[BigShow300]

Hi everybody!

After a year of saving some hard earned coin, I am now ready to put my money where my Scoop is.

I've read through the forums and noted people having various stages of tuning fun thanks to some of the great tuning companies out there. However, I have also seen some horror stories about engines going pop. So, with this in mind I have decided to go for reliable power and stay away from just making the supercharger spin silly fast to get the results.

The mods are being done in two stages both this month and next month but before I start, I'd love to hear your comments about the choice of parts. I already have an Alta CAI V2 and powerflow cat-back (which will be replaced)... The aim of the mods... 240bhp!

Stage 1
Alta Cat Back Exhaust £560
Alta Version 2 Intercooler £549
EXHAUST MANIFOLD HEAT WRAP £49
Alta Lightened Crank Pulley £120
NGK Iridium Spark Plugs £50
Racing Manifold with De-cat £200
15% SUPERCHARGER PULLEY £118
REMOTE OIL COOLER £188
ULTRIK HIGH PERFORMANCE CAMSHAFT £264
ULTRIK STAGE 2 CYLINDER HEAD £1,293
Custom Remap & Fitting £750
Total £4,141

Stage 2
Quaiffe LSD £630
ENGINE DAMPER KIT £136
IGNITION COIL UPGRADE MSD £128
ULTRIK ADJUSTABLE REAR ANTI-ROLL BAR £147
ULTRIK SHSHORT SHIFT £46
AP Racing Big Brake Kit £720
SPAX COILOVER £817
Aero Body Kit Painted £696
Total £3,319

Total Stage 1 & 2 £7,460

Love to hear your thoughts...

[Minipnut]

looks good, with the alta cai didi you get their intake pipe thingy ? as i here the stoke one with all the ribs can create quite abit of turbulence and inturn loose abit of hp, also why the Decat ? i didnt think it was road legal, ive also never heard of Ultrik before ? but i hear the Gtt stage 3 cylinder head is amazing.

Pnut

[harperboy]

A huge amount of money to spend in one go but the mods all sound good imo. However, if it was me and like to do a bit at a time to notice what parts go what benifits and appreciate the upgrades. Although i'm sure you'll appreciate 240bhp flying through your wheels! Also, I was always told, brakes before performance. But if you are getting them around the same time I dont see why it would matter.

One question, where are you getting a painted aero kit for just short of £700?

Sam.

[Minipnut]

ow also a new clutch/flywheel to put all that power through?

[harperboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Minipnut (original)

also why the Decat ? i didnt think it was road legal,

Not road legal but not easily detected except from MOT. Meant to improve performance by upto 10% with better airflow.

[harperboy]

Good point Minipnut. Do you think a mini one's clutch, flywheel and gearbox us up to supoorting 130bhp?

[supercoopers]

Get the GTT stage III or IV cylinder head, I whould tend to go for the Milltek over the Alta exhaust and a Shrick camshaft instead of the Ultrick one.

If you don't listen to anything else I have to say, make sure you listen to this; I have had Spax, AST and Bilstein coilovers on my car throughout the years and the Spax were by far the worst (ok on track but not enough primary damping on the road) and the Bilsteins the best. In your budget range, you could get the PSS series (£800 ish) or the PSS9 (like I have; £1200) if you want to go the whole hog. If you look at both a Spax and Bilstein Strut side by side you will realise that it's a no brainer

You also don't need an oil cooler in the UK unless you track the car every day of your life; there is a point where it's possible to overcool the oil if there is no thermostat in the loop, which at £188 I very much doubt there is.

For the intercooler, the Alta is good, but just make sure it clears your bonnet properly before shutting, because I have known of examples where dents have appeared in the bonnet otherwise!

Forget the MSD coil packs, they make no extra power and in some cases have been shown to be less reliable than the OEM units, which are quality items made by Bosch IIRC.

I have also found that bolting on a load of parts does not make power, nor does it produce safe results in the long run in my experience. You could always get the GTT 250+ package in stage I (see GT TUNING MINI PARTS & PERFORMANCE CONVERSION Fitted Performance Packages) and then Stage II later? That way you can be assured of excellent quality and the peace of mind that everything was designed to complement each other from the outset? I'd never hesitate to recommend them, and having been 'around this game' long enough and bought from enough vendors, after 4 years I have found myself returning to GTT.

