the GGR car hesitating or yo-yoing to a certain extent, it wasn’t a real surging stop go, but obvious and frequent enough to arise several times during our test drive. It also didn’t feel that quick. 225 bhp in a Cooper S, over 60 up on standard, in my view should feel really fast, but this didn’t feel as earth shattering as I though it should.

Over all I was not as impressed with the Graham Good 225 conversion as I was the full warranted John Cooper Works conversion. Maybe it’s the way it delivers power, or maybe it’s the expectation from the exhaust noise and higher quoted power figures, but it just didn’t feel so complete to me as others I have driven, which when you consider the price of this conversion being at the higher end of the 200 to 220 bhp range of conversions, was a bit of a let down.

If I were looking at the fairly extensive list of modifications Graham Goode carry out for this conversion, I would really want to be blown away by the experience behind the wheel, and although this car is very quick, it just didn’t really ‘do it’ for me. I had a lingering feeling of ‘good, but not quite good enough’ as I drove away in my standard Cooper S. So If you’re in the market for a faster Cooper S, I would certainly check out Graham Goode’s offerings, but for me, I’d probably pass, or maybe consider their far cheaper 200+ conversion, which has already been enjoyed by many MINI2 members.

Graham Goode can contacted via their website at www.GrahamGoode.com