R50 cooper mods?

[jackh707]

Just wondering if anyone on here has ever done any engine tuning to the NA cooper 1.6? Not planning on doing anything in the near future but I see there are places that will do ported and polished heads, cams and exhausts, just curious if anyone has any experience.

Also any suspension/chassis set up mods? The only thing I've done to the car since buying stick it on non runflats which transformed the ride and handling.

[RKDE]

really depends if its a pre face lift or a facelift model? pre = before 2004 (54 plate) If it is pre facelift then generally the gearbox will mostly destroy its self if you tune the engine. There are people out there with cams, exhausts, inlet manifolds but they return very little gains so the best thing to work on is suspensions and brakes. If you have a facelift then the gearbox is fine.

Personally having spent a lot of time building / tuning and owning minis I would say do the suspensions, a good set of coil overs, anti roll bars, adjustable sway bars and uprate all the bushes to a powerflex then have the car setup for a fast road setup. Then when you have the cash drop an S engine in and start on engine modifications.

[jackh707]

Cheers, sounds like good advice to me, it's an August 06 car, so last of the face lift. I intend to keep it a long time as its got quite a unique paint job combo and despite having a caterham still enjoy taking it for a hoon.

[mike9009]

I always think it would be cheaper and hold the value of the car better if you just change your Cooper for a Cooper S.

That way everything is ungraded for you - brakes, engine, suspension.

Insurance would probably even out over a modified car anyway.

I am not knowledgeable on this particularly, but it seems a more sensible option to me....

Mike