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Trail blazer We discover what Slovenia’s first ever MINI tuner has done to boost the performance of an eight-year-old Cooper S with more than 100,000 miles showing. And it’s Porsche beating stuff… 42
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MODDING HARRINGTON-JAMES JAMES ■ WORDS: SARAH HARRINGTONPICS: FILIP RIJAVEC
T
he MINI scene in Slovenia is huge and Modern MINI saw first-hand back in June 2010 at the MINI Alpe Adria Summit how much this little car has been taken to heart by the friendly eastern Europeans. The Alpe Adria 265 km cross-country adventure took us from picturesque Lake Bled to awesome mountain passes and finally on to Portorož, the Slovenian equivalent of Saint Tropez, in just a day. But out of the 106 MINIs involved from 12 different countries there was one Cooper S in particular that stood out. And that belonged to Slovenian Ambroz Kavs, who runs MINI tuning specialist Kavs Motorsport.
Premium rate What you probably don’t know is that brand new MINIs in Slovenia command a much higher on-the-road price than in the UK, meaning it is equivalent to a top-of-therange luxury car in the countr y. What’s more, unlike here in Blighty where we have hundreds of MINI dealerships scattered far and wide, Slovenia has just one. And it was at this dealership in Ljubljana that A mbroz placed his order for a brand new Electric Blue Cooper S at a cost of 27,000 Euros. “It all started in July 2002 when I was thinking abou t changing my car,” remembers Ambroz. “So I called a friend who’s a walking car encyclopaedia and asked him what I should buy and could afford. And then I remembered that the new MINI was to come out shortly in my country. In September I had a test drive of a new Cooper S and it was love at first sight so I ordered one, but I had to wait two long months for it to arrive!”
Hey Ambroz, looks like you need a new set of rubber, and pronto!
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For three years Ambroz’s Cooper S remained stock – not because he wanted it this way as he’d always planned on tweaking it – but upgrading was expensive and most parts only available from the US. His dream was to create a unique and rapid MINI for track use, but still be comfortable as a daily driver. He explains: “My first mod was in the summer of 2005
when I bought a 15 per cent reduced supercharger pulley from the USA and upgraded the brakes. I also fitted a short shift kit for quicker gear changes, but I didn’t stop there. I upgraded the suspension with Eibach Pro-Kit springs, custom shocks and OMP upper and lower strut braces. Then I added a partial Aerokit, bonnet stripes and roof rack so I could carry my surfboard for vacation. But all these tweaks still weren’t enough for me as I was still dreaming of a high performance car.” By the end of 2005 Ambroz uprated the exhaust with a One Ball system and 4-2-1 manifold, while he kept the standard catalyst. Then soon after the biggest change of all occurred: as the Cooper S’s supercharger belt started slipping on the reduced pulley, his fellow MINI friends encouraged him to make his own highquality pulleys instead. This wasn’t a big deal for Ambroz since he already makes 500 different types for other marques through his job, therefore after some R&D a 19 per cent reduced supercharger pulley for the Cooper S was born. Most MINI owners find once they started modifying it’s addictive and hard to stop - Ambroz is no exception. Once his new pulley was installed, he got serious with other engine mods too. In went new Schrick camshafts and bigger John Cooper Works MARCH-APRIL 2011
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Above: Aside from the Lapis Blue John Cooper Work sports seats matching the leather dash, Ambroz has kept it fairly low key in here. And it works. Middle left: These R95 18 in JCWs perfectly suit this MINI – but we think he might need to update his brake horsepower A-panel graphic… Below left: A subtle edition to the centre console are these tucked away custom gauges. These show boost, oil/water temperature, air/fuel ratio and chargecooler intake air temperature.
