New Beginnings, with a TVS 900

As the years pass R53 MINI owners are seeing the need to refresh their Eaton M45 supercharger due to poor maintenance or failure of parts in the Power Take Off (PTO) that drives the water pump. While we all love the whine that comes off the M45 other noises can mean something much worse. It means it is time to attend to the supercharger or suffer the consequences which tend to lead to a terminal failure of the OEM supercharger. Other manufacturers have attempted offering a replacement unit but we do not know of too many that have hit the road. Part of the problem seems to be overheating issues in the inlet charge when the W11 motor has been built to produce more power. Well my friends there is light at the end of the tunnel for anyone that wants an easy, state of the art solution. Harrop Engineering of Melbourne, Australia is one of Eaton’s Master Distributors and they have been watching the MINI supercharger saga for a few years. Then they decided to do something about it. Heath Moore Harrop’s General Manager explained, “MINI is not the only manufacturer using the Eaton M45 supercharger and we know second hand units are snapped up as soon as they come on the market. We have been developing applications with Eaton TVS technology for the past eight years and during our R&D program planning we identified the TVS900 would make a great upgrade and replacement for the M45. TVS is sixth generation supercharger technology and provides superior performance to the fifth generation M series through thermal and air flow efficiency. Being larger displacement than M45, the TVS900 also provides higher performance potential for modified engine packages” He went on, “Our Engineering Team agreed an important

criteria was the need for the kit to be plug and play kit like our existing range of supercharger kits. Vehicle integration is a key strength of our engineering programs by providing a solution for customers that is easy to install and getting running.” So what is the TVS900 kit going to look like? The supercharger will be mounted in the OE supercharger location and use the stock belt path and tensioner (6pk) with cast aluminum throttle body adaptors and billet outlet and heater hose adaptor. A larger capacity water pump and wiring loom will form part of the kit along with necessary ancillary items that will suit stock and aftermarket top mount intercoolers.

Underdrive pulleys will be available for those wanting to develop more power with higher boost levels. How close are we to seeing the Harrop kit on the market? Well there is an R53 running around the state of Victoria testing a unit as you read this. If fact the car recently was on the Harrop dyno running E85. Moore said, “When we engineer a kit we try to make sure we test as many combinations that potential customers might want to run. E85 is getting popular for those running a power adder and wanting to keep the inlet charge temperatures down so we test with the E85. The data we get helps us develop the kit fully and also we gain insight where we can talk to customers who want to do the same thing knowledgably. Boosted applications respond well to E85 with combustion temperature and timing advantages for higher performance. Australia has reasonable pump access to E85 in most cities.” Harrop are finalizing the tooling for the cast components that are required. They anticipate having kits available for the North American market in the summer of 2017 if production goes to plan The expected price will be around $3,000 US. No dealers have been named as of yet but you can be sure you will hear about it here first.