Hey,

So i have around £1500-2000 to get some more performance out of my car. Its a September 2006 JCW Factory fit 210 R53 with 24K on the clock.

For now i am looking at the engine, i have my bits for handling ready to go on.

I was looking at going to lohen, as i live in newcastle Upon Tyne and no one up here seems to tune mini's also 1320 aint answering their phone or emails!!!

this is my list so far.......

Janspeed manifold and high flow cat - £589 (i have the JCW exhaust already)

Lohen starter kit -£352

Reduced Supercharger Pulley (17%)
Gates belt to suit
Denso Iridium Spark Plugs
MSD Ignition Coil Pack
Magnecor KV85 Competition Leads

Grs Motorsport Intercooler - £439

+ Fitting.

Is this a good step, before i get a custom tune and cam?

Am i ok on the 210 map for now?

All comments help and advice welcome.

Thanks

The JCW Engine Tuning Kit includes a 11% reduction pulley so fitting a 17% pulley will only yield marginal power gains (more torque at lower revs).

The JCW Kit also includes colder spark plugs and the OEM coil pack and leads are fine ... don't waste money replacing these bits.

If you're going to fit a larger intercooler you might consider a GP intercooler to maintain the OEM look.

The JCW Engine Tuning Kit includes a 11% reduction pulley so fitting a 17% pulley will only yield marginal power gains (more torque at lower revs).

The JCW Kit also includes colder spark plugs and the OEM coil pack and leads are fine ... don't waste money replacing these bits.

If you're going to fit a larger intercooler you might consider a GP intercooler to maintain the OEM look.

I asked the question on intercoolers and I was told the grs Motorsport is slightly better, I gather the torque will be due to increased boost, I was under the impression from lohen who said they recommended the starter pack as 1. The parts are slightly better and 2. U save around 40 quid rather than buying separates. To be fair they did say that it wasn't totally necessary

U save around 40 quid rather than buying separates.
Do you buy something you don't need because it's on sale ;)

Start with the intercooler. It's something you can fit yourself and makes a surprising difference to a stock works both in terms of get up and go, and fuel economy*. It will also allow you to get maximum benefit from anything you subsequently do to it.

*to the point where you wonder if there really was any benefit to the GP only exhaust beyond saving space for the aero floor, and whether there really was a difference in the mapping...

I wouldnt bother with any of that, from what I have seen over the last 9 years of mini modding the gains are minimal.

I went 17% pulley for more torque, lets face it torque is really what you want for round town driving
Detroit tuned bypass valve, bypass valve leak as standard from the factory
Piggy back ECU, I have a custom unichip setup and the difference was very noticable.
Grin factor put a sprint boost on, no extra power but makes the drive soooo much more fun.
Intercooler, I fitted a GTT one and to be honest didnt notice any difference at all and that is driving in 40C temps here in Aus.

A bit of a review of my mods here after a few years http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-mini-tuning/183134-03-john-cooper-works-review-mods-after-few-years.html

Babes, if you didn't notice any difference with a better (not necessarily just bigger...) intercooler, there's something odd going on.

The GP one gave a 10% improvement in fuel economy, in addition to a much snappier throttle response.