[xianqi]

I was curious if anyone had heard of this company or had any experience with it:
http://WWW.ZOOMERSEXHAUST.COM
Last weekend I was at my dealer getting some maintenance done on my S and went over to talk to the salesperson I bought the car from. He races his Cooper at the track when he isn't busy moving them off the lot. I asked his opinion on mod's that would maintain the warranty, keep the car relatively quiet and get me into the powerband sooner, (I love the car but hate waiting for 3k rpm). He suggested the Zoomer exhaust or Dinan free flow exhaust. As well as the Dinan air intake and throttle body would help responsiveness.

I do know that the Throttle body won't help torque or hp except for the high end, heck most of the mods shine at higher rpm, but as someone else on here posted, resposiveness doesn't show up on the dyno.

Anyways, the Zoomer dyno info looks good, except it is all from 8 cylinder motors, (not exactly reflective of the mini), with exception of the Porsche. I'm still interested in it, just curious if anyone else has used one, or had any experience with the company.

[Chihuahua Mini Man]

Zoomers maunfacturing facility is very close to my area. I plan a trip there early in the week. My local MINI dealer is in negotiations to handle the exhaust line and I hope to be able to preview and posibly purchase one to review for our forum here.

The exhaust uses a single straight thru resonator of a special design with a very smart high flow design and 2 silencing tips. Without a muffler under the boot space, the design allows for a clean exit out back while avoiding the battery box.

If you click one the mini pic you will get a pop-up of the cat-back system:
http://www.zoomersexhaust.com/zoomers_cat_backs.htm

I am very interested in the exhaust note, volume and dyno test results.

Stay tuned!

[asmujica]

Nice to see more options out there, even if there is no info on this exhaust.

[xianqi]

The guys over at Zoomers sent me this link.

www.4zoomers.com/mini

They claimed pretty standard gains from moving away from the stock exhaust. I did notice on the V8's they were dyno'ing an improvement across the powerband.

Let us know what you find out after going in there!

I really want to hear what it sounds like though!

[Chihuahua Mini Man]

I checked out Arlasky Performance, the makers of the Zoomers exhaust yesterday. They are an hour from my home.

The Good:
The technology looks pretty good. The muffler/ expansion chamber is proprietary and has a 3" bore. The unit is fairly heavy and made from polished 304 stainless steel. The system is mainly 3" pipe, except for the the tubes nearest the exhaust tips. The sound was very nice, although he had no MINI there (he promised there would be) I heard a big V8 with the same muffler. It was throaty and not real loud. Just about right. The silencing tips are very large and seem well made.

The Bad:
Cost is $1199.00 US direct and $1499.00 through MINI dealers (so far in the So Cal area). I thought that might be ok if the system were killer. The fact is that they are using aluminized mild steel pipe throughout. That killed it for me. They guy claims stainless is not necessary in California. He uses mild steel clamps that will rust and only tack welds the muffler and tips on. I was an Aeropspace manufacturing engineer for years and I know that mixing stainless and aluminum or mild steel can lead to galvanic corrosion (severe rust).

The bottom line is that it's about $700.00 to high for a mild steel system IMHO. The technology seems good and they say this is what you are paying for. This is a HUGE premium for a few extra horsepower over other sytems; something like $150.00- $250.00 a horse.

The horsepower claims were 12-15hp and if they were to get the price down and quality up I think this would be a viable choice. As it stands dealers will be selling this to customers that may not be aware of the materials and quality of what they are buying.

I just ordered the Alta Sportone for $629.00 form JSC Speed http://www.jscspeed.com/mini/exhaust/amp_exhaust.htm

[xianqi]

Its dissapointing to see that, for the price I'd imagine they could include stainless steel and do a complete weld. If they only tack weld it, doesn't that increase the chance of exhaust leaks?

I remember when i checked it out before the muffler/silencer combination was less than half the price they are apparently asking for the cat back price.

As for the hp numbers, this is an exerpt from a previous e-mail from the owner. You'll see they told me much lower numbers than what they told you.

The only super charged 4 cylinder we've performed a dyno test on is the Mini
Cooper S. We are currently producing a Cat Back System for a local Mini
Cooper Dealer in Santa Ana, CA. Our Dyno tests showed an 8.5 HP gain and
just under 5 foot LBS of torque gain. We feel that is pretty remarkable for
such a small cubic inch motor that is already super charged and considered
high performance. What type of vehicle do you have? It almost sounds like
you may have a Mini... Let me know, then I'll be able to tell you what
components will work best for you car. As far as our Venturi Tips they have
2 functions. One function is they are equipped with a resonator which keeps
cabin resonance to a minimum. Which translates into no annoying drown inside
the vehicle. The tip also lets cold air in a rear inlet scoop which creates
a vacuum at idle and a ram air at speed through the Venturi. This aids in
scavenging the exhaust system more quickly. I look forward to hearing back
from you and thank you for your interest in Zoomers products.

Ron Arlasky

[Chihuahua Mini Man]

Ron Arlasky is apparently the elder of the two that run the biz. I dealt with Frank who is the son and has a real "salesman" attitude, hence the claims that were made. I don't think these guys are trying to be anything but honest (maybe a bit over confident), but paying that much money for their technology is just not going to happen. The exception will be through dealers that love selling their high priced accesories to the everage Joe that figures he'll just finance whatever they sell him for 4-5 years.

Beware.