Videos

This scary subject has been discussed recently on MotoringFile; there have always been counterfeits in the world (Pradha, Rolek, Ray-Boom) but now counterfeit MINI Coopers are appearing!

While MINI fanatics like myself can often spot the counterfeits, many people cannot and are tricked into danger – they might expect the same great looks, performance and handling as a real MINI Cooper, and they will be sadly and perhaps dangerously disappointed; for example the counterfeit cannot handle the slalom course like the real thing!

The Counter Counterfeit Commission is doing all it can to alert people to this problem and they need our help! Spread the word and save lives!

Tivo caught a CCC advert on ESPN2 recently; I captured it so that you can all get educated:

Today I headed back down to YarrowSport to watch a Randy Webb Pulley Party and get another dyno run on GBMINI (to see if the recent JCW upgrade upgrade offers any measurable improvement).
Lee, a friend and one-time MINI Peabody tech, came with me – first we went to the local Krispy Kreme where MINIs-Making-A-Wish was helping to launch a toy collection, and Steve, MINIs-Making-A-Wish maestro, was interviewed by the local TV station:

Minolta DSC

Steve had recently been at Randy Webbs Pulley Party, getting this air intake (and a pulley) fitted (he commented that it was now like driving a new car); so Lee & I headed over to YarrowSport to meet Randy. While we were there we watched a short-shift kit being installed on Marks Pepper White MCS – Mark already had a pulley, computer, exhaust and intake done by Randy at a previous event.
I met “Onasled” again – since the previous Dyno Day he has personally installed a pulley, air intake, computer, header, exhaust and intercooler! Wow! His first dyno run gave 197hp.
Once again Yarrow got creative, adding racing fuel to the car and then super-chilling the intercooler to get a highest reading of 214.6!

Minolta DSC

Eventually GBMINI went back on the dyno; Yarrow told me that the rig corrects for ambient temperature & humidity differences so it is apparently fair to directly compare the September run with todays run (unfortunately Yarrows printer had no ink!):

Minolta DSC

We can see on this plot that todays run shows an increase all the way up the rev curve showing a peak torque of about 186 compared with 177 – but the red line cuts in about 200rpm lower, so the peak hp shows only about a 4hp increase.
It looks like there should be about 6-8hp increase (maintained up the curve from about 3300rpm) and I don’t know if the red line is due to operation of the dyno, or a side-effect of the V39 engine update.

So we once again try to conclude some results:
The JCW upgrade upgrade seems to give about 10 lb-ft increase in torque, but the expected hp gain does not show on the above dyno run – apparently due to a lowered red line
A full aftermarket modded MINI can still beat the “210hp JCW”, by about 6hp.
Randy Webb is a great guy who can put together a very high performing package (all the top-performing MINIs at both Dyno Days were equipped with Randys Unichip/Pulley/etc packages.
That intercooler really does need to get cool to give good performance.
Yarrow needs to stock up on his printing supplies!

UPDATE: A close comparison of Onasleds and my plots shows that while his peak hp is better than the JCW, the JCW shows higher hp at lower “real world” revs:

rpm	JCW	aftermarket
2100	61	57
2700	86	80
3300	115	105
3900	137	132
4500	157	155
5100	171	171
5700	182	187
6300	185	194
Peak	193.7	197.0

UPDATE: here is a video of the TV coverage:

MINIsOnTop – The Posse Video

Counterfeit MINI Coopers!

Pulley Party