I recently lost my cell phone which turned into an opportunity to get an iPhone. There are a couple of interesting automotive apps available for iPhone so I thought I’d test a couple of them.

The image above shows the Dyno results for the MINI using an app called Dynolicious. It shows a 12.82 second quarter-mile at 137.4 MPH and a peak horsepower of 518 HP. In third gear. On a public street…. OK, so maybe the calibration was off a bit. My second run after calibration showed 229 HP, but I didn’t capture the image. I think that’s still about 10% too high, but more realistic given the previous Dyno results at 197 HP.

The second image shows the results for the BMW — Even though it still says MINI — which I suspect are more accurate. I’m really most interested in initial acceleration so the chart really tapers off as soon as I get into third gear. I was trying to compare the BMW to the MINI to see which is quicker off the line for autocross. I decided to try a second app as well called PocketDyno+ which I thought was a bit easier to use and set-up than Dynolicious, but doesn’t produce the really cool charts you see above. The results were interesting.

The MINI has about 25% more HP than the BMW; weighs about 200 lbs less, and is almost half a second faster covering 1/8 mi; but in the first 60 ft — which is what really counts in autocross — the BMW is faster by .15 seconds. Both cars are running the same Falken ZE 912 tires and the test was conducted on the same stretch of road under the same conditions. I suspect the effect of the weight transfer on the FWD MINI negates the superior power and torque available until the cars starts moving, and then it plays less of a role in straight-line acceleration.