-(music) -(Moog)The time has come. Oh, yes it has!
We are supercharging the Mini!
(Intro)
Welcome to another episode of MightyCarMods, proudly supported by Just Car Insurance.
Now Marty, we've turbocharged a few things haven't we?
(Marty) We have. We've done, forced-induction using turbochargers.
And we've done chemical supercharging on the Honda.
That's right, we've also done: we've just done some MAAAAAAD V8 stuff in our Mod Max
with no supercharging required so, that's probably a pretty MAAAAD idea.
But, today: it's time to show you guys how to supercharge your car.
Now, let's have a quick little chat about superchargers,
and the difference between superchargers and turbochargers.
Now, the main thing you need to know is that turbochargers run off waste.
That is exhaust gas, that's spinning turbines making boost: superchargers are running off your engine.
-And do you know what that means, Martin? -That means you do have some parasitic losses
and how much boost you can create, depends on the ratio between your crank
and how the supercharger's spinning. But, there's lots of different types of superchargers.
-Just like there's lots of different turbos. -That's right. Now, there's pros and cons of each:
but, a lot of the pros of a supercharger, is that it is easier to install than a turbocharger:
most of the time: depending on your application and what you're doing
but the main thing, we don't need to be tapping into, uh,
oil lines and water lines and that kind of stuff. Hopefully we're going to just throw the thing on.
BUT!!
We don't even have one!
Which is why, Martin
You're being tasked with the most incredibly awesome job,
of going out there
and getting a supercharger
for our Mini!
-So, farewell! -Where do: where do I get 'em from?
-England! -WHAT!?
Yes!
Off you go!
Go and say hello to the Queen.
"I'm in England and I'm on a bike!"
So, I'm off to get these Mini parts.
(music)
Missed it by three minutes. So, we wait another forty-five.
OK, so that's the train done. Now I've got to get a 'tube.'
Right, so I got a lot of trains. I'm out.
I dunno where.
In the suburbs of,
London somewhere, inside the M25.
Which is a big ring road that runs around the whole city so:
Not, right out in the sticks.
Um.
And, now I need to be picked up,
by a dude who makes mad Mini superchargers.
"This looks like him now."
-Hey man. How you going? -Hi.
(engine accelerates)
Um, my name's Stuart.
I'm, uh, running vmaxscart.
We're in Molesley, in the U.K. In England.
And, uh, I do A-series supercharger kits.
So, the supercharger route: it had came out on the BMW MINI.
There were quite a few superchargers knocking around.
Um..
And, I was modifying the cylinder heads for the BMW MINI.
I had a bit of, sort of, stack of superchargers.
And I just thought, 'You know, I do quite a lot of classic stuff. Is there enough room to fit it on there?'
So, yeah, 2004:
that's the first time I put one on and it all worked well and it just went from there.
Uh, it's the Eaton M45 supercharger, uh, off the BMW MINI.
So people would take them off, uh, for warranty. Cos, they didn't like the whining noise. Or,
Uh, they'd change them cos they were a bit chattery. And, yeah: lots of second-hand superchargers about.
You know, for not much money.
Uh, as a factory part, they do have reliability issues on the BMW MINI.
Uh, mainly, this drive here is for the water pump.
Uh, and the gears wear out on those and they start chattering.
So, a lot of these units are taken off cars under warranty,
um, and I'll buy them and just take the front gears out,
cos, you don't need them on a classic Mini set-up.
Fairly easy to rebuild, if there are any problems with them
and they're under a much lower stress and lower RPM rate on the A-series conversion I do.
So yeah, this is um..
Here's one I did earlier.
-(Laughs) -This is a (laughs)
So, this is the Eaton supercharger.
Uh, slightly modified so I can get manifolds to fit on it
and, uh, fit it under the bonnet.
(music)
I suppose I was quite well known for turbocharging, uh, Minis early on.
Because we had the Metro Turbo: in the eighties, over here.
Uh, and then, gradually, the parts started to run out.
And then the supercharger came along and it's the same kind of thing. Forced-induction.
Same kind of principle. So I just, sort of, adapted to that, really.
I think ultimately,
turbos for bigger power.
But, if you want drivability and day-to-day use, the supercharger kind of fits that bill.
If you want easy power, supercharger's the route to go
I think Moog's gonna love this.
Gives you really good tractability.
He's gonna surprise so many big V8s out on the highway.
