Unlikely new favourite - 2006 MINI Cooper S

[Komenda Fan]

I'll try to keep this short - wife just replaced her 2008 MINI Cooper with a 2006 MINI Cooper S. I never really liked the MC, and I don't like FWD to begin with, so it's with some surprise that I'm loving this car. We drove 8 MINI Cooper S', 6 2006 MCS, 1 R56 2nd gen MCS, and 1 2005. All of the R53 cars were a hoot, great little go-karts, but we ended up with the quickest. The R56 was disappointing. Too much lag.

What I know about our new go kart:

larger sway bars
strut bar
magnaflow exhaust
MSR multispoke wheels with 215/45/R17 wheels and tires


Thing is, this car was quicker than the Dinan Stage 3 car we drove, which should be good for 207 hp (stock is 168). So when I opened the hood, I expected to see... errr, well, something not stock looking. Intercooler is stock, as is the air box. So where is the power coming from?

Throttle tip in is quicker than the other cars I drove, so I'm thinking there may be an aftermarket electronic component to the e-throttle. Does anyone know where this would be mounted?

Not sure if there is a quick way to check if the ECU has been remapped. What else is there, undersized pulley belt?

Kinda funny to buy the car without knowing much about it, but it was too cheap and fun to worry about. I was going to ditch the roof rack, but its come in handy.