In the search for better cooling Mini Madness tried larger air to air intercoolers with little to no gain in HP. Bigger is not always better! The problem with larger air to air intercoolers for the MINI is this, airflow is limited by the small hood scoop size in the factory hood, compare the MINI Cooper hood scoop to the Subaru STI and you'll get the idea. Once air finally enters the hood scoop it is directed through the intercooler to remove heat that has been absorbed, the problem then becomes poor placement of the intercooler, it sits right on top of the valve cover, fuel rail, injectors and intake manifold. There simply isn't enough clean flowing space underneath the intercooler to provide proper airflow to remove heat from the intercooler. A good execution of this type of intercooler design is once again the Subaru WRX or STI where the intercooler is top mount but the difference it where it's placed, to the rear of the engine where there is plenty of space for incoming air to flow through the intercooler and escape through the empty space below.

The bottom line is that the MINI suffers terrible HP loss from poor airflow over the intercooler and heat soak conditions from its poor placement atop the engine.

Here's where the Madness Water to Air Intercooler differs.

The Madness unit uses a modified factory intercooler which ensures 0% pressure drop, trouble free fit, low cost and no interference with any other engine components. Water flows in from the top and flows through the intercooler exiting at the bottom. The coolant fluid then is pumped at high speed with our 8 gpm water pump into the front mount radiator. At this point the water makes 3 passes through the radiator before it exits and returns back to the top of the intercooler. Passing the water through the radiator 3 times ensures that most of the heat been removed allowing the cool water to enter the intercooler and reduces intake temperatures dramatically. Other kits on the market use poorly designed radiators to cool the water, some even use the Automatic transmission cooler from the standard MINI. These radiators are simple cross flow designs, small and inefficient and meant to flow transmission fluid. When it comes to cooling the water flowing through the system they simply cannot cool the water fast enough and do not have the necessary volume to maintain cool temperatures under constant use.

Stability and Consistency

In repeated track testing, the Mini Madness MINI Cooper Water to air intercooler maintained a 40 degree temperature difference vs ambient temperature. These tests were performed on a Stage 4 modified MINI Cooper S running 5, 30minute track sessions. Speeds in excess of 130mph were consistently reached with no increase from lap to lap as the day grew hotter.

Whats included

Double size 3 pass front mount radiator, Silicone 3 ply hoses, High flow 8gpm continuous run water pump, High polished Intercooler, overflow tank, and full color installation instructions

Performance

Final testing has shown a whopping 25 hp savings over the stock intercooler! 4 months of testing and prototyping have shown us that this solution provides the best cooling over a wide range of conditions from drag racing to street driving to the race track. Owners of our previous system can easily upgrade to the new kit by purchasing our upgrade kit.