25 replies to this topic

[R1minimagic]

They both have the advantages and disadvantages, depends on your personal preferences.........

[nafnaforiginal12]

Injection for me...

[Ethel]

Someone will have to say something for carbs...

They're easier and cheaper to work on, you won't need a cat, and you have more tuning options. You could always swap the final drive, but the MPI does also have more torque to pull the tall gears.

[MaxAndPaddy]

John Cooper Garages offered the 5 speed option on a few of their special editions.

Option on the 1999 Touring, and the 1999 John Cooper Le Works (mine doesnt have one )

Fitted as standard on the 1999 S Sport 5

[cooperdan]

Someone will have to say something for carbs...

They're easier and cheaper to work on, you won't need a cat, and you have more tuning options. You could always swap the final drive, but the MPI does also have more torque to pull the tall gears.

Ooo ooo ooo i did i did

I love my carb, i seriously wouldnt go back, I dont love it....Im in lovvveeeeee with it...hmmm

[Dan]

I believe 5 speed was an optional extra for the last few years, was extremely expensive and I've never come across one.

No it wasn't. Where does this myth keep coming back from? People have been saying it from just a few months after production ended but it's not at all true. As said above the closest you can get to an official 5 speed is a John Cooper Works conversion which had a Jack Knight 5 speed fitted, but the gearbox was excluded from the Rover warranty on those cars. Rover considered fitting them to the ERA turbo but it was too expensive.

[jamesmpi]

A guy in our club has a late mpi cooper sport 5 with the 5 speed box. Apparently they are very fragile and need the oil to be kept at maximum at all times, otherwise they tend to eat themselves to bits. How true that is I have no idea....but he did try to rebuild it and some parts are no longer in production. In the end he had to refurb the parts that he couldn't replace

Edited by jamesmpi, 31 January 2012 - 01:35 PM.

[MaxAndPaddy]

Yeah I've heard they're a bit of a headache...I looked for one for a while for the Le seeing as they were an option but after reading up on them decided against it

[Mini alec]

Wow, head hurts now. Got alot more to think about then. But defiantly swaying towards injection as will be doing fair distances.

[mab01uk]

I have had a Minispares 5-Speed gearbox in my Mini for about 15 years now with no problems but then I don't do a very high annual mileage in it anymore.
Details of the Minispares 5-speed box:
Helical:
http://www.minispare...id=38223&title=

You'll get the best of both worlds - acceleration and easy cruising - with this Mini Spares Evolution five speed. The Final drive ratio ratio is 3.44, so you'll have the acceleration as before through fourth gear. But with the overdrive fifth gear the effective final drive is now 3.037, great for highway cruising. Fully assembled, ready to install. (Available in rod-change only.)Covered under guarantee for parts only with NO labour claim costs, Other variants such as straight cut or with x pin difffs available. Remember! Although this gearbox by design is infinitely stronger, the weakest part of any A plus gearbox is the standard 2nd gear and overworked 5th gear and this box is no different. Not for Turbos where boost is adjustable or powerful engines. This gearbox was however fitted in 1275cc-1380cc including Minispares old 8 port head roadgoing car with 286 camshaft where it proved ultra reliable. There are 58 extra parts including machining. Owing to the closure of Powertrain all gear tooling and manufacture was sold off so some secondhand parts are used in these gearboxes, if in perfect condition. New parts nearly always used are first and reverse gear,2nd gear and diff plus the extra 5 speed gears of laygear and 1st motion shaft. Included in this box are the famous and original evolution cross pin diff.

Straight Cut:
http://www.minispare...ty=pb&pid=38224

This is the straight cut gear version 5 speed gearbox which has a 5th gear ratio of 0.865 which with a 3.44 diff gives the equivalent of 2.98 This gearbox is built to the same specification as the MSG04 but with straight cut gears. These straight cut gears are noisy but much quieter than the old ST kit as they are cut to modern day profiles and latest gear cutting techniques. There is a 100.00 surcharge on the old gearbox-- all 5 speed gearboxes carry a £100.00 surcharge on the old unit.

Edited by mab01uk, 31 January 2012 - 06:46 PM.

[Spud_133]

I would go for carbs, simply because the 's' I added, I love the look of twins