Most liked posts in thread: New and don't know much about mini

Not a whole lot you can do with a "Justa" Cooper for more power because the motor internals are not built for a huge power increase. Now if you have very deep pockets you could always buy a completely built "stroker" motor.

The best mod is as people have said is education for the "nut behind the wheel". Along with light wheels and very grippy non run flat tire's. Learn the car and how to push it and you to its limits and you will be surprised how fast and fun a "Justa" is.

Lots of horsepower is no good if you can't control or worse stop it when you get into trouble.

 

Faster is hard to come by on an R50. You could add a header, cam, and
ported head and re-tune again for a few more hp, but it's a lot of $ for a little gain.

What wheels and tires are you running? If they're on the heavy side, lighter ones
would help acceleration a little and handling a bit more. Strong but light options
that won't break the bank would be Enkei PF01 or RPF1, or OZ ALLEGGERITA HLT.
Strong but light options that will break the bank would be something like Volk CE28
or TE37 or similar true forged wheels.
There are some good light tires, also, but need to know size and purpose
(summer + winter sets or all-seasons) before looking down that road further.

 

Welcome to M/A!

With regard to owning a Cooper and wanting to make it go faster, you are only dealing with half of the problem...the other half being YOU. SEAT TIME behind the wheel gives YOU the opportunity to see what YOU can do [such as YOUR limits] for the car as much as what a modded car can do for you. I'd take a high performance driving school for fast, safe driving experience before getting involved with adding a lot of power to your Cooper.

 

Work on making it handle better and it will surprise you. R50's do good in autocross events because they can't go fast.

 

Welcome to Motoring Alliance.
As many have said not too much more power to be gained with the standard Mini Cooper without spending a lot of money. It would be better to sell the R50 and get a R53 if speed/power is your primary goal.
Again as other have said, with a R50, I would focus on handling and driver training. Auto-X is a great event for R50s.
For better handling I would be thinking:
- Lower/Stiffer Springs
- Adj shocks
- Adj Rear Sway Bar
- Front Camber Plates (Fixed or Adj)
- Adj Lower Rear Control Arms (to adj rear camber after lowering)
- Stickier tires (type depends on your location and driving conditions)
- Lighter wheels

 

I have no problem keeping up with the faster drivers in our club in my justa on public roads. It has forced me to learn to drive smoothly to keep up my momentum. In the time that I've had it, I feel like I've improved substantially as a driver. I don't know if that would have been possible if I had another 60-80hp to rely on. Outside of DaveO's suggestion of a fully built stroker motor, I don't really see any power adders being worth the effort, except that more loud=more cool.

 

... And while the fully built RMW stroker is a fantastic engine and would definitely add a bit of torque... it's also massive overkill for a Cooper, the internals are built to handle 30psi of boost...

 

That would turn the gears in a justa's midlands box into glitter. I imagine that combined with the gear oil would resemble the glitter glue my kids like to get all over everything. lol. I wonder if the later 5 speeds were any more robust. I do think it would be cool to assemble a very high revving n/a engine mated to a better gearbox, though.

 

Lots of great information for you to think on and Welcome to Motoring Alliance the bestest MINI forum on the interweb !!

 

Welcome, thanks for joining Motoring Alliance, the FUN and Friendly MINI Community.

 

If you spend your money on suspension, wheels and tires you can transfer them over when you up grade to an R53. Just save the stock parts to put back on.