Alta - just for thought - couldn't you use the AP to get more power out of a just-a-cooper? Sure there is no boost to play with but there is timing and fuel and possibly valve timing.

You also might be able to 50mpg in a Justa.

 

hubba wha? seriously?!

ALTA GET THE AUTOMATIC VERSION WORKING NOW! hahaha
I will now be keeping my eye on this thread even more vigilantly

 

EZ! just email Chris.Cone@ALTAPerformance.com and he will send it to you. Be sure to include your full name.

Thank you!

 

I have a stock S. Do you have to read the whole thread, no (but you should). Is the AP worth $900, NO, ALTA is cheating themselves, it is worth more! and I haven't been able to really see what I get out of stage 1 tune, but I can sure tell the difference. Am I happy, obviously, Thanks Adam and Jeff .
Me !

 

Completely stock with the AP? Just how big IS the difference?

 

I am still following and reading this thread. I had a hard time justifying the $400 programmer with stock tunes for my Ford F-150. Man the difference in the transmission and throttle by wire system was amazing. But $900 on a programmer etc will be a very large horse pill to swallow. Maybe in the future, but $900 is enough for some tires and a few wheels. Keep trying to convince us stock S guys and I just might get the wife to give me the mod $ ok (not likely, lol)

 

do you hace any updates on the stage 3 of the JCW on when is going to be released???

 

The difference is definately noticable. Without even trying I was pushing 18 lbs of boost, and if my wife wasn't with me I know my foot would have been into it alot more. I shouldn't say completly stock, I have a NM discharge and air charge pipes, but I really don't think they make much of a differance. As far as I know the stage 1 tune doesn't take that into consideration. There are settings for non-sport and sport button applications and I don't know which one I like better, but I think I'm leaning more to the sport button engaged.
The AP is straightforward and easy to install, plus all the additional features, can hold 20 different maps, can troubleshoot read and clear codes, can data log, read live data, and you can update it. Gad ,I sound like I work for ALTA.

I bought a new ECM unit for my bike for about the same $ and the same results. What these wizards can do with remapping the ECM for better response, economy and the ability to upgrade when you change mods is astounding. I don't have any plans to add a FMIC or exhaust or anything else at this time, but if I do, one call and you're set to go.
For possibly 20 HP and 40 FT. LB. of torque I think this is a pretty cheap price to pay for a potential JCW upgrade.

 

I'm familiar with the AP, had it on 3 of my previous Subarus. Love the unit as a whole - using the code reader, live data, etc. Just trying to justify the $900. I used to buy them used in the Subaru world for half that.

 

Thanks for the comment. Couple things to note.

The COBB Subaru AP Gen 1 used to be $495. Later models grew to $695, and recently fell to $595.00

The COBB Nissan GT-R AccessPORT is $995

The ALTA MINI R56 AccessPORT is $895

There are roughly 350,000 to 500,000 Subaru WRX's in the USA vs. roughly 100,000 MINI R56's.

The Subaru ECU was relatively EZ to crack and each successive year hasn't proven to be very difficult. The NISSAN GT-R was ROUGH and if it wasn't for Trey Cobb owning several himself, I doubt if they would have moved forward with the GT-R AccessPORT. (I still doubt that one has actually paid him a dime.)

All of that to say, the MINI is a totally different breed of ECU, tuning etc. Thus the heavy R&D investment by ALTA and COBB Tuning has driven up the MSRP.

But as others have mentioned it is still a bargain for the abilities the car has been able to achieve with it installed.

Thanks again!

Now go place your order!

 

Why do manufacturers keep their ECU codes a secret? You'd think they'd make it all open source so they could take advantage of tuners tweaking things, to make their products better!

Dave

 

I imagine part of the reason might be because tuned cars get sold to buyers who might not know any better, and the car will still have the manufacturer's logo slapped all over the place.

Also, outright condoning tuning might open them up to law suits if something goes wrong and someone ends up maimed or dead because of it.

 

Thank for the responses that I got. I did manage to read this entire thread, and it looks like I might have to purchase one of these bad boys after snowboarding season is over

 

The install of the AccessPORT is super easy. As long as you have a manual transmission car, and are running 93 octane, we have a map for you now that you can run everyday without needing any kind of tweaking. Just load it on your ECU and go! We did all of the hard work for you!

We don't have a tune for the M7 intake right now unfortunately, we are working on making one though.

 

Theoretically we can, but since it's very rare for a Cooper guy to even modify his car, it would be hard for those guys to spend $900 on a tune to make a 10-15 WHP and a little better MPGs. If we do make the AccessPORT for another car, we will make it for the R53 first.

We are working on updates! We have a few guys that we are testing with stage 3 maps, and they will be ready soon!

 

hey Chris, are the 0-60 and estimated horsepower features available yet for the accessport yet? or are you guys still in the testing stage?

 

The 0-60 and 1/4-mile features showed up on my AP the last time I ran the updater

 

ooooo ok thanks for the info lasrguy. I'll have to update my accessport its been sitting in my glovebox for a week or two now

 

I have to say that the dudes complaining about the price must look at this:

The official mini JCW engine kit with an exhaust and intake puts out 189hp and 185lb-ft which costs $2100

The ALTA AccessPort puts out 40-20lb-ft and 25-20hp which puts you at 197-192hp and 217-197 lb-ft for 895.00 (92 octane)

And if you throw in an Alta intake, filter and catback exhaust for the sake of a direct comparison the price then is about 1970.00. Which I'm guessing would net more power than the JCW engine kit. We need some dyno graphs from ALTA :-)

Seems like a good deal to me. Also I'm still waiting for the official 91 octane dynos

To play devil's advocate I'm sure mini had to claim the lower HP number because of things like 91 octane gas, and obviously if you get the mini kit you can keep your warranty 100% for sure. Although with the alta flash you can always flash back to the stock ECU no problem. Also let's not forget the money you'd save with installation fees when using the access port because there are none. Most mini dealers quote quite a bit extra money to install their kit.

With that said bring on the 91oct dyno charts!!!!!

 

the only real reason i could see somebody wanting to buy the stage 1 jcw tuning kit would be because of warranty reasons. If your one of those people **** about the warranty of your mini and such, modifying your car for performance with aftermarket parts will be difficult and the jcw stage kit will be your best bet.

Otherwise, if you want the most performance out of your mini and want to enjoy your mini 100000x more than you are now, I can't imagine any other performance parts you would be considering other than the ALTA Accessport.

definitely the best mod I have done to my car. BEST bang for your buck.

 

Well with the mini keeping the warranty really does matter :-)

as we all know. I've had so much warranty work I've lost track. With that said now I'm at 44k miles and it's time to give the car some new power.

 

What Is The True Value Of The ALTA AccessPORT?

 

Yeah yeah I agree!!! Where are the dynos for the 91oct? I think 91 octane is what I hate most about california.

 

Amen. When a CA 91 octane dyno graph shows up on here I'll be ecstatic.

 

got any news on speed density, i dont see that anything has been said about it yet, nor requested which is amazing.....have you thought about SD or are you working on it? maybe it would be worth 900 then.

i may be on board for this one, just waiting for SD fueling....the reason i have been anti-cobb is because lack of SD and canned tunes. i see speed density finally made it out for the drive by wire subarus so im assuming it wouldnt be that hard for the mini.

hoping *fingers crossed*