Irish Mini Owners Club

Hey guys Thomas here I'm new to the site.

I've wanted a Mini now for a while and I think the MPI is the one for me. However, I am a Jap fan and I do like my fast/fun cars. I want something exciting that can keep up with friends Jap motors.

If I buy an MPI MINI I will have roughly €1000 to spend on performance parts, I would presume this would mean buying a stage 3 kit for it? The question I have is, will an MPI tuned to this level produce a decent top speed? Also what kind of 0 - 60 time would be possible?

Depends on what jap cars you want to stay with, IMO the gearbox and final drive will limit the top speed.
€1k *should* get you up to 100bhp territory, but IMO if you want big power stay away from the MPI system.

with 100 BHP and a decent FD you will see a 0-60 of around 8 or 9 secs and a top speed of around 120mph.

If you want a fast car in a straight line, youll need to get something else. However on backroads the mini will lose the japs (unless they are 4wd ).

100 bhp for €1000 ?

I'd say it would cost a good bit more than that.

Cheers for the replys lads. As much as I wish it was the case. I dont think 100bhp will be possible for a grand?

I'm not looking for crazy top speeds, I currently have a STi Imprezza. It costs me a fortune to run and I've always liked the Mini so though I'd give one a go. Obviously it wouldn't come anywhere close to the power of turbo japs like the Scooby. Is there dedicated Mini tuners on this site / around the east coast area that could give me a BHP figure based on my budget?

newer minis ('94 to '00) have tougher emission limits and when tuned can be really hard to get through the NCT.

100 bhp @ 1000 euro means re-bore to increase capacity, head-work, a big cam and probably junking the ECU & injectors and using an after market box.

you *might* be lucky and get it all for under a grand but i doubt it would pass the NCT.

as well as increasing the power, you might consider reducing the weight, but for a road car be sure to check with your insurance company.

to be honest with you, a grand isn't really gonna get you much in the way of more bhp, well, that is if you want your engine to last a few miles,
best place to start is to make sure all the internals of the engine are up to the job and can handle a power increase,
Crank shaft and centre main strap would be the best place to start imo, that's if you are going for around 100bhp or more,
then you can change the cam to a sportier one, don't go mad on a cam if you still want to be able to drive it normally,
I run a 286 scatter cam in my own (1380cc) and i find it's a little much for town driving, so the choice is yours,
some new rockers would be good, 1.3/1.5/1.7 roller tip or full roller, again your choice but personally I'd lean towards the 1.5 full roller,
A good exhaust system is a must!, including a manifold!
if you want better top speed from a mini you'll need to change the final drive (this will also depend on what size of wheels you run) to a lower one, this will however mean that you sacrifice a little of your low end acceleration,
a standard gearbox once it's in good order will be able to cope with 100bhp so have that checked out aswell,
by this stage you've already gone way over a budget of 1k even doing all the work you can do yourself and this doesn't even include a carb and all the little niggly bits that you'll have to buy/fit aswell, but you'll have a fairly good little engine that should last a while after this, then you'll also need to be able to stop well, which will mean a brake upgrade or at least an overhaul if it already has disc brakes,

this is by no means a definitive list of what should be done btw, but some things are a must!
big reliable bhp doesn't come cheap or easy!


btw, you probably could get 100bhp for a grand but it wouldn't last peeing time

*edit
oops, I missed the part where you said MPI, with the above i was talking about a carbed engine, but it still applies

Obviously if your building a engine from scratch it will cost over a grand, however, you could definatley pick up a engine or the bits to get 100bhp for a grand or not far off it.

I doubt if you could tune an MPi to 100bhp for a grand and then get it through a NCT. I would think any 100bhp MPi would require a programmable ECU with seperate programs for power and NCT.

Lads I never said the goal was 100 BHP. I asked whats possible for a grand. I think we've all established that 100hp is out of the question, cheers.

what was the mpi cooper s? I read in miniworld that mems is ok upto 100bhp. Aside from that, the cheapest way to 100bhp would be to start with a pre 91 1275 overbored to 1380, im sure you could pick one up within budget, and throw a grand at it to get it better. Either way if 100bhp is outa the question, then so is keeping up with most jap cars over 1400cc.

Mini on donedeal for sale with 107 bhp. Ready to go.

As far as I know they all came standard with 63HP regardless of whether they were a Cooper or not. Anyway I'm not set in stone on an MPI... would an SPI be better for tuning? I'm only learning about the Minis so all knowledge gladly received

best for tuning are the carb minis... lower emission requirements, and *loads* of parts and experience available.

Whats your overall budget?
Go turbo

I'd love to supercharge an SPI and convert it to carb, be unreal! Realistically though, I'd say 2500-3500 on the car, then at an absolute push 15/1600 on mods!

v-tec??? or as woody says turbo,

Tomo,

Have you driven a Mini before? A std Mpi might do you. And they've never been cheaper.

At the moment you'll get a not too tidy SPi for €2000 and they are easy to convert to carb(unlike the MPi) and the suoercharger kits are around €2000 which leaves you with €1000 for other bits you'll need.
One the otherhand €5000 would buy you a nice finished modified Mini ,even a turbo in the UK. Its a buyers market.

Billy wrote:Tomo,

Have you driven a Mini before? A std Mpi might do you. And they've never been cheaper.

Nope I haven't, but I really dont see 63BHP exciting me to be honest. I'm currently driving a 2l Turbo.

Tomo wrote:Nope I haven't, but I really dont see 63BHP exciting me to be honest. I'm currently driving a 2l Turbo.

Hi Tomo. The first thing I'd advise you to do is get a spin in one. The club has runs all year round, so come along a get some first hand experience. As for the bhp, you can't really compare a mini to an Impreza, it like apples and oranges. They give two totally different driving experiences. Yes an Impreza will leave a mini on a straight line, but in town/cities and back roads the mini is king (my opinion anyway) Two years ago my brother in law said he found it difficult to keep up with me in his Impreza along a back road and I only have a SPI with a stage one. So get a spin in one and then you'll have a better idea.

Tomo, the mpi is a fantastic solution to the injection problem of the mini but it does have its limitations, too much to go into in this brief post. But you can easily tune it to the 85ish bhp, which gives a bhp/tonne ratio of over 100. The John Cooper mpi kits were the fastest and most powerful he ever sold for the mini and £2000 will get something similar today. Running gear, diffs and final drives would all need changed to get the best from it and would easily cost another £1000. The mpi has its strength it torque rather than bhp as the injection gives it a wide usable band and is electronicly limited to 6500rpm. My mpi can do 0-60 in around 9s and is something I've built on, modernised and improved over several years including running my own experimental four injector manifold. I don't want to put you off but there's no simple cheap way of getting a performance mini unless you find a good deal and buy one with good documented history.