(engine accelerates)
Alright. Well,
I'm going to go finish my, uh:
-continue my public transport adventure. -(chuckles) How you finding that?
Mate, I've done a lot today. I've done push bike, underground, I've walked
-I've got a train, I've got like, a, fast train. -Yeah.
And now, I'm going to do it all in reverse. And then get an aeroplane home
(music)
Swipe left.
Swipe,
Mmmm, right.
Swipe left.
Blurrgh, swipe left!
-Dude! -Swipe right.
England's crazy!
-It's like: -Hey dude! Have you ever played Fruit Ninja?
-Fruit Ninja? -Yeah!
-Oh, is that where you swipe fruit? -Swipe! Well, like you:
-Oh, you smashed the watermelon! -Yeah.
-Um, -Dude, England's mad.
-Yeah? What'd you do? -It's like Australia,
-It's like Australia, -Yes?
except everyone sounds a little bit different and it's more rainy.
-I've heard that they have big teeth. Is that true? -Some people: many people have big teeth.
-Really? -And big... personalities. Very big personalities.
-Really. Large personalities over there, Martin. -Yeah. They like going to the pub,
'cos it's dark at 4 o'Clock and there's nothing else to do.
Why is it that everyone from England, um, puts so much vomit on Bondi Beach, Martin?
-I think it's just a rite of passage, isn't it? -Is it?
You have to come to Australia and you have to Bondi/Manly and, you know, get drunk.
From what I understand, though, there's a fair share of Australians laying vomit
-uh, on the pavement of: is it Covent Gardens? -Yeah, and there's:
-Is that what it's called? -Um.
Where Australians like to go and vomit?
There's Australian pubs and stuff. I dunno why it's over there.
-Anyway, Martin: what have you got?! -I got you a supercharger dude!
From the dude who made it. Hand made it.
-Dude! -It's a full kit.
-That - dude, that's awesome. -I dunno what this is for. This is for a beer bong.
Martin, I. (laughs)
-I know who's gonna know what this all is. -Yeah?
Our special guest for this series: Miles! Also known as Dose Vader from AM Auto. (claps him in)
-Hey, bro! -Hey mate.
-How you doin'? -Good, how are you?
Now, you may have seen Miles in some of our videos already.
He's also known as Dose Vader, he loves things that go choo-choo and brum-brum.
Um, and he's the other half of AM Auto.
He's like the brains of Turbo Yoda.
Turbo Yoda has the loin, he has the brains.
The loin? Do you mean like a leg, is that what a loin is?
I think a loin is the part between. Is it?
My name's Miles. I'm part-owner of AM Auto Services on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
My business partner Alan, also known as Turbo Yoda.
We work on performance cars, do MAAAAD modifications: do all the fun stuff.
We're also a normal garage as well, so, we'll do pretty much any work on cars.
Minis for my family goes back a long, long way.
My dad's very first car was a Mini. My mum's first Mini was shortly after she met my father.
My family has had in excess of 30 Minis over the years: including the ones that I've owned.
My father got to use the: one of the original Broadspeed Minis, that was raced in Australia by Brian Foley.
When I found out that Moog had a Mini, I was ecstatic. I thought that was amazing.
Honestly, they are a seriously cool car.
It's one of those circumstances where, unless you've tried it, you can't judge it.
Minis are just amazing. And when I found out I had the opportunity to come down
with the boys and do some work that car, I was ecstatic.
The car is extremely low to the ground, even in standard form. Very rigid frame for its size.
And with wheels on all corners of the car they're just: they just handle amazingly.
My father used to always have a saying, many stickers on his cars,
it would always say, 'Minis out-corner corners.'
Which is true. Even a standard Mini, you can push extremely hard on any track anywhere
and they just stick to the road. They're an amazing little car.
I suppose you would judge the level of fun from the car, by what the car is.
You could drive a 2000 horsepower car and go, 'Wow, that's awesome.'
You can drive a 20 horsepower car and 'Wow, that's awesome.'
Because, it's what the car is.
It's got character about it.
And it's how it makes you feel when you drive the car.
And that's what Mighty Mods is all about: It's about getting out there and having a go at it.
This project's going to be quite emotional for me.
I have a large family history with this.
I'm sure it'll be emotional for Moog as well.
He has a family history of these cars in his family.
Emotional for me, because I got my first Mini when I was 7 years of age.
