Stig - No way! I love the mini! It is a great car to zip around in and gets great gas mileage. I had a client over the other day who was telling me he did a ton of work to his Mini and it has well over 200hp. I imagine that is a BLAST to drive!

 

No one-ball mod for the R56, but there are several exhaust options out there. Alta has a couple (http://www.altaminiperformance.com/p...ory=6&model=11). I especially like the look of their black one. Check out north american motoring as already stated for more ideas.

Have fun!

 

Nice Car!

 

First, congrats on joining the Lighting Blue Fully Loaded club! (I'd like to think I'm the founding member).

As for exhaust, it is common knowledge throughout the R56 community that all cat-back exhaust systems are strictly sound-only, and should not be considered a performance upgrade. While *some* manufacturers are claiming double digit HP/TQ gains, the consensus is that you would be lucky to see 5HP from even the best systems.

That being said, the following companies all have cat-back systems for the Mini: Alta (too quiet), Invidia, Milltek, Borla, and Exhaust Depot. There may be more, but these are the biggies. Most of those systems cost around $800 (except for ED, which is about $450). The ED system is essentially an off the shelf Magnaflow muffler that has been fit with mandrel bent tubing to fit as a cat-back system. Most people who are not brand conscious seem to agree that the ED system (or just any off the shelf Magnaflow) sounds the best and costs the least. To me, there is no reason to spend more money on a system that is no better.

If you want a solid 10-20 HP you can add a turbo downpipe. Both Alta and ED have such pipes, and they are certainly good for power. However, they will almost surely throw a CEL and may not pass smog inspection.

For chip-tuning, no one has a definitive dialed in solution. All of the piggyback chips are essentially crap and don't add nearly enough power for what they cost and the headaches they cause. There is one company that has a TRUE ECU remap (not a piggyback harness), but it literally just came out and still needs to be proven. Personally, I would wait on any kind of ECU upgrade. Another 3-6 months and I think the engineers will have cracked the code.

M7 is working on a compression wheel swapout for the turbo itself. This is in the final dyno tuning stages and should be released in 1-2 months. If it's successful, this mod has the potential to be the single biggest performance enhancement for the R56 to date.

Basically, be patient. Break in your car and check out NAM as often as you can.

 

GREAT information! I just popped a tire going down the highway on my way home from work the other day, so the mini is out of commission until tonight when I get it fixed.

I am also going plan some NON PERFORMANCE mods in the meantime until the tuning is done with M7.

Any ideas on some cool exterior or interior mods? I saw the "joey mod" on NAM which looked cool, but...any thoughts?

 

Congrats for your new mini..This was really fun to ride.

 

well, a original car, not difficult

 

congrats! i like the color.