If the standard box really can take high levels of after-market tuning, why are MINI so keen to put an unprated g/box and clutch in the John Cooper Works? Developing gearboxes can't be cheap, so I doubt that they'd do it if it were unneccesary.
A gearbox upgrade in the Works can't simply be dismissed as a way to up the price of the car - if "value added features" were being included simply to push the price/desireability up, I would have expected MINI to add a (comparatively) cheap - for them - bodykit and not waste time and development money on an uprated gearbox. |