Your call though at the end of the day

Cheers,

Henry

[alski]

i assume you have wheels and tyres covered already ie not runflats and s-spokes?

i guess you are starting from 163 not 170? if so a upgraded s-charger might be worth looking at?

also are we talking daily driver? or track day monster, might suggest change from AP if latter

[Jaw_F430]

hi

The manifold and de-cat you have fitted,is this the one off ebay? As I am thinking of buying this and would like to know what it sounds like and does it fit straight on to the car. i.e do not have to have any pieces of pipe made up, also what have you done to keep you engine management light of when you fitted the de-cat?

[BigShow300]

Hi Guys, thanks for the replies and advice.

In order:

Jaw_F430 - I haven't had the ebay manifold fitted so can't tell you what it sounds like or if other parts are needed. If anyone else can help?? It does have oxygen sensor holes pre and aft de-cat though so I'm hoping the light won't come on. I have heard a de-cat into a Borla and it was very very loud with flames on the overrun, but that car was putting out 325bhp.

Alski - I have Yokohama Parada Spec II all round on the standard cooper s rims. I am looking at getting lighter wheels such as compomotives mo's or something weighing less than 8kg per corner. In terms of tyres though and having tried many combinations I will never ever fit anything else but Parada Spec II's, on the track they are 98% as good as 888's but at half the price. My S is the earlier one without the teflon supercharger but I'll only change it if I want to chase 300 bhp. The car is used on road and track, I'm not far from Bedford Autodrome so I spend as much time their as I can.

Supercoopers - thanks for the detailed response and you do raise so many good points. As a background to my decisions, I've spoken to GTT, Lohen, 1320, Minimania and 2 technicians from BM who support the works challenge about the best way to extract power. Lets just say that everyone think there way to get power is the best way and not everyone says the same. I've heard people swear by the Spax and others who hate them but having tried a mates Coooper S on the road and track I'm just going to try and get as close to his set-up as possible as it honestly works for me. The oil cooler is because of the track work and because I also take the car on summer hoons in Spain and France with other car nuts where it gets very hot. I take your point on the thermostat loop and will get that sorted so thank you! In terms of GTT i agree that their reputation is second to none and Roland certainly knows his stuff. I've used a tuner before (AMD on an Audi S4) and the experience and product was superb, but this time round I've decided to try things myself to get something unique to me. Your input has been awesome though so thanks, I'll be ditching the coil pack and will be very careful on the Intercooler install ;-)

Minipnut - Defo new clutch but it seems daft chucking away this one till it breaks but once that happens a stronger one will go in. Flywheel will go in then too. Alta CAI did come with the hose as well as I too heard that the standard one gives too much turbulence. De-cat not legal but it does help on bhp and flames. Yes I'm a child but flames are good!

Harperboy - totally agree, normally trying it slow is the best move but I've been waiting for a year to do these mods and now the money is in place I just want it done so I can start enjoying it. Aero kit is on offer from minisport ready painted. Its the US version but meh.

Thanks again everyone for your input so far.

[Minipnut]

you say you have a preteflon S/C ? does that mean you have the midlands (LEGO) gearbox ? hope not for your pockets sake ^_^

[MINIAC]

Quote: Originally Posted by Minipnut (original)

you say you have a preteflon S/C ? does that mean you have the midlands (LEGO) gearbox ?

The Cooper S has always had a Getrag gearbox.

[steve11]

I would give the extractor heat wrap a miss as it causes major corrosion of the extractors, you are much better off getting them sprayed with HPC. As far as the decat goes, you can get a hi flow cat that will work almost as well & you wont go to jail when you get busted by the EPA, sure you won't get flames but it is a Mini after all.

[Drewski]

Personally, if i was going to spend that sort of money in one go I'd wait for the GTT 300 or 350 Turbo packages.

How much are you budgeting for having it all fitted or are you doing it yourself?

[MINIMANIAUK]

Modifying cars can be confusing , and opinions can differ, however basics always remain the same
1 get more air through the engine
2 get adequate fuel due 1
3 if increasing boost pressure to achieve 1 -the temperatures will rise -keep it cool
4 reduce as much weight as possible
5 get stronger parts to cope with the increase in power
6 the higher power levels the more the cost
7 forum opinions will confuse the issue


NOTE;
SCHRICK CAM ; intake duration 264 lift 9.5 overlap 0.5 peak timing 114 open 18 close 66
ULTRIK CAM ; intake duration 264 lift 9.5 overlap 0.5 peak timing 114 open 18 close 66

SCHRICK CAM exhaust duration 272 lift 9.0 overlap 0.65 peak timing 114 open 70 close 22
ULTRIK CAM exhaust duration 272 lift 9.0 overlap 0.65 peak timing 114 open 70 close 22

material spec the same,the Ultrik cams are made by OEM supplier for us ,the schrick come from Germany. you do however get a sticker with the schrick cam and it looks great on the wheel arch liner and its only £181 more!

