2012 Clubman s, upgraded with a JCW tune kit, manifold and exhaust.

The car is great and is more powerful than when it was just an S. I am looking to get the car to perform better at lower RPM with more torque and more overall horsepower. Can anyone recommend some practical upgrades that can give me more power and torque. I want it to be a beast but still drivable.

Thanks

 

An akrapovic DP will add low-end power and torques. It changes the sound of your exhaust, for the better I think. But the high-flow cat does wonders. I've never done catless but that'd probably give you the same effect. You can score used ones on the marketplace if you're lucky for around $450.

A FMIC won't really help you out on the street.

 

Not to be an ***, but if you wanted torque, a 1.6l 4 probably isn't going to give you much... lol. But I would think opening up the exhaust without increasing boost would cause a loss of torque? Or am I wrong here and there's a parabolic curve to this?

Edit: I'm stupid. Turbo+open exhaust=turbo spins faster, witchcraft happens, and you go faster.

 

Jdarc1,
If your not worried about warrenty i would go with the DP like Calforhelp recommended. I have read good things about them.

May i ask how much you paid for the JCW Tuning Kit? I just bought my wife her 2011 Clubman S last year. With her MINI i want to keep it under warranty. I started looking into the jcw kit, for later on.

 

A tune is your best bet.

Replacing downpipe is definitely a good choice but aftermarket options give CEL. Also a tune gives you the best cost to hp/torque increase ratio.

 

I think he was happy with the jcw tuning he got.

But your right, if i was not worried about warranty i would get a aftermarket tune. A lot cheaper than the JCW tuning kit. The NM tune is the best bang for ur buck only $500. Plus.i read that its hard to.detect.

 

I guess we're assuming 2 different things. Since he wants more power, I'm assuming the JCW tune isn't making him content. He got the tune KIT, so there's more to it then just the tune(which is frankly still conservative, for multiple reasons obviously) You'll need a new tune to remove the CEL from the downpipe anyways. Otherwise the only real bolt on upgrade is a bigger intercooler. The JCW kit already upgraded the turbo, exhaust and intake.

 

The JCW kit uses the stock MCS turbo. Upgrading to a JCW turbo would net you a healthy gain but would probably be followed shortly after with an engine failure. 10.5-1 compression in the MCS Compared to the 9.5 of the JCW makes a difference.

 

Akrapovic Delete R quashes the CEL.

 

If you're not concern about your factory warranty a aftermarket tune, downpipe and a FMIC will get you the best gains for the money. If warranty IS a concern then skip the tune.

 

Who has installed this on their R55? Will it bolt up?

http://www.akrapovic.com/en/Automoti...npipe+%28SS%29

 

I have, it bolts up as though MINI made it themselves.

 

I don't suppose you might know why they just don't say it will work on the R55 then do you? But it WILL work?!? Cause I want.

 

Lol no idea. Truth be told, I've used a bunch of mods that were listed specifically for an R56 but not R55. If I had to guess it's because they never tested it on an R55 and don't want to deal with accusations of false advertising and/or returns when it doesn't fit. Which is unfortunate cause it makes those with R55's guess sometimes. :/

And to repeat, it WILL work. It's on my Clubman right now.

 

Fantastic! Thank you for the help! I'm still shopping around a exhaust, car is pretty stock still. Wanted the Alta, now they are discontinued. Kinda leaning Magnaflow. I see yours is custom. what did you use? If you don't mind me asking.

 

Hey guys,

To answer a couple of questions, yes I do have the JCW tune with exhaust and I did the manifold. It increased power overall but I am looking for more oomph.
From what I've been reading, no one makes a hand held tune for the 2012 clubman s because BMW changed the protocol and the older tuners cannot get past the interface. No one has written a program to get past it because its not a lucrative market. You can pull out the ecu and send to be opened up and retuned but that will definitely void the warranty. I am going to put a larger inter cooler in to increase power, but beyond that we are SOL when it comes to a hand held tuner. Any other ideas ?

 

3" stainless steel, flowmaster mufflers with a specific resonator(the brand and type escapes me). If you do go custom, drone is going to be the biggest issue. At highway speeds, it can be bad. Best cure is something called a branch resonator. I would get an experienced muffler shop to get it done, with the branch resonators at the same time. Even with the resonator, it can be bad at speeds above 70mph :/

I'm actually trying to see if I can get a discontinued NM engineering one. Hoping a specific vendor can pull a miracle for one though.

If you want the Alta exhaust, call these guys, they have them in stock: 336-506-7176, or these guys, http://importtuningdirect.com/

 

IzzyG,
Importtuningdirect.com has it listed that they have the ALTA exhaust but they don't. It's a local shop and I stopped by 2 weeks ago. They didn't have any and didn't know that ALTA stop making them.

Evilclubman, you can find the ALTA R55 else where online but ur going to pay more $ than what Alta was selling them for. $999 was the cheapest I found it for. When I was looking.

 

IzzyG,
Importtuningdirect.com has it listed that they have the ALTA exhaust but they don't. It's a local shop and I stopped by 2 weeks ago. They didn't have any and didn't know that ALTA stop making them.

Evilclubman, you can find the ALTA R55 else where online but ur going to pay more $ than what Alta was selling them for. $999 was the cheapest I found it for. When I was looking.

 

Borla makes a real nice exhaust not cheap don't know if it drones but it sounds good, online. I have had their exhaust on other cars and it sounded amazing.

 

They should take it off their ebay listing then ;p Milltek is another option by the way but it's one of the more expensive ones ~$1300. Otherwise magnaflow has one cheaper but it drones. Vendor got back to me and no one can find an NM Engineering one. They -MIGHT- do another run but it won't be for 3-4 months according to Way :( I guess I'm just gonna keep the custom one for now or slap the JCW back on. Oh well.

 

if you ever want to part with the JCW let me know. Why did you take that off any way??

 

Swayed by a larger diameter exhaust. The plan is to go with a larger turbo and upgraded internals but seeing as how that's a year if not two down the road, I should have just kept the JCW on. The exhaust didn't cost me much though ~$300 iirc so oh well :P I'm not sure you'd want the JCW exhaust unless you live closeby(I'm in Milwaukee, WI). Everything is welded on from the factory so I can't pull it apart to ship easily. It's one big piece. :/

 

Oh yes that would be tough to ship. Too bad, I'm think about doing the JCW stage one but haven't decided if doing a borla with alta intake would yield better gains. Of course I would need to find the right tune too. I like the simplicity of going to the dealer and saying here do it!!

 

Aftermarket tune is going to net you more power BUT no dealer support. I'm not sure what type of warranty is given for JCW stage 1.