Thanks for the offer! However, my local dealership ran a short sale on JCW injectors, JCW intake, JCW tune and a Alta 15% pulley. So I ordered their special and I'm waiting for it to come in.

The reason for the change is that I want to make sure I get enough fuel in the higher RPM range on my track days during the summer. Injectors were cheap when combined with the airbox ( I paid $450 for injectors and intake) for some reason...something to do with how they were packaged for his dealership. No brainer if you ask me.

 

Interesting, what bolt-ons did you have and which tune did you run? My Dinan S1 package was free to me, so no money on my part. I would get a tune from Jan if he was in the Pac-Nor-West in the next year. However, I agree with you, their stuff is extremely over-priced and I wouldn't have bought the S1 package myself.

 

Well, when I bought my car used, the previous owner already had the Dinan S1 package installed, so I got lucky. I will bring it up to the local dyno dynamics machine and see what it puts down currently. I'll compare it to the stock plots on that same machine and see if this Dinan package does what it claims.

 

Look at my sig.

 

So you had all that with the Dinan tune?

 

to be fair, the dinan tune is an out of the box tune. I'm sure it's probably pretty good as far as that goes. But a RMW tune is a dyno tune specifically for your car, it's bound to be better.

fwiw, I had Jan do his magic to my throttle and traction only when he was in seattle, and that alone was worth it.

 

Dinan is the laughing stock of the BMW community. They are known for not making stupid fast parts...

 

Yeah, I can attest, that my Dinan Mini parts certainly make me laugh uncontrollably, IMHO.

Fun stuff! Glad that the prior owner did the modifications! It's definitely been a joy for me to drive so far. The suspension appears to be an ideal blend of handling and comfort. I never would have thought you could balance the two qualities. I'm used to sacrificing comfort to obtain performance. Granted, I am not driving a dedicated track tool, but it's a balanced and enjoyable vehicle.

As for the engine mods, I certainly wouldn't classify it as INSANE. On the contrary, the delivery of power seems smooth and factory like, and not excessive. (We all like excessive, of course, it's much easier to feel)

I'd more accurately characterize the experience as DINAN IS SANE. For better or worse.

Friends that have gone for rides, both Mini owners and not, seem to be impressed with the package.



Motor
Dinan 15% reduction Supercharger pulley kit
Dinan spark plug wires - blue
Dinan Cold Air Intake system
Dinan free flow sport exhaust system
Dinan upgraded fuel pump and fuel management system
Dinan custom Stage 5 engine management software
Alta larger intercooler (100% larger, 40% greater flow)
Alta intercooler silicon hose kit - blue

 

As for Dinan being a laughing stock in the BMW community, I'm not so sure about that either.

When I had my 2001 BMW e39 M5, I never had a single DINAN part on it. But it wasn't because I didn't think they were any good, I just wasn't willing to pay their prices at the time, and it was much more fun to piece together the build out. And warranty, I didn't really care about that.

My M5 was tracked and dynoed 395.5 rwhp. It has H&R Coilovers, SuperSprint Metallic Racing Cats, SS Headers, UUC SSK, StopTech 4 Wheel BBK, 19 inch BBS LM's, Power Pulleys, Tubi Style Exhaust, AA Cold Air Intake, etc.

There are some very impressive DINAN M5's and M3's out there. No idea what they cost to build out, but definitely impressive.

 

I'm brand new to Dinan and Mini Coopers, but a longtime BMW enthusiast. (e28 535is, e36 328i, e36 M3, e39 M5, K1200RS, R1200C, R1100S Boxer Cup, Test Rider, BMW Nurburgring Test Ride Event K1200S Rider)

I think part of the confusion, is perhaps the Signature packages. I will attempt to clarify with the little knowledge I have.

For the Mini Cooper S, R53, it seems there are two main Signature packages (Not to be confused with "stages"). So, the S1 and S2 "Signature Packages" which are a collection of features, such as parts like CAI, Throttle Body, Exhaust, Tower Strut Brace, AND software in a certain "Stage" appropriate to the packaged or selected mods.

That's why you have a Signature S2 with a Stage 5 software tune.

Hope that makes some sense, I'm in agreement that it's a little confusing.

