The best just got better!
VAG 1.8 Turbo 20 Valve Powered!
The First In The World!
Most of us have been there, loving your MINI and wanting just a little
more go! For S owners a pulley gives some extra power, then most go down the
route of exhausts, air intakes and with this modifying hobby it gets
addictive, and before you know it you have spent enough to have brought
the "faster" car in the first place!
One of the most asked questions is can I turn my One or Cooper into an
S? Well yes is the simple answer but unless you do the work yourself
then it would be cheaper to buy an S!
I Having been setting up Minis for extra performance for the last 5 years I
have seen most of the highlights and problems, in real terms there are
limits of what can be achieved, 250 bhp and 200 pounds of torque are
quite easy to achieve, and with the right mix of parts some have seen a
little more but with all things there is a trade off. When your mini
left the factory it was "setup" to use low grades of fuel and have long
service intervals among other good for everyday normal good and useful
features, upgrading the engines output does affect this and some special
care and more frequent service work will need to be undertaken and in
terms of engine life it will undoubtedly be shortened due to the extra
stresses on the components.
If only there was another way, where you could have the extra power,
better MPG, upgrade your MINI One or Cooper or S and still happily
manage 100,000 miles on your engine.
Back in 2006/7 I was asking myself these questions on a daily basis,
and the search began..........
It needed to be an engine which was light, powerful, well engineered,
available and above all had the capability to run full wideband CO2
sensors and EGT sensors into the ECU to take the guess work out of
tuning and give a belt and braces to mapping solutions.
After much searching and buying a few cars to have a better look at I
decided the Audi/VW 20 valve turbo unit was ideal, coming in 1800cc and 5
valves per cylinder with external dimensions simular to the tritech
unit it also had the benefit of being fitted in a very large range of
cars on the road today in many formats from people carriers to the Golf
GTI and the Audi S3 and TT.
Two types of gearbox are common on these engines 5 and 6 speed with the 6
speed being slightly larger and heavier but also stronger so this would
be the choice item. The engine itself has been produced with factory
power outputs from 150 to 225 bhp producing more torque than any mini
could wish for!
The next thoughts turned to the ECU, with the VW/Audi unit having more
features than the MINI unit it needed to integrate into the MINIs canbus
system to retain the mini useful electronics....... Not an easy task
but a few late nights and that one was sorted.
So where are we up to now you ask?
Well its done, ThinkMini have
engineered, designed and built the Worlds FIRST fully integrated BMW
Mini powered by the VAG 1.8 Turbo 20 valve engine!
The conversion retains all the MINIs features, from inside the car it
all looks mini, from outside it all looks mini, its all hidden under a
standard cooper S bonnet.
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