meh our $5000 rice box has a more advanced engine than a bini.

nobody said you cant get power out of a crap engine, look at us nutters getting power out of the A-series.

the new turbocharged engine better be all alloy with variable valve timing

JCW kit
MTH remap
GT Tuning lightweight oversize crank pulley
GT Tuning twin bearing idle pulley

cost to date a tad over $70K and the best money Ive ever spent

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

There isn;t anything wrong with the engine in the MINI, it happens to be the same one as the PT Cruiser, but the smaller version of it. Now before people start banging on about the PT Cruiser being underpowered and hence the motor is crap, just listen a second. I have a PT Cruiser, it is a good car and the motor is anything but a slug. What it lacks is torque in it's std form. Why is this, mainly due to the Chrysler policy of tuning cars. Torque is not a priority for chrysler. They do have a highly intelligent computer controlling it. It learns. I tow my mini with the cruiser and to date have had no issues, sure i have to change down a gear to get up hills but my fuel economy is not do different to towing with any other 2l. and the longer i tow the better the economy.
Having said that, the 1.6 in the MINI is a strong tough engine, for the size of the car it is a great motor. To date I haven't heard any issues with it from anyone. So a strong reliable motor can't be a crap motor. And from all reports the cars in std form are quick.
The reason or so i am led to believe that the chrysler motor ended up in the car is that there was a deal done behind the scenes for 4-5 years between chrysler and BMW to supply the motor's. Chrysler had the motor's sitting on the shelf. BMW didn't have anything that would just slot in. BMW has now come to the end of that deal and are have designed(or bought) a new motor that is better and i would suspect cheaper than the current one. Of course BMW would look to make it's cars better and cheaper to manufacture, that is the business, it's about money and it's about improvement of the cars for the customers, which in turn makes money.
I do think that to bag an engine as crap, without being a regular user of such a motor, is just sad.

Cheers
Aaron

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I dont know about the rest of you. But I dont think BMW Minis are that bad and if I had the money and could afford to maintain one I would certainly buy one.

I think personally if it wasnt for BMW we probably would'nt have any new Mini's at all. Not only that I dont think there would be as much interest as there is in the older Minis by people today.

Its like the movies and most things. It always takes a sequel or something a little different from the orginal to renew interest in something again.

I mean lets be honest here. How many of you watched the orginal Italian Job again or watched it for the first time even after watching the newer version of the movie?

So in a sense and in my thoughts with the BMW Mini being around I would think this actually makes the earlier Minis more valuable and appreciated. Rather than someone pointing the finger and laughing thinking its just a tin can on wheels and worthless.

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http://sexyurl.no-ip.org/mod3l0

In a lot of ways , the new mini is probably what any other manufacturer would have ended up with for the mini if they had kept evolving it . Rover didn't evolve it really because the mini was unique and people mostly preferred it to stay the same , can you imagine Nissan staying with the 120Y rather than constantly updating it into the Pulsar or similar ? We've been spoilt in the 40 odd years of mini production that it is so identifiable and constant , and that's probably helped it's success , but it also means the first major update (especially external) since the clubman will be seen as being radical . Personally I'm not a really big fan of the new mini , I hired one for a long weekend when they first came out and took it on a mini run , it was fun and comfortable but to me it was another modern car and didn't have the factors that I drive a mini for . That's just my opinion , I like seeing them on the road and seeing what people are doing with them but I probably wouldn't buy one , I prefer the original mini for fun , a generic sedan (happens to be a lancer at present) for family duty and 4wd (V6 Triton) for work and play .

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oh my goodness what's happened here? 3 very sensible posts in a row.

further to what aaron wrote: The new engine is actually a BMW design. That seems to be contrary to popular belief. Peugeot have taken the desing to manufacture becaue by doing it this way they can manufcture 10 times as many, hence reducing the cost. So in fact Pug is getting a BMW engine - but they have to assemble it themselves - just like ikea.

kinkabell. you hit it on the head. love it or hate it, it has increased interest in the old cars again.

And sports 850 - the new MINI isn't for everyone. In fact in some ways i wish there was more people who didn't like them. when we first got ours there weren't very many, and they were a little bit special. now i reckon i see 10 a day. like bum holes - everyone has one.

Cheers.

Matt.

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anything is possible - if you don't know what you're talking about.

The JCW kit is only good for around 13kW. Often called the "$1K per kW kit".

I would like to see some dyno charts of of your car because what you have listed just doesn't add up to 65kW.

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Morphias.
_______________________________________________
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

70 k for a mini?

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Seems to be a little confusion about the engines used in the MINI
The current engine for the MINI One, Cooper and Cooper S was a joint development between BMW and Chrysler and is built in Brazil. It wasn't just something Chrysler had sitting on the shelf. The current engine for the MINI One D is a Toyota diesel engine.
BMW and Chrysler no longer have a business association so a new engine was required.
The new engine is another joint design, this time with Peugot and it will be built at the BMW 4 cylinder engine plant in the UK.

The current JCW kit adds 29Kw to the standard 125Kw on the Cooper S

I am pretty sure that you will find that the motor design for the old ones were definatly a Chrysler thing. The engine is the 1.6l version of the PT Cruiser motor which was designed by chrysler quite some time ago as it originally featured in the neon in both the 2l and the 1.6l
The supercharged version may have been a BMW/Chrysler co-pro but the basic motor design I am almost positive is Chrysler.

Of course I am happy for you to tell me i'm wrong

Cheers
Aaron

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its well worth it

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Potato

ok then


70k for a car!

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http://www.autofieldguide.com/articles/079802.html
just over half way down the page is a section that starts...
...Solid Modeling with Real Solids

Chrysler and BMW have a joint venture, Tritec Motors (Curitiba, Brazil), through which the companies will be producing 1.4- and 1.6-liter engines...

My understanding is that the 2 litre engine used in the Neon is not the same as the pentagon engine and was built in Trenton, Michigan not at the tritec plant in Brazil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Neon_engine

Ok Cool, Seems as though the motor was the new generation of the engine that was designed. I would be interested to know if it is actually the same fmily of design as the PT then. Alot has been said about the two motor's being the same design etc on various PT and MINI information sites that I have read.

Thanks for clearing that up

Cheers
Aaron

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Personally I think this is the best New Mini yet. shame they dsidn't stick with the supercharger but this new turbo charged engine seems to me to be a very potent lil engine. The interior looks hot too from the couple of pics I saw. I'm no fan of the new mini but this one I'd buy if I wanted a newer mini. Anyways thats my thoughts on the topic.