 

I would agree. Dinan is insane... but only because of the price they charge for the items they sell. And if you read the fine print on their "great" warranty you will see that installing their parts still may void the OEM BMW warranty... just that Dinan parts are warrantied the same as stock... and if a DINAN dealer determines their part caused the failure of an OEM part, they will replace it.

You really want OEM warranty? Buy JCW parts at comparable prices. You want to go faster for half the price? Pick any other vendor and have a little faith that your car was built with durability to handle it.

For the record, my car is pretty obviously modded with non-Dinan, non-JCW parts and the dealer has had no problems granting me warranty repair or maintenance. I also have no bad experiences with Dinan, just pointing out that the price seems excessive when it provides no significantly better performance or support than any other.

 

Nice M5! But I've been around the BMW community since 2000 and Dinan has always been a load in everyone's pants when it comes to performance. Yea, they have a few nice cars they have built but thats it. They did make a nice CF CAI for the E46 tho...but discontinued it about 5 years ago.

 

Both over priced and non-performing?

I agree, that's a terrible combination.

I didn't think that was the case in the BMW world, but again, I never had a single DINAN part on my M5.

Still evaluating my DINAN parts on my MINI, since the whole enchilada is new to me. Been pleasantly surprised so far, but my basis of comparison is fairly small. I've driven less than 10 different MINI's to date.

 

Yea plenty of people laugh at the track when I tell them that the only power mods done to my car are Dinan bolt-ons. Or maybe they're laughing at the stock suspension and street tires. I guess they come over expecting fancy engine components, tunes, headers, clutches, whatever. I love it when people say, "Wow, those things have a lot more power than I thought they did!" Meanwhile, the Dinan stuff can probably only have me up to 190 at the crank. Laughable.

I just tell people I have two hamsters under the hood. It's funny; if you exit the last turn before a straight with more speed than the car in front of you, you have more horsepower unless they're more than doubling you from the start.

Moral of the story? There are no trophies for posting internet dyno sheets. And there are no trophies for HPDE, either, so I guess I have to concentrate on the laughter.

mb

 

I'm pretty sure that's what I was trying to say. Our confusion was because the OP was going nuts over having a Dinan Stage 3.

I, too, came from the realm of BMW, hence my affinity towards Dinan's reputation.

mb

 

I went back and read the thread from the start. Yup, you said the same thing, but much more succinctly.

Hopefully the OP will come back and detail his mods list.

 

I took an intermediate tactical handgun class several years back. I was in a line of work at the time, where it might have been prudent to know how to defend oneself. Anyway, near the end of the course, there was a contest amongst all the classmates, some who obviously had military or law enforcement backgrounds. I was using a plain jane Colt .45 Double Eagle straight out of the box. (It's not an impressive piece of work).

When I won the contest, which was based on both speed and accuracy, many came over and had to inspect my sidearm. Questions came fast: What mods had I done? What was I using? What type of ammunition?

Seems there is always a fascination/obsession with equipment. I'm definitely no firearms expert, and undoubtedly, there were many there are likely better than me, but it would be fine to just hear a "nice job" or "good shooting" or even "nice gun."

 

I'm not sure anyone has ever put that any better. That analogy is perfect. Could you imagine what kinds of drivers we'd all be if we concentrated on that more than the equipment? I know I would have wasted much less money in my lifetime! Luckily I'm starting to figure it out.

A "nice job" would be awesome, and people do say that. It's the ones who swear it's how you prepare your car that makes the difference for our intermediate (at best) status who aggravate me.

Anyway, I suppose all of this is off-topic. So, Dinan is a waste of money, your car won't go fast with those parts, so just ignore them, spend your money elsewhere, and get nice pieces of paper that show how solidly you spent your money, etc...

mb

 

the best car upgrade I have ever found is learning how to drive the car properly.

also, to the OP, hope you enjoy your car and you get a lot of great driving out of it.

 

Remember when people would hound everyone who put on a power mod by saying "show me the numbers!" I think it would be funny if someone hounded those people by saying "learn to drive your car if you haven't already!"