380 injectors and soon after he took his Cooper S to a local racing track, Mobikrog, just to make sure these new editions were playing nicely together together.. Having missed the first ever MINI United in Misano, Ambroz was determined to drive the 1500 km to Zandvoort in the Netherlands for June 2007’s MINI United celebratio ns. So, with this in mind he worked all winter on his Cooper S. First he painted his 17in OZ Ultraleggera alloys white, then bought bigger Brembo GT kit brakes (320 mm discs) for the front wheels. Next he fitted the part of his Aerokit that was missing – the rear bumper – and then focused back on the running gear by adding a Quaife limited-slip diff, lightweight Fidanza flywheel, custom clutch disc and Eibach anti-roll bars front and rear. Phew! But he didn’t stop there; Ambroz wasn’t satisfied with the aftermarket intercoolers available for the Cooper S so he designed and made his own. His version has helped the engine keep a constant intake temperature as well as produce some 17 bhp more. Unsurprisingly, his custom-made ‘chargecooler’ ‘chargec ooler’ was a big hi t at MINI United and he’s been taking orders ever since.
Kavs Motorsport WHAT CAN KAVS MOTORSPORT OFFER MINI OWNERS? Supercharger pulleys in sizes ranging from 11 to 20% ■Alternator pulleys ■Chargecooler kits with different options ■Custom heads ■CAI airboxes ■Big throttle bodies (63 mm) ■Custom stainless steel exhausts ■Wheel spacers from 12 to 20 mm ■Spacers for lowered MINIs to correct front wishbone angles ■Aluminium rear wishbone arms ■Aluminium anti-roll bar link rod ends ■
CONTACT: KAVS MOTORSPORT Website: www.kavsmotorsport.com www.kavs.eu Email:
[email protected] Tel: +386 4177 4650 (Discounts for MINI Torque members)
Exhausting stuff Keeping to the custom theme, Ambroz then MARCH-APRIL 2011
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If you ever wondered what tracks Ambroz has conquered, you only need to look at the rear pillars of his MINI.
moved on to the exhaust and designed his own for his Cooper S using the standard silencer, but with 2.5 inch diameter straight through pipework from the manifold. To finish he added another silencer in the middle to reduce the noise in the cabin. Aside from work under the car, Ambroz made a few changes to his interior too and fitted Lapis Blue leather to the dash to match the colour of the sports seats and made a rear seat delete kit to create more room in the back – which coincidentally became a perfect set up for another trackday. This time he headed to Grobnik in Croatia where he achieved good lap times on road tyres, but he still wasn’t completely happy with the car’s set-up. In 2008 Ambroz recruited his friends to help create a new Cooper S head and the ‘KMT’ was invented. This utilised the original valves but was heavily ported for high air flow. They then designed a big throttle body with a 63 mm diameter and for additional engine cooling added an Aquamist water methanol injection system. This kept the inlet temperatures to around 10-15°C above the ambient temperature, even with an 18 per cent supercharger pulley now fitted. It was a busy year because Ambroz also fitted a 2005 facelift gearbox with shorter gear ratios. 46
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Top left: There’s no doubt as to who’s been fine fettling this 1.6-litre ’charged beast… currently running 280 bhp and making 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds. Middle: Check out the door mirrors which read: ‘objects in mirror are losing…’ We like your sense of humour, Ambroz! Below: Ambroz has covered some 2500 km in 2010 just on track with the original engine!
“After that I decided to go back to the Grobnik track and I made a good lap time,” says Ambroz. “That day I even beat a 400 bhp Mitsubishi Evo 9 by more than 1.5 seconds which was using the same tyres as me.” Perhaps this could have been a good time for Ambroz to stop tweaking his Cooper S, but since MINI United at Silverstone was looming at the time,
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MODEL: 2002 Electric Blue R53 Cooper S ENGINE: 1.6-litre DOHC, 4-cyl, 16-valve tuned by Kavs Motorsport. Modified parts include: water to air intercooler (chargecooler) with two radiators mounted to the front with unique system of channels underneath, 18 per cent reduced supercharger pulley, +5 per cent alternator pulley, custom head with original valves , 63 mm big throttle body, cold air intake, 440cc injectors, Schrick camshaft, One ball exhaust with custom Kavs Motorsport 2.5in stainless steel pipe to back resonator with Magn aflow middle box, OBX header with ceramic coating, Aquamist water injection system, Mainz ECU remap, custom clutch, Fidanza flywheel, Quaife limited-slip differential GEARBOX: 2005 six-speed short shift
it inspired him to go even further. Cosmetically he changed his roof colour to Pearl White and added his company logo, then fixed a John Cooper Works rear spoiler, ordered JCW seats in Lapis Blue leather and swapped the brakes from ‘small’ 320 Brembos to huge 340 mm discs with Porsche GT2 calipers. Blimey. His first stop once in the UK was to 1320 MINI to test out his Cooper S on their rolling road. In fact this started up a collaboration and ever since Kavs Motorsport has been developing some new tuning parts w ith 1320 MINI.
Talk the torque Ambroz recalls: recalls: “It was the moment of trut h to see how much power my Cooper S could produce with all the mods that we’ve made. We realised I had too small injectors for real power so we changed them to 440cc ones, then the car made 270 bhp and 197.6 lbf.ft torque which is very impressive with standard sized valves and more than 100,000 miles on the clock. The power graph showed I have a lot of torque from 3500 rpm right up until 7700 rpm which is why it’s so quick on the road.” Since then, Ambroz has changed the MARCH-APRIL 2011
supercharger pulley again for a smaller one, made some further tweaks to the chargecooler with a bigger core and given it a more aggressive ‘leaner’ remap – he’s confident he’s now reached the 280 bhp range. Needless to say he’s been back out on track but this t ime as part of the Time Attack series and successfully clinched Class Competition Competition honours in the season championship at the Grobnik track, beating BMW M3, Lotus Elise and Exige competitors. In fact, Ambroz has done his sums and worked out he’s actually covered more than 2500 km just on track in 2010. That’s astonishing! But the story doesn’t end here. With t he recent purchase of a British Racing Green 2003 Cooper S with only 30,000 miles showing, Ambroz is currently deciding whether to cage his original Cooper S or make his latest edition into a trackday toy. What’s for sure is that MINIs really have got under his skin and there can only be more exciting developments coming from Kavs Motorsport. Since he’s dead keen on quarter-mile speed trials too, no doubt we’ll bump into him at the next Mini in the Park at Santa Pod, which has become his yearly UK road trip. Hmmm, we wonder who’ll be brave enough to go up against him? ■
BRAKES: Porsche GT2 calipers with 340x32 mm front brake discs. Also added brake ducts SUSPENSION: Bilstein B16 PSS9 coil-overs with Eibach camber plates, Eibach anti-roll bars (25.4 mm front, 19 mm rear), OMP upper and lower str ut braces and rear stru t brace. 15 mm wheel spacers and 22 mm front arm spacers WHEELS AND TYRES: Road use: JCW R95 alloys with 205/40/R18 tyres, for fast road/track: OZ Ultraleggera alloys with 215/40/R17 tyres INTERIOR: Custom Lapis Blue leather dash with matching JCW Gravity heated leather sports seats, custom gauges for boost, oil temperature, water temperature of chargecooler, two intake temperatures (before/after chargecooler), air/ fuel ratio, two-spoke Sport steering wheel, airconditioning, Pioneer radio with JBL front and rear speakers EXTERIOR: JCW colour-coded Aerokit and rear spoiler, clear lenses for rear light clusters, heated washer jets and door mirrors, Xenon headlights, front foglights removed for brake ducts, white bonnet stripes. Front spotlights, tinted windows THANKS: To all my family who supported me with my projects, especially mum, dad and Gran Elka. thanks to friends Sebastian and Bostjan who helped me out and listened to all my wishes with the car. Last but not least our factory (www.kovinoplastkavs.si) that makes great products like our pulleys at a special price for all MINI Torque members!
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