MODDING

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…

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■ WORDS: SARAH HARRINGTON-JAMES
PICS: 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-the-
range luxury car in the country. 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 Ambroz
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 about 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!
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 high-
quality 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

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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 Kavs Motorsport
works.
WHAT CAN KAVS MOTORSPORT
Middle left: These R95 18 in JCWs perfectly suit
this MINI – but we think he might need to update
OFFER MINI OWNERS?
his brake horsepower A-panel graphic… ■ Supercharger
Below left: A subtle edition to the centre console
pulleys in sizes
are these tucked away custom gauges. These show ranging from 11
boost, oil/water temperature, air/fuel ratio and to 20%
chargecooler intake air temperature.
■ Alternator pulleys
■ Chargecooler kits
380 injectors and soon after he took his with different options
Cooper S to a local racing track, Mobikrog, ■ Custom heads
just to make sure these new editions were ■ CAI airboxes
playing nicely together. ■ Big throttle bodies (63 mm)
Having missed the first ever MINI United in ■ Custom stainless steel exhausts
Misano, Ambroz was determined to drive the ■ Wheel spacers from 12 to 20 mm
1500 km to Zandvoort in the Netherlands ■ Spacers for lowered MINIs to correct front
for June 2007’s MINI United celebrations. wishbone angles
So, with this in mind he worked all winter ■ Aluminium rear wishbone arms
on his Cooper S. First he painted his 17in ■ Aluminium anti-roll bar link rod ends
OZ Ultraleggera alloys white, then bought
bigger Brembo GT kit brakes (320 mm CONTACT: KAVS MOTORSPORT
discs) for the front wheels. Next he fitted Website: www.kavsmotorsport.com
the part of his Aerokit that was missing – www.kavs.eu
the rear bumper – and then focused back Email: info@kavsmotorsport.com
on the running gear by adding a Quaife Tel: +386 4177 4650
limited-slip diff, lightweight Fidanza flywheel, (Discounts for MINI Torque members)
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’ was a big hit at MINI United
and he’s been taking orders ever since.

Exhausting stuff
Keeping to the custom theme, Ambroz then

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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 Top left: There’s no doubt as to who’s been fine “After that I decided to go back to the
his own for his Cooper S using the standard fettling this 1.6-litre ’charged beast… currently Grobnik track and I made a good lap time,”
running 280 bhp and making 0-60mph in 5.5
silencer, but with 2.5 inch diameter straight seconds. says Ambroz. “That day I even beat a 400 bhp
through pipework from the manifold. To finish Mitsubishi Evo 9 by more than 1.5 seconds
he added another silencer in the middle to Middle: Check out the door mirrors which read: which was using the same tyres as me.”
‘objects in mirror are losing…’ We like your sense
reduce the noise in the cabin. Aside from of humour, Ambroz!
Perhaps this could have been a good
work under the car, Ambroz made a few time for Ambroz to stop tweaking his
changes to his interior too and fitted Lapis Below: Ambroz has covered some 2500 km in Cooper S, but since MINI United at
Blue leather to the dash to match the colour 2010 just on track with the original engine! Silverstone was looming at the time,
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.

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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 with 1320 MINI.
Talk the torque
Ambroz recalls: “It was the moment of truth
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 time as part of the
Time Attack series and successfully
clinched Class 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 the
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? ■
MODDING
Tech Spec
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 Magnaflow 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
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 strut
braces and rear strut 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, air-
conditioning, 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.kovinoplast-
kavs.si) that makes great products like our pulleys
at a special price for all MINI Torque members!
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