[roland2003]

Hi Guys,GTT stage 4 head uses Shrick exhaust valves as are a fair bit bigger than Ultrik ones. This also allows the throat diameter to be taken out (CNC milled) further aswell
tbh guys you only want to do the head once .....We sell much more stage 4 heads than any other stage for that reason.
Our GTT350T car runs our stage 4 head and Shrick cam....thats our choice . I think with Shrick 'you just know' its going to be the right. and on things that are difficult to 'test yourselve' such as grinding tolerances, production tolerances,material, hardness etc then when its your own car and the consequences of a fault huge ...that helps.
Best Regards Roland GTT

[Penguinracer]

I gotta say it, but after spending a lot of money developing an "S" there does come a point where you have to say "enough's enough" & admit the limitations of the platform & surrender to the "P" word - "Porsche!"
When I say Porsche I mean any Porsche other than the Boxster/Cayman/Cayenne.
A highly modded Mini has the benefit of being something of a "Q" car which is massively underestimated at the track. But there does come a point when you have to decide if may be you wouldn't be better leaving the Mini alone & trading into a 964 or a 993.

I suppose my point is that to make a Mini fly reliably & for year after year you really need to spend considerable money on the diff, ,wheels, tyres,suspension & brakes on top of any engine mods.

With a well cared for older Porsche - the quality & over-engineering just shines through - straight out of the box!
My brother & I found the lure of the 250 bhp 944 turbo proved too strong to resist & we bought one each. Their tuning potential is enormous & no more costly than modding a Mini to a top spec.
I just thought I'd throw a curve ball in there because a clean 911 is very good value now & their engineering quality is renowned. Yes maintenance costs will be considerably higher but depreciation should be lower. Just another perspective before you get too carried away!

[1320autos]

Yup I see your point there was a nice 07 911 running 12.2s at the Pod last weekend, slower than my Mini but he was on treads

[BigShow300]

Penguin Racer - I see your point also, however, at the last track day at Bedford I nearly spun off the track thanks to a very nice Porsche 996 GT3 RS dropping its coolant all over the place just 2 laps after the pit lane opened. Also a 968 was left to be towed back to the pits after its engine went pop in quite a dramatic way.

Now I know Porsche on the whole are reliable and they do make great track day cars but not many (sub £20k Porsches) will seriously pull away from a well sorted Mini around the track, but if you want to come down to Bedford some time and prove me wrong (once my mods are complete) then I'll gladly eat my words.

In terms of spending big wads of cash on a Mini or any car with shall we say for the sake of argument, front wheel drive limitations then I know what you mean. The thing is I waste more money on cars then anything else (when business is good that is), but I don't drink much or smoke and only gamble once a year, so I have to have one vice. My car buying CV since 2000 includes:

BMW Z3M
BMW M3
Mini Cooper
Audi TT 225
BMW 745i
Porsche 996 C2
Audi S4 V8 (AMD)
Mini Cooper S

Now without trying to blow smoke up my own **** I'd like to think I've owned some pretty sorted 4WD, FWD and RWD cars (maybe not the TT or lardy 7 ). However there is only one car I have bought twice, the Mini. This time round though I'm keeping this one for good, but I want the setup to be perfect for both fast road and track because in my opinion I have never yet found a car under £50k that gives the perfect power/handling/weight balance like the Cooper S thats also user friendly enough for my GF to drive day to day... all I'm doing is making it bespoke to me.

Could I see ever chopping it in once I'm done modding... yes... if they make a 300bhp Ariel Atom that can fit a porka like me

[Penguinracer]

I was just putting it out there because as you know doing a top job on a Mini does add up to pretty big dosh. It's not hard to spend £15K on mods if you work on every aspect of the car using the finest products.
That's purely because you have to throw away so much of the Mini's parts to make it a serious track monster! It's the lightweight wheels, tyres,suspension, Quaife, BBK, l/w flywheel etc which add up - the engines's only part of the equation.
With the "P" car you're three-quarters of the way there from the start - they're designed to be raced on Sunday & driven to work on Monday. You could get by with minor mods if you can restrain yourself.
Mini's are great - just remember that it's not hard to end up with a Mini which owes you £30K + and that could be the entry level for a number of other machines which start where a modded Mini ends!
"Beware the modding bug - it's a dangerous thing!"