Ah it's all in good fun...back to your regularly scheduled bashing: Dinan SUCKS!

mb

 

For having started this Dinan downgrade myself I have to remind you here that the reason I stated my complain it was for their ridiculous pricing for the upgrades they do. I merely stated that any car owner can go to another respectable vendor/Mechanic and have those same mods added to his/her car for half the price and have just as good as performance. They add these special naming to their mods that is nothing more than your normal bolt ons and call it their exclusive "upgrade" then they charge you an arm and a leg for it.

If you simply break down what those mods are that they do they are nothing out of the norm that any other vendor/mechanic would not be able to throw on for you and give you the same performance.

I know cause I have worked with them closely throughout the years.

So again, the point was pricing not the quality of product. I don't think anyone said they suck (at least I know I didn't) as in they have bad products.

 

Overpriced parts = I have no problem with that at all. I was attempting to respond to the recent comments that Dinan was the laughing stock of the BMW community, or a load in the pants, I had simply not heard that, and wanted to explore that further in discussion. Seemed inconsistent with my own experiences.

I am the second owner of the carefully modified vehicle, so I am enjoying and still learning about each of the Dinan upgrades. So far, I am pleased. They are meeting or exceeding my performance and reliability and design expectations.

I was a consultant to many manufacturers in the motorcycle industry, so I have some limited exposure to the lengthy and comprehensive process and expense (in time and finances) of obtaining CARB and other certifications for a component. If the automotive industry is similar, I can imagine that DINAN probably went through a certain degree of time and expense to ensure CARB exemption, and that is most certainly passed on to the consumer. Is it a benefit to everyone? If it were free, we would likely accept it, so it does have some value. And fortunately we have the free market to evaluate what people are willing to pay. Even then, it could still be overpriced, I don't really personally know or care, but it's a valid and worthwhile point.

 

I had a Dinan stage six car with a shrick cam, my own airbox/exhaust and I also skipped out on the in tank fuel pressure system for M7 400cc injectors. (Frankenstein car) I got the setup in 2003 due to being uneducated. I put a moderate ported cylinder head and 2% crank pulley and ran 210 whp on 2 different dynos. Then I swapped out the ECU tune for an RMW tune and gained 7whp and 7tq. It ran very lean before and inconsistent. It runs great now. Much more drivable.

Dinan is a moderate but solid kit that doesn't expire your warranty, but it is $spendy$ and dealer installed which is also spendy. I would have a lot of dough in my pocket if I would have kept it to a pulley, tune, exhaust- but it got me by untill Jan came along...

 

Ive had a great experience with my S2 kit, no complaints no regrets and im going 15k miles since the install. Yes DINAN is costly, you get what you pay for and you are getting a warantee and parts from a very reputable company thats been around for awhile and wont be going away anytime soon. Research and development costs $$$, and from a buisness standpoint that must be passed down to the consumer which i understand. And they have a very elaborate R&D dept. Funny the people i know with E46 M3 DINAN cars have nothing but good to say as well. Dont know the exact extent of thier DINAN mods but they happy and i was impressed with the seattime i had in the E46. Im now seriously thinking of doing the DINAN suspension come this winter

 

For every point, there's a counterpoint, of course, don't let the naysayers get to you. Don't take my next comment the wrong way, either, I'm just making a point from personal experience, then I'll get on to the good stuff.

If you're willing to risk your warranty, (of course I had a fly wheel replaced under warranty without question by the dealership), you can go fast for cheap. I have about $2K in mods (M7 pulley, Helix CAI, Invidia exhaust, JCW 380ccs) and a Jan tune and I'm putting out 196.8HP and 179.8TQ--I can show you the paper if you want. ;-)



More importantly, and where you're headed with this thread, the fastest mod I've made is the HPDE days I've attended, and I still have a long way to go. A buddy of mine who was a Pro Rally driver did incredible things in my MINI at the BMW PC before I had the injectors/tune done.

These are great little cars out of the box and the car's limits will stretch most average driver's limits immediately on the track. Spend your money on making yourself a better driver, or mod's from "Signature" providers, or little shops in Texas, just don't bash everybody else for their decisions.

BTW, I saw a guy in a Ford Ranger pickup win an Auto-X one time...my next mod will be another HPDE!