Hi everyone,

​​​​​​I've been actively using this site for over 4 years now without ever having an account. I bought an '03 R50 for my wife (then girlfriend) about 4.5 years ago now and I absolutely love it. The problem is, as you all are aware, the reliability. I've spent hours wrenching on that thing to keep it running right, and I think I owe everyone here a big thank you for all the helpful insights on different repairs all over this site.

The reason I finally joined is due to the future of my Mini ownership, as the car isn't worth enough for me to want to sell it, but I don't foresee a practical need for it in the future. I recently landed a great job, and we decided to buy my wife a new vehicle (a 4Runner for anyone curious). I have a truck as my personal vehicle, so we just have this Mini sitting around now. I recently had to replace the thermostat, battery, and ignition switch in it after loaning it to a relative for several months, so it is running great now. I'm going to probably keep driving it for the next year because I work in downtown Boise, ID and parking my truck can be a major PITA. Sometime next Spring I am anticipating a sizable raise at this new job, at which point I intend to start building this thing into something a bit cooler than a slow, naturally aspirated Mini. I came across a recent k24 swap by @Kr4nG and it inspired me to turn this car into something a lot...faster. I am not necessarily set on a K swap, but it is high up on my list, especially since it is proven to be possible and there is some info and experience in the community for it. I am not a fantastic mechanic, as I have really only been working on my own cars since I bought this thing, but I also was working in the reconditioning department of a local car dealership for several of those years working on other cars as well. I intend to have a working space (albeit likely a small one) by the time I'm ready to take this on, and I hope to do a lot of the work myself. I don't have a whole lot of welding experience, but I have many close friends who have years and years of fabricating experience who I can lean on a little bit to help me out.
Much of my family is very invested in racing, and I was raised around fast cars. My brother and his wife are active in autocross as well as hill climb and track days down at Miller Track in Salt Lake. I actually intended to buy myself a Corvette C6Z in the next couple of years, but I think this idea better honestly. I truly love this car. It is so fun to drive and just has a lot of character, and that's with only 100hp. I can imagine one of these things pushing 300hp would be an absolute blast to drive. With that, I do have a few questions for those of you who have some experience with mods:

How much horsepower do you need to make this thing respectably fast? Not looking to go smoke a built drag racer, but something that will pull hard and scare the s*** out of unsuspecting passengers.

Is torque steer an issue? Every FWD car I've driven with over, say, 250hp has pretty noticeable and sometimes severe (looking at you, Focus ST) torque steer. I'd like to autocross this thing, and maybe hill climb it if I ever put a cage in it, so this could be a serious issue.

What other engine options are out there? I know that being a non S my options for mods on the current engine are extremely limited, and frankly I'm just looking for more power than this platform is likely to offer anyway.

Does anyone know the weight of the R50's engine and transmission? I think the engine code is W10B16, but I didn't find a conclusive source on the weight of both the engine and transmission.

Anyway, thanks for reading my long term plans for my (wife's) car. I have a lot to learn and decide on before I start doing anything, so let me know if you have any suggestions or questions!