03/05/2026
More Hillclimb prep from this week😍
Owen Pritchard brought his R53 Mini Cooper S in for custom ECU tuning, to ensure all is running right after upgrading hardware and with the aim of improving torque and driveability for competing.
He had already fitted a 15% reduction supercharger drive pulley and Newman cams. Ahead of tuning we discussed fitting higher capacity injectors to ensure sufficient headroom in fuel control, knowing the stock units could be on their limits. We settled on the injectors from the John Cooper Works model, as they are a direct swap and require only minor software changes.
The first job was to run it up on the dyno in an "as is" condition, to give a baseline specifically on fuel / lambda control. From that I swapped out the stock injectors for the JCW units and flashed the required calibration changes, then repeated some ramp runs. This is an important step to confirm that the injector swap is transparent and that there is no unexpected shift in lambda - all was good 😁
From there I could set about tuning towards torque / power increase, modifying the necessary airpath, fuel and ignition parameters. Changes are also made to improve part load performance, its not always all about full-load!
In the end we gained a very impressive torque increase through the majority of the engine speed range, as well as taking peak power to 229bhp.
This looks great on the graphs, but the real acid test is on the track - feedback from Shelsley Walsh over the weekend was extremely positive, with a handful of PB's being set - well done Owen!
Drop a message to if you want to discuss custom ECU tuning on your road or race car 😎
www.croft-power.co.uk
[email protected]