I got a Mini Cooper: my father bought for me with my trust fund.
He showed me how to work on those cars: I was bought up with cars.
He passed away, unfortunately, when I was 19. So, I've been without him for a long time.
So, any time I work on a car like this, it is quite emotional for me,
because, it does bring back a lot of memories.
If you know someone with a Mini,
have a go. If you have the opportunity to drive one, drive one.
It's gonna be a great time. I get to spend some time with good mates,
I get to work on a car that I absolutely love.
Um, and we get to see what it's gonna do.
It's a tiny little engine, tiny little car.
I think it's gonna be just - incredible.
The young gentleman that I met, over in England, he makes these. And he makes them out of
superchargers from of the BMW produced 'MINIs'.
-Oh, the fat, ugly MINIs? -Yeah: the MINIs.
-Some of them aren't ugly: some of them are mad. -Some of them are cool.
-Um. -Terrible MINIs.
So wait on: so this
-Yep. -Let me get this straight.
Cos I'm blowing my worm hole. I'm leaking down both thighs right now.
-Yeah? -This!
-is a supercharger from one of the new BMW MINIs, -Exactly.
that we are going to be fitting on the old A-Series Mini engine?
-So, it has German efficiency. Are you alright? -No.
-Are you alright? -No, I'm not.
-Do you need a moment? -I'll be just down here. Continue.
So, it's the: it's a supercharger off, your like, newer MINI, and it's all like
-super efficient and nice and whatever. -(groans with pleasure?)
And then, he adapts them to work on the old A-Series motor.
-Well done. -Which is pretty cleaver. And, it fits under the bonnet
-That's the important bit. -That is a very important bit.
It fits under the bonnet.
You alright?
This is the best thing we've ever done!
-Do you know what? -Other than being born.
-Do you know what I can't wait? -What?
-I can't wait to hear it, man. -Yeah.
I would: I don't care. 0kW. The sound alone.
-This is awesome! -Braaaaaa!
-Let's do it! -Let's do it! Let's go!
And, Dose Vader: thank you so much for coming down with us.
-Oh, you're welcome. -To be part of this awesome thing.
You've got a long linage, with, uh, Minis. Which is awesome. It: we are so lucky to have someone
with your experience, expertise and history with Minis.
There's an aftermarket radiator as well.
-Mad. -Part of the kit.
Mad.
Yeah. The reading that I've done: people supercharging Minis: one of the kind of
concerns they've had is, um, overheating.
So.
Well, that's an
-alloy one. It should fit. -Look at that!
Fit in the same location. It: like, nothing else. I mean, there's lots of arguments about.
Alloy radiators vs copper vs all this kind of stuff. But,
the end of the day: it's brand-new, if it's mounted up properly. It's nice and thick,
so the water's got plenty of time to and mass to cool down in.
It should work good.
Martin, you know the first thing we need to do?
-What? -Uh,
Let's go chuck it on the dyno.
So, we're going down, uh, to HalTech, to do a base-line, power run.
-What do you reckon it's gonna make man? -Oh, uhhh.
I don't know and I'll never know. I don't want to know.
-I don't wanna know. -Wait, we're going to a dyno, dude.
-That's what you do on a dyno. -I don't wanna know.
-Why? -I will not: I refuse to know.
Why?
I don't want to know the numbers. I don't want to look at the numbers. I don't want it:
I just: I don't want to have anything to do with the dyno numbers of this car.
Because, that's not what this project is about. It's a feel thing. And
-I know you're looking confused, -No, that's
And everyone's confused because they're like: 'You go to a dyno, you look at the numbers.'
-I don't want to know the numbers. -Right.
I don't want to know anything about them. Because,
When you get in a car and you're like 'Oh, dyno it. Oh, you got 50kW. You got 200kW.'
Your car becomes that number.
-OK. -Even if you change it and modify it and stuff later,
-Yeah. -you attach that number with your experience.
I don't want that. I just want it to be a feel thing. I want to get in it and go 'Wow, this is mad.'
So, literally using butt dyno, more so than scientific dyno?
I just wanna be able to go 'Cool. These are the: this is the car stock. These are the mods we've done.'
-Yep. -And this is a percentage increase.
But, I don't want to, at the end, go 'Oh, the car has 80kW. Or 30kW.' I just: I don't even want to know.
-Alright. -Because, I just: it's just, we're always doing that.
