Month: January 2004

Today I was at MINI Peabody! We had light snow but it did not affect my visit – luckily 🙂

Why was I at MINI Peabody today?  So GBMINI can get the John Cooper Works upgrade! I have debated this for a long time, read all the reviews, considered aftermarket upgrades … In the end, the prestige factor of the official package helped to swing the deal, along with maintaining a warranty and a good relationship with MINI Peabody.

At the moment, still being gentle with the car due to the weather as well as some “running in” considerations, I have not experimented with the new performance limits of GBMINI – but I expect that I will find some improvements!

Here’s a full “photo history” of the upgrade:

JCW upgrade kit

Getting to the engine

Getting to the engine

Getting to the engine

Getting to the engine

The old supercharger

No supercharger!

Brian collects old parts

Old parts from GBMINI#2

Removing the old cylinder head

Removing the old cylinder head

No cylinder head

Old cylinder head

Time to open the box!

Time to open the box!

New cylinder head

New cylinder head

Brian installs new cylinder head

Brian installs new cylinder head

Brian installs new cylinder head

Brian installs new cylinder head

Old and new superchargers

Old and new superchargers

Old supercharger

New supercharger

Assembling new supercharger

Fitting new supercharger

Fitting new supercharger

Replacing the radiator

Replacing the radiator

Radiator refitted; re-installing crash barrier

Old intercooler cover

New intercooler cover

New intercooler cover installed

JCW serial number late

Removing the old exhaust

Removing the old exhaust

Removing the old exhaust

Fitting the new exhaust

Fitting the new exhaust

Refilling with old and coolant

Refilling with old and coolant

Engine starts fine (don’t panic about the steam!)

Programming the computer

JCW software upgrade

JCW software upgrade

Before the JCW upgrade

After the JCW upgrade!

GBMINI#2 ready to go home

GBMINI#2 ready to go home

GBMINI#2 upgraded!

So, what’s it like?

Good question … So far, with few miles and bad weather, I have noticed only a few things:

• The exhaust is no more noticeable than before – good
• The supercharger is more noticeable – excellent
• There is even more torque at lower revs (2000-3000rpm)
• The car seems to be more “frisky”, especially in my normal 3000-4000rpm range
• The car has a new badge!

I expect that once I try driving it in the higher rev range, and with harder acceleration (when the weather allows) I will discover more differences …

UPDATE: After driving another MINI for two days, that has the pulley but not the full works package, I am convinced that while both MINIs have a similar power, the John Cooper Works package is more “smooth” … hard to pinpoint exactly, but there is some extra refinement in the JCW upgrade that seems to be missing with only the aftermarket pulley.