R56/55 Cold Air Intake System
AMP-INT-400
Once again, ALTA makes the highest gaining HP intake for your R56
Install Difficulty Rating
ALTA Performance, again set the bar high for the competition! The new ALTA R56 cold air intake not only adds proven 10WHP and 10ft-lbs of torque to your 2007+ Mini Cooper S (AKA R56), but it also unlocks the sound from your turbo! With our intake not only will you hear the turbo sucking in and compressing the air, but you will here the OEM blow off valve blowing off.
Check out the Charts section for dyno graphs!
High Flow Foam Filter
The ALTA performance R56 cold air intake features our standard large diameter foam filter. Many ask us why not a "K&N Style" filter?? The problem is when those styles get dirty, the block air flow and create a restriction. Foam on the other hand flows almost the same as it does when clean or dirty. Foam traps the dirt as it passed through it, but at the same time allows air to flow around the trapped dirt. This is how it stays restriction free. As you see, foam is our choice of filter media as it provides virtually no restriction when clean or dirty.
Light Weight Aluminum Air box
The ALTA R56 air box was designed around light weight aluminum. This provides a nice stiff, strong, and corrosion proof shroud for the ALTA high flow foam filter. Like our other parts, a high quality black powdercoat is applied to keep things looking clean and finished for the life of the car. This allows our intake system to help remove weight from your car, not add it like some intake do.
Silicone Intake Hose
Our 5ply Silicone Elbow is rated for 200psi, and 400 degrees. Like other ALTA products this part is over built to ensure a life time of use. This is one of the key features to our intake as the bend provides the proper MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor reading. This is important to ensure proper metering of airflow, which ensures a safe AFR (Air Fuel Ratio) and to eliminate possibilities of check engine lights.
Cold Air/Fresh Air
Seeing that the OEM scoop was blocked off on early models and partially blocked off on newer ones, we thought this was a great way to get cold fresh air into the filter. During our test and tune session on the dyno we proved that removing the scoop was important. The temp around the air filter droppped 30 degrees and the car gained 3WHP with it removed. This brought perfect ambient temp, cold air directly to the fitler. This test and tune session, showed us we didn't need an expensive traditional type "Air box", to surround the filter. Needless to say we continued with designing the intake around no scoop, and you can see how the final designed turned out!
Check the charts section for dyno graphs!
ALTA R56 intake includes
- High flow foam filter
- Aluminum air box shroud
- Silicone elbow and couplers
- Hose clamps and hardware
- Instructions
Thank you for your purchase! Prior to installation it is important to remove all excess oil from the filter with a paper towel. A small amount of detergent (like SImple Green) may be required to get the excess oil from the filter to intake mating surface. It is imperative to remove this excess oil for proper operation.
Also, note that the filter should be cleaned every 5K - 7K miles based on the local dust and pollutant levels. This will keep you intake performing properly! A cleaning kit is available on our website, through our dealers and other performance part retailers. It is crucial that you get the proper cleaner and oil for a FOAM filter. Use of other cleaners and oil may damage the filter and void the warranty.
Questions? Just contact our tech dept at Tech@ALTAminiperformance.com
This intake system fit all 2007+ Mini Cooper S models AKA R56
ALTA R56 Intake Test and Tune
Our initial test of the intake system was done with the OEM hood scoopleft in place. Our intake is designed to remove this, but we wanted toprove how this was a necessary mod. So we did 3 quick runs with thescoop on and 4 quick runs with the scoop off. Below are the runs, withthe strange low boost runs removed. The dyno’s runs are redrawn overwith a wide brush to show the average of the 2 runs. With no scoop, thefilter temps constantly climbed. In 3 quick (10 second interval) runs,the temps were at 150 degrees. With the scoop removed, an instant 30Fdrop occurred, and a constantly cooling temp change started. The next 3quick runs showed a nice change in both temp and Wheel HP. The gain wassomewhat expected, and the scoop needed to be removed to get the mostfrom the intake system.
Above graph shows averaged runs with the ALTA intake installed with and with the scoop being blocked. The RED is the same line as the below picture. Below picture compares stock to the ALTA intake.
Above graph shows averaged runs with and with the scoop opened up and intake installed!
So where is the “complete” cold air intake we might have talked about to customers?? The feasibility for a coldair intake is never out of the question, but the cost and complexity are a factor. We wanted to bring the best bang for the buck to the plate first,not scare people away. Since our intake did so well and the scoop gives perfect ambient temp to the filter, we developed our first version this way.
On a side note, when dealing with MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensors, smallchanges to turbulence in the intake system, can make huge changes tohow the car runs. Because we are familiar with this problem on othercars, great care was taken to eliminate any turbulence issues thatmight throw a CEL, or make the car run too lean or rich. We can say fora fact that our intake replicates the stock MAF curve perfectly!
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