1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Dinan ?

I have a DINAN equipped 02. I think their air filter element is still available. DINAN used yellow Koni shocks. Not sure of who the vendor of choice was for the springs or sway bar. The car may or may not have camber plates. DINAN was very specific about their alignment specs and the shock settings. Recently, I attempted to get these specs and heard squat from them. Their fuel pump was overly noisy. Their supercharger pulley, only available with the fuel pump, was about 13%. Over time all of their consumable items will require replacement. Since their designs are at least ten years old you will find better choices are now available in the marketplace.
In MHO I would, at this point, pay nothing extra for the badge and associated equipment. Depending where you live in Arkansas I believe Roadshow MINI in Memphis would have been your closest Dinan dealership.

 

I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled onto it and thought I'd just drop some info regarding the DINAN R53 kits. I have a 2006 S "DINAN S". I had the DINAN kit installed not long after taking delivery. I didn't do suspension, only engine.
What I got was:

1. 15% reduction pulley on the supercharger with associated shorter belt. (6PK1365)
2. Enlarged OEM throttle body - it's enlarged a few mm and the throttle plate is etched with DINAN logo.
3. higher rated fuel delivery system - regulator and pump. I'm still trying to determine the exact details.
4. CAI consisting of a nice airbox lid and large filter (no longer available), I've been using a K&N RU-1480 universal filter.
5. single muffler exhaust with no resonator (I think - see Ireland Engineering R53 exhaust). It was nice, but the tips rusted terribly, so I replaced it with a JCW exhaust (back pressure be damned!).
   
6. "Stage 5" ECU tune - meant to make these changes work well together I suppose, several versions were released.

That's it!
Injectors are stock S (340cc), and Plugs are stock S, hotter '6' range. These decisions have been questioned over the years, but that's what it was.

I hope this information helps. I wish I had actual part numbers and stuff, but they aren't handy at the moment. The kit was installed by my local MINI dealership, same I bought from. No issues with warranty. DINAN would issue you one of their badges with the intention of replacing the 'Cooper' badge, so it became a "MINI DINAN S", I didn't do that though, I placed the DINAN badge on the left side and left the Cooper S badge alone, until the DINAN badge faded and I removed it.

I am currently "restoring" my r53. I love it... and want to continue enjoying it. If that future means different mods, so be it. For now, I'm just trying to maintain it and keep it on the road!

 

Most likely it's little more than an intake, pulley and maybe a mild tune. As far as I recall they didn't do anything on R56, so this has to be R53. Should not add anything to the upkeep. As a matter of fact I think Dinan is one of the few that had a working relationship with BMW NA and their parts would not void the warranty.

 

Depending on the "stage" of the upgrade they also did change the fuel delivery system to a higher pressure one.

 

:cornut: Yes. 'Dinan Performance' is an 'Automotive Improvement Co'(for lack of a better description) that upgrades BMWs and that used to perform various levels of expensive but worth while upgrades on MINIs and then 'badge' them as 'Dinan Minis'(I can't remember whether they were badged as Dinan MINI or Dinan Cooper). Dinan still upgrