As hinted in my last post, a visit to a rolling road is a must for anyone who wants to find out what their engine is doing.

A session on a rolling road will help you identify all sorts of problems. These include (but are not limited to):

  • Brake Horse Power at the crank (engine) and the wheels).
  • The air:fuel mixture in the carburettor and how well the carb is performing.
  • Timing of the engine.
  • How well the engine is “breathing”. Also known as airflow through the intake and exhaust.

Most people with a Mini think “rolling road? My car doesn’t need that, it’s perfect”. Well, I bet it’s not. We took fifteen cars to Slark Race Engineering at the beginning of the month. There were 14 carb fed cars and mine that was fuel injected. Just in case you don’t know what a rolling road looks like, watch this short video I took on the day:

[youtube=”http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-ov4tZrqKlg”]

It’s practically impossible to do anything with a fuel injected Mini without major cash layout. This is because all of the timing and mixture adjustments are made by an Engine Management System (also known as the ECU).

From the other 14 cars we took only two cars didn’t need any tweaks. All the rest, everything from standard 1000cc engines to an injected engine that had been converted to run on carbs. Power increases by simply tweaking the timing, adjusting the mixture or replacing the carb needle went from 3bhp increase right the way up to a 24 bhp increase.

So, no matter how good you think your engine is, when you next have the money, please please please consider getting it on a rolling road near you. If nothing else it will tell you the brake horse power of the engine so you have a baseline to start your modifications!

Of course, this applies to the BMW Mini Owners too! There are many modifications that you can make to improve the BHP of your car and having a baseline will be a good starting point.