MINI Cooper S Project
Discussion
I know there's sometimes not much love for MINI's on PH 
, but thought I'd post up my project thread.
After running a modified 06 plate car (above) for a while, I unfortunately caught the track day bug. The 06 car was in near mint condition, low mileage and thrashing it round the track more was going to ruin it. So I sold up and bought a high mileage, poor condition 2003 car.
Exterior picture of when I picked it up:
The previous owner had started stripping the interior for their own project:
The car had been modified by the previous owner and has seen quite a lot of track mileage. It had been fitted with a decent set of coilovers, 17% reduced supercharger pulley and a ridiculously loud OBX manifold/exhaust combo.
Fitted my own wheels as I don't like the Team Dynamics Halfords specials it came with:
First modification was to replace the OEM air filter with a Dave.F air intake:
Also replaced the stock intercooler with a larger core from GRS Motorsports. Helps keep the IAT's down, as far as is possible with a top mounted intercooler.
Asides from that, the engine had seen around 73k miles or heavy usage and the clutch was gone. Due to this I decided to get the engine completely stripped and rebuilt.
Since I only want to rebuild the engine once, and the car will hopefully see a fair amount of track action, I went a bit mad with buying engine parts
Since June I have been getting together parts, with a fair few custom pieces from the US.
This has taken longer than expected, but finally everything has arrived! Essentially, all engine internals and the head have either been uprated or replaced with new ones. The idea is to start with a solid engine as a base and then see what power we can get out of it.
The engine build is nearing completion and the final engine spec will be:
- JE pistons (slightly larger bore)
- Carillo conrods
- MegaMini CNC'd race head
- 550cc Bosch injectors (stock are 330cc IIRC)
- MegaMini V1 cam
- Mahle Motorsport bearings
- ATI super damper
- ARP head studs
- New OEM crankshaft
- Clutchmasters lightened aluminium flywheel
Have also replaced the clutch with an Clutchmasters FX400 6 puck and am putting in an OS Giken LSD to help in the corners.
Below are a few pics of the engine build and some of the parts:
Engine out:
Carillo rod:
Conrod & piston
Engine block back from the machine shop:
Crank being fitted:
Also trying out a new header, most guys over here are running the Janspeed (top). Decided to try something a bit different, a Mynes header imported from the US (bottom)
The engine build is nearing completion and hope to get some power figures early October. I can't wait to see what we can squeeze out of it at the remap stage and more importantly, I can't wait to get driving it again!
There's still a lot to do in terms of getting the project to where I want it, hopefully will keep this thread fairly up to date on the progress
, but thought I'd post up my project thread.After running a modified 06 plate car (above) for a while, I unfortunately caught the track day bug. The 06 car was in near mint condition, low mileage and thrashing it round the track more was going to ruin it. So I sold up and bought a high mileage, poor condition 2003 car.
Exterior picture of when I picked it up:
The previous owner had started stripping the interior for their own project:
The car had been modified by the previous owner and has seen quite a lot of track mileage. It had been fitted with a decent set of coilovers, 17% reduced supercharger pulley and a ridiculously loud OBX manifold/exhaust combo.
Fitted my own wheels as I don't like the Team Dynamics Halfords specials it came with:
First modification was to replace the OEM air filter with a Dave.F air intake:
Also replaced the stock intercooler with a larger core from GRS Motorsports. Helps keep the IAT's down, as far as is possible with a top mounted intercooler.
Asides from that, the engine had seen around 73k miles or heavy usage and the clutch was gone. Due to this I decided to get the engine completely stripped and rebuilt.
Since I only want to rebuild the engine once, and the car will hopefully see a fair amount of track action, I went a bit mad with buying engine parts
Since June I have been getting together parts, with a fair few custom pieces from the US.This has taken longer than expected, but finally everything has arrived! Essentially, all engine internals and the head have either been uprated or replaced with new ones. The idea is to start with a solid engine as a base and then see what power we can get out of it.
The engine build is nearing completion and the final engine spec will be:
- JE pistons (slightly larger bore)
- Carillo conrods
- MegaMini CNC'd race head
- 550cc Bosch injectors (stock are 330cc IIRC)
- MegaMini V1 cam
- Mahle Motorsport bearings
- ATI super damper
- ARP head studs
- New OEM crankshaft
- Clutchmasters lightened aluminium flywheel
Have also replaced the clutch with an Clutchmasters FX400 6 puck and am putting in an OS Giken LSD to help in the corners.
Below are a few pics of the engine build and some of the parts:
Engine out:
Carillo rod:
Conrod & piston
Engine block back from the machine shop:
Crank being fitted:
Also trying out a new header, most guys over here are running the Janspeed (top). Decided to try something a bit different, a Mynes header imported from the US (bottom)
The engine build is nearing completion and hope to get some power figures early October. I can't wait to see what we can squeeze out of it at the remap stage and more importantly, I can't wait to get driving it again!
There's still a lot to do in terms of getting the project to where I want it, hopefully will keep this thread fairly up to date on the progress
Edited by hyperblue on Saturday 25th September 22:01
Cheers for the feedback so far guys
).
If I was to go for a turbo conversion in the future, 1320Mini/ABF performance have built quite a monster (see last month's Redline Magazine). The engine I've had built wouldn't be a bad starting point for a turbo conversion. I'm just interested to see what we can squeeze out of the M45 supercharger at this point.
5potTurbo said:
Interesting project. 
I'd rather not, it would be painful if I added it up. For a very rough figure, it's more than I spent on buying the car. The engine build is the bulk of the work though (so I keep telling myself - bookmarked*
).russy01 said:
Will be watching this with interest, my OH has a R53 Cooper S. Its brilliant fun as standard, 280bhp will be deadly.
Hopefully not literally deadly!Pumajay said:
Nice looking car, do like the bmw 1/2 series 
prefered it on the white TD wheels though, i used to have a set on my car till i bent them!
prefered it on the white TD wheels though, i used to have a set on my car till i bent them!
caymanred said:
v nice mate! gotta say i liked the white wheels though! suited the track-esque look of it!
Yeah quite a few people liked the white wheels, just not something I liked, I'll be replacing them with something similarly track-esque though Penguinracer said:
You weren't tempted by the 400 bhp GTT400 conversion? Pricey admittedly - but what a way to go?
I thought they went bust?If I was to go for a turbo conversion in the future, 1320Mini/ABF performance have built quite a monster (see last month's Redline Magazine). The engine I've had built wouldn't be a bad starting point for a turbo conversion. I'm just interested to see what we can squeeze out of the M45 supercharger at this point.
Edited by hyperblue on Monday 27th September 14:36
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