2004 Mini Cooper S battery box

[Mrsideways]

Crap. Now that you mention it, I think I'm wrong. Supercharged cars are a special case, in that they're specifically allowed on the table. And, the regs state you can't mix-and-match engines from cars on the table (i.e., you can't take another car and install a table-approved engine). So, I don't think you can run anything with a supercharged engine except the Cooper S.

On the other hand, batteries are allowed to be relocated in Super Touring, and I think it's reasonable within the regs to remove the stock battery box(es) when you do that. For example, I removed my battery box/mount from the engine compartment on my Integra. And, I don't think anyone will give a fudge about removing a battery box.

Not an official word, but I suggest you're good.

I don't recall any specific reason why the whole JCW package wasn't approved. Could the reason be that the requester only requested the pulley and not the injectors? What kind of power does that engine make? What's its potential when built to STU specs? Maybe a request to add the base Cooper chassis, JCW, and GP packages to the spec line are in order? Support it with power data, as that will be the determining factor. - GA

02-04 Cooper S 160hp (usually about 145whp bone stock)
05-06 Cooper S 168hp (usually about 155whp bone stock)
05-06 Cooper S JCW 210hp (usually about 180whp bone stock)
JCW package is Different Air box, Larger Injectors, different ECU tune, and Ported Exhaust ports. The STOCK injectors run out of fuel around 190whp. So no mini will ever compete in STU with Stock Injectors. Even the JCW injectors start to run up around 100% in the 210whp range.

The Factory Eaton M45 Supercharger at Eaton's Max Recommended Redline (jcw pulley 11.5% reduction from stock pulley) flows about 215hp worth of air. You can over spin em with other pulley's but all you do is create heat. Running larger intercoolers and moving the intercooler to up front rarely produce more power. On my NASA TTC car I was spinning the supercharger at a 17% reduction. The ONLY way I could keep the car cool was to inject Meth in the intake track. Clearly that's not Doable with STU and SCCA. Even running large amounts of Denatured Alcohol though the intake the car would fall off about a second on my 2nd lap from the heat build up in the supercharger it's self. IIRC My car burned a Gallon of Alcohol a Lap at sebring onto of running race gas in time trial trim. Car turned a 2:27.4 at sebring in the dead of summer.
Generally You can over spin the eaton supercharger quite a bit but it really just makes the car a dyno queen. You can't control the heat from it especially in say a 45 mile race. When NASA took away my alcohol injection I tried using an Air to water with Dry Ice in a huge water tank and a huge radiator up front for the water. I could use the dry ice up and have intake air temps rising to 180f before the end of one hot lap at sebring. So Spinning the blower harder isn't gonna work in STU. The Grand-am cars use the JCW pulley with an air to water AND air to air intercooler and they don't fall off that bad so the JCW pulley is about as far as you can push it. With the JCW pulley at 8000rpm (about as high as you want to spin one of these) the supercharger is spinning at 18,800 rpm. At 18,800 rpm on the supercharger it would flow in a PERFECT world 266hp crank shaft.

Greg I'll send you an e-mail with all my findings on my Mini so I'm not making a multipage post and hijacking Scott's thread.

[Greg Amy]

JCW package is Different Air box, Larger Injectors, different ECU tune, and Ported Exhaust ports. The STOCK injectors run out of fuel around 190whp.

Airboxes and ECUs are free in STU, so the only thing you need to request are injectors (normally "free" but limited by the spec line) and the JCW exhaust ports (you can port in STU but you'd have to add 1% to the weight.

Again, I don't recall if the stock injectors was a conscious decision. Make a request with this data to allow "open" injectors and at a minimum we can dual-line-item the engine if the STAC/CRB thinks it's too much for the existing class weight. - GA

[Mrsideways]

You know Stock head, Stock Injectors, and stock pulley the car really would slot into STL nicely if weighed like it's a 2.0L.
The ports on the head are SOOOO small and crappy that they don't flow anything. You won't break 200whp on one with stock head. Hell guys barely do that with lots of boost and big cams on the stock head.

[jmac36]

You know Stock head, Stock Injectors, and stock pulley the car really would slot into STL nicely if weighed like it's a 2.0L.
The ports on the head are SOOOO small and crappy that they don't flow anything. You won't break 200whp on one with stock head. Hell guys barely do that with lots of boost and big cams on the stock head.

Seriously!!?? I agree it will be hard to get over 200-210, but its really not about whp on a car with FI. The Cooper with the sc has a healthy torque curve, and with a bit of tuning can be a real beast out of the corners.

Nope, sorry, I think the PTB got it correct when they limited FI cars out of STL

[Greg Amy]

Don't expect any changes to forced induction in STL. 'Bout the only time I'd personally give it consideration is when we have 1.3L/1.4L turbo cars somewhere down the line, but I don't see those coming to the USA in numbers for several years (thought I'd personally LOVE to buy a Polo GTI 1.4L turbo)... - GA

[Chip42]

Don't expect any changes to forced induction in STL. 'Bout the only time I'd personally give it consideration is when we have 1.3L/1.4L turbo cars somewhere down the line, but I don't see those coming to the USA in numbers for several years (thought I'd personally LOVE to buy a Polo GTI 1.4L turbo)... - GA

about those several years... the chevy cruze and sonic both have a 138hp/150lbft 1.4L turbo with a 6 spd manual. should sell some decent volumes.

[Greg Amy]

about those several years... the chevy cruze and sonic both have a 138hp/150lbft 1.4L turbo with a 6 spd manual. should sell some decent volumes.

There you go! That's the powertrain for what I envision as STL-level cars in this country, very common in Europe. I'm not going to propose allowing these turbo engines into STL quite yet, but that's the direction I see as the future. - GA

[Z3_GoCar]

Don't expect any changes to forced induction in STL. 'Bout the only time I'd personally give it consideration is when we have 1.3L/1.4L turbo cars somewhere down the line, but I don't see those coming to the USA in numbers for several years (thought I'd personally LOVE to buy a Polo GTI 1.4L turbo)... - GA

Geo Metro/Sprint turbo?? It's early '90s tech but still in the age range

[Mrsideways]

Seriously!!?? I agree it will be hard to get over 200-210, but its really not about whp on a car with FI. The Cooper with the sc has a healthy torque curve, and with a bit of tuning can be a real beast out of the corners.

Nope, sorry, I think the PTB got it correct when they limited FI cars out of STL

No no no, your talking about turbo cars. Look at a stock mini's dyno sheet. The torque curve looks the same as any serious Honda Motor, FLAT. And 210whp will be near impossible especially if you limit compression. Have you seen the Heads on a Mini? I've got 3 of them on the bench I'll take pictures of. A stock one, a JCW, and a very heavily ported one. It's a 40hp BOLT ON mod to port the head. A cooper S with stock pulley will make 150ft/lbs of tq at the ground from 3k to till when the head stops flowing, JUST like a B18 out of a Honda or a 2ZZ out of a Toyota.
I know Greg's never gonna push for FI in STL but as I told the NASA guys Superchargers need to be looked at completely differently then Turbo's.
Another neat car would be the Supercharged EARLY MR2.

Below are the dyno's on my car with a stock bottom end. ALL pulls were done with a 17% reduction pulley on the supercharger.
First pull was (lowest) was just pulley and exhaust
2nd pull (193whp) was pulley, cam, header, intake, intercooler, tune and Alcohol Injection and bigger injectors.
3rd pull was just a ported head and bigger valves over the 2nd pull.