-We did it with SuperGramps: Miss Daisy. -Yeah.
Perfect, perfect example, right? So, it's about a 1000% increase. So, we needed the dyno for that.
-Yeah. -But, you gotta admit.
When we did that dyno run and made 23kW, next time you were in the car:
did knowing the car made 23kW make your experience different?
Yeah, well. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Like, it does become more a scientific sort of
'Oh, it feels like 22kW. Oh, I'll check-out the power band.' And all that kind of stuff.
-Yeah. -No, that: that makes sense.
That makes sense. And, you know what? You actually: I suppose you don't really need to know.
-No, I don't. -Cos, the driving experience and the dyno numbers
are not always linked anyway.
-And. -Cos, 1000hp car can be a piece of crap to drive.
-It co -Or, it can be amazing. But,
-Absolutely. -Yeah.
And it's what I've said before: when we're down at the drags, and there's guys down there in STis
that are making 100kW more at the wheels than SuperGramps and running slower quarter-mile times.
-Yeah. -So those numbers alone do not paint a picture.
You know: they don't paint everything that we need to know.
So, this is more science to make sure it's working: it's working properly, right?
-Is it this one? -Next one.
-Oops. I'm committed: sorry. -Um.
-So, this is? -This is to make sure:
-an old guy giving me a little thumbs up. Hello! -(toots horn)
-Toot-toot. -(laughs)
-They love it. -Um, they love it.
Um, this is to make sure that the car works and then we make sure the mods we are doing are working.
-But, I don't wanna know the final number. -Alright.
That's it. I'll do it for other projects, I've done it for: up until this point, I've done it for everything.
So, I'm doing something different.
I'm just doing some weird things and going 'I don't want to know.' And it's going to be a feel thing.
-Mad. -You can know.
-Alright. -So that you can make sure that things are happening.
But that's it.
(engine accelerating)
(for a 1.3, that actually sounds good)
(chuckles)
-So good, isn't it? -Yeah. It is really cool.
(chuckles)
And, soon, it's gonna be doing that with choo-choo noises.
-(engine accelerates) -I can't wait to hear it. It already sounds cool.
-YES! -It's like a symphony.
(chuckles)
It's off it's face how sticky it is. Can you believe that?
-Look at that. -Yeah, that's pretty cool, hey?
Off it's faceballs.
(music)
"We're down at HalTech to run the little Mini on the dyno."
"This will give us a comparative base-line and ensure that everything that's currently on the car"
"is working as it should."
I think: too much significance is placed onto what number a car makes.
And, so, then, what you do, is start realising that this whole game the,
becomes you vs. computer and what kind of figures come up here. I don't want that.
Because these cars have been around for so long: they've had like 50 years or longer:
to go, 'Oh, the 3.9 diff ratio of the Mini was in 1964? Well, that was 3.44. And then in 1966' and, on it goes.
Look at the essay man!
Look at the essays!
-It's awesome isn't it? -Oh, wait. I got a graph. No, tables: we like tables.
'Number low pinion rati?'
-I give up. -(phone clatters)
(iPhone locking)
Alright, this is it. We are about to do our base-line power run.
And find out: well, we're not gonna find out. Martin's gonna find out the secret number.
And then, when we're back here later on, when it's making mad choo-choo noises,
Um,
We're gonna know how much power we make: that's what it's all about.
So, let's do this thing. Yes!
It's time to,
-(HalTech operator) To do it. -To do it!
Awesome. Mini on a dyno: how good is it?
So awesome.
"We're gonna get the car up to operating temperature and then do a couple of power runs."
(music)
(engine accelerating)
That's really impressive man.
-Did it make something? -It made: it made, pretty much, what I was expecting.
That's great.
-Yeah? That's awesome. -Yeah. For a stock car,
-Yeah? -Stock 1.3
-OK. -That's awesome.
-Can I: have they taken the screen down? -They haven't yet.
That's mad.
-Good one. -Are you actually impressed?
I am actually impressed: yeah.
It's pretty much what I thought that capacity would make, but it's like
-A really nice power curve: it all looks good. -Alright. Good.
-Can I? -Now what do we do?
Uh,
Now we go and choo-choo it.
(music)
"We are ready to choo-choo. But, we're grabbing a few bits and pieces, that are gonna help us"
"when we begin the actual install."
"Next time: on MightyCarMods."
(Outro)