MINI Coopers are very commonly modified by their owners. From stickers on the boot to hardcore racing mods, there is a wide array of things you can do to your MINI.
Engine mods
Your typical MINI Cooper S engine compartment looks like the image below, which is a picture of my 2015 MINI Countryman S engine compartment before I started working on it.
After a few mods and a little cleaning…
In the image above you can see the following modifications:
- M7 cold air intake – Increased performance, much better turbo sounds, and a reusable filter that I can simply clean and re-oil instead of having to buy a new one. It is also pretty cool looking!
- M7 turbo heat shield – Keeps the underside of the hood cooler, helps prevent accidental burns on the factory turbo shield. It does make it much more difficult to get the valve cover off to get to the coils should you need to but it sure does make the engine compartment look a lot better.
- M7 turbo charge pipe – This upgrade removes the muffler and factory charge pipe assembly increasing power and making the turbo sound more prominent. Nice little upgrade.
- Ultra Racing strut tower brace – Solid steel bar that connects the tops of the two strut towers reducing body flex which increases stability in the turns. Unlike some other (including the factory JCW bar) there is no connections in this bar that can lead to movement, it is one solid piece of steel. The downside is that to get it to attach with more than a couple of threads on the strut bolts, custom NM engineering nuts had to be used.
- NM Engineering performance module – Monitors and adjusts both the MAF and Boost sensors to increase power in the engine. It takes a little while to “learn” your engine but when it does it makes quite a noticeable improvement in performance. As good as a full-blown engine tune? No, not even close. But for something that can be removed in five minutes before going into the shop so you don’t void your warranty, awesome upgrade.
What you can not see is the higher performance NGK plugs and Bosh coils.
Here are the reviews for the mods I have installed:
Conclusions
So, do all these mods make a difference? Saying yes would be like saying the Grand Canyon is a hole in the ground, or that the Empire State building is pretty tall, or that the sun is pretty warm. This thing not only excites me, but it also performs high speed turns so easily it kinda scares me.
I am quite sure at this point the limiting factor when running the sisters, pig trail, or dragon is not Buster, it is very much my abilities. This thing is just insane 🙂
