GTT 220 Review

[colink]

Excellent. In the last few weeks I've developed a sudden loving of pepper white. No idea where its come from - always been a chili red fan. I think my next one will be a PW/B traveller S with a bit of roland magic worked into the turbocharger

[s_and_m]

The GTT220 kit rocks!

Went with the exhhaust re-route pipe as well (lovely sound - nice an bassy but not too intrusive).

The torque feels well up on stock, overtaking on a fast B road can now be done in 4th and even 5th, where as before I'd have to drop down to 3rd and then run the risk of hitting the rev limiter in my dash to get past.

The amount of usable power is amazing - since the conversion I've not hit the rev limit yet as I run out of road before I get there. A couple of times I've been hammer down, after a while I reach for the gearshoft cos I think it must be time to change, only to glance at the rev counter to see that I still have another 1500 revs to go before the red line. At that point I tend to glance at the speedo and back off rather hurriedly!

Only issue I have is that my DSC has yet to learn that the car now has more grunt. A spirited burst of acceleration will light the traction light up and it then stays on until the ignition is turned off and on again.

Any one got any ideas if this will clear up?

S

[beej]

Love Colin's review

I'm 900 miles from my 25k service, and once that's done I think its GTT220 time. Seems like a sensible point to do it. Will continue to lurks in this thread...

Can't wait

[colink]

I have the same with the traction light - its become a kind of "nailed it" medal

Do you get the emissions warning light coming on as well if you really cane it?

[s_and_m]

No

I need to go out an play a bit more! Not had that yet - I'll try for that tomorrow.

Tell me, when does the manic laughter phase stop? Quite a few times I've dropped some cogs and floored it just to watch the guy behind me rub his eyes in disbelief as he shrinks in the rear view mirror.

I also find that I think I must be 5th cos of the velocity I'm carrying only to try and change up into 6th to find that I'm actually in 4th. It's like having to learn the car all over again. Awesome

S

[colink]

The laughter never stops mate I was out last night on the way to a friends house and came off a roundabout with a 5 series beemer behind me. He was bugging me so i nailed it good and proper through 3rd and 4th. The acceleration up to 120 is truly awesome and still makes me grin like an eejit When the beemer finally got next to me at a set of lights he gave me a huge smile and thumbs up. I let him get in front to check what it was and was quite chuffed to see the 530d badge on the back - a quick car in its own right but no where near the GTT - even into three figures.

I find that if I cane it beyond 6K revs I get the emissions light coming on. It stays on for one or two ignition recycles and Roland says its not worth worrying about. If you do the get the chance to redline it in a couple of gears tomorrow (what a hardship for you, huh? ) let me know if you get the light. Ta

[s_and_m]

I popped down to Bristol this week - took the S instead of the train.

Leaving at 6 am meant I had a serious blast through some great A and B roads to Cheltenham.

Traction light managed to act normally, but worryingly I managed to trip the tyre pressure light!

As I dumped the runflats ages ago I guess the sensors got confused regarding the number of wheel rotations versus forward speed!

Anyway, I reset it and all seems fine - still no emissions light - despite full bore take offs and some pretty exciting driving

S

And Max, sometimes the best presents are the ones you give yourself

[colink]

There's nothing like an early morning blast huh? All that cold air

[s_and_m]

I found that I was approaching some corners with more speed than I reckoned on , luckily the AP big brake kit is running nice and true thanks to Rolands efforts with a dress file

Colin - do you get a sort of dump valve noise on up changes? It's quite quiet, sounds kinda cool, but is it supposed to do that?

S

[colink]

Haven't noticed tbh but you can be sure I'll be out in the car later trying At the moment, all I seem to hear is exhaust - I'm starting to wonder if I've managed to blow a baffle or two coz it has really gone up a level or two recently. Msut be all that driving around in 2nd going POP POP POP

[Jifster]

Hya Colink,

Welcome to the ever-growing list of happy GTT'ers pottering around the U.K.

I've had my conversion for about 6 months and all is good. Well..... at least it was until BMW kindly de-tuned it for me this week by re-mapping the ECU to standard 'S' because they noticed during it's MOT that it had been altered........ Luckily, Roland (as always) has offered to help out in his own truly professional way, by offering to re-flash back to his cutom GTT220 map, totally free-of-charge (he's a saint ).

As for your Traction Control problem, surely you have it switched off as part of your 'start-up' routine?? The T.C. software interferes far too much whilst the tyres try to find some grip, and you end up with a fight between traction and the dreaded 'rev-death'. Incidently, I have measured my 30-70 times using a callibrated Race Technology AC-22 accellerometer, and there was almost a full second difference between TC 'OFF' and TC 'ON' ( 5.69s compared with 6.44s, for anyone interested).

Regarding the emissions thingy? -Mine's been fine so I can't really comment, but I would ask you to proceed with caution if you are thinking of contacting BMW, seeing how they've just wiped out about 40 bhp from my car by 'sorting out' my ECU (absolute clowns, the lot of 'em!!!)

Well, hope you get it all sorted and you enjoy the GTT experience (long may it last.....)

Jifster

My original review here somewhere : http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-mini-tuning/95775-gtt-220-full-long-review.html

[colink]

Cheers Jifster. I agree, BMW dealers are clowns. I'm not looking forward to the first service since the conversion. Still. if they do re-flash it then its an excuse to go back to visit Roland (mmmmmm, Porsche brakes )

Interesting info on the TC - I am getting much more confident just switching it off and trusting my own instincts/ability.

[s_and_m]

To hear the "dump noise" change up at around 6,500 revs, as you lift to m ake the change a slight whoosh can be heard - or is it just me?

I always switch the DSC off when I'm on the track - once had a nasty moment on the Nurburgring where I'd forgotten to turn it off and it cut in on the exit to Brunchen, needless to say we swapped ends and it was all I could do to keep the car on the blackstuff!

Generally I keep it on when on he road unless I'm in serious "play" mode

Since the conversion, the traction system seems to be learning to stay out until later - when I first upgraded it cut in all the time, now it seems to wait a bit - of course this may be down to road surfaces etc.

I have 11K to go before the next service - if BMW mess with my flash I'll be cross

S

[colink]

Mikeythemini (newministuff.com) has a device that automatically kills the TC when you switch on the ignition. You need to flick the TC switch to switch it back on. It can also be used to add the one-shot close facility on the passenger window (thats what it does in mine).

Auto Play Mode - splendid

[roland2003]

Glad to here your having fun guys! BTW the traction light issue is common ,personally I always switch traction off as IMHO it is dangerous and more likely to make you crash than the other way round. As Max(?) said ,when it comes on think of it as a sort of 'hero medal' you get for driving it like racer . The traction system is not capable enough to react properly with all the extra torque so it turns off (good!). This happens on a lot of modded MCS's with good power when driven hard, even JCWs can do it (Paul Mullets I think was one) . Best Regards Roland GT Tuning