1st Gen R50 Cooper Most liked posts in thread: RMW Remote Tune experience?

Thanks for all the input guys! It sounds like 91 is the safest bet. I will get a battery tender as well. Just waiting to hear back from Jan, hopefully I can get this done in a couple of months.

 

Thanks so much for the heads up! I'd be really into that, and my girlfriend is keen on a weekend in Seattle. Neither of us have ever been!

 

Well, it's settled... I ponied up for the cost of the tune and I'll be driving to Seattle/Tacoma next month. Thanks again to scoopieb for the heads up! I'm glad I'll be able to meet Jan and get my car on the dyno for a proper tune, and it'll be nice to meet some semi-local MINI enthusiasts.

Any other members here attending?

 

I realized I had not finished off this thread with a conclusion/review for future interested R50 guys.

First off, Jan is a hell of a nice guy. I arrived early at SpeedFactory and chatted with him for a bit while we waited for the shop to open.

As for the tune, while it didn't transform the car into a power monster (obviously.) the results are pronounced. The most dramatic difference is that it pulls smoothly all the way to the redline now.

Previously it seemed like I needed to shift, especially from 1-2, very early (around 3500RPM) because it felt like there was a huge drop and I wouldn't be able to accelerate any more. Now I can smoothly run out 1st gear to 6000+ and land in 2nd at right in the meaty part of the power band. Overall this makes acceleration from a standstill much quicker.

The second benefit is the slight bump in tq/hp means not having to downshift every time I need to speed up a little on the highway. Having a little more power between 4-5K makes speeding up to pass less of a "wing and a prayer" situation.

Overall I'm glad I went for it. Considering how much I spent for a weekend away, the cost of the tune and the dyno time, it was a bit steep... however, being so deeply invested into this car, I didn't have much choice but to finish what I started and go all the way. For anyone looking to make big power the answer is obviously forced induction, but to any other diehard R50 guys out there, the tune really "wakes it up" and I would say, go for it, if changing platforms isn't a real option. I'd like to keep the R50 forever, make a trip to California and have Jan install a head/cam, and buy a bigger car with better GT capability (the new WRX looks great...) but keep the MINI for my weekend runabout.

One final note: I can't know for sure if this is a result of fresh plugs (only 60,000KM on the originals.) or the tune, but without changing my driving habits, I haven't had to fill up the tank since I was approaching Port Angeles on March 10th. As of yesterday I still have a third of a tank left, and I normally need to fill up every two weeks. For my next tank I will actually be tracking the mileage and I'll see if it's an actual improvement or just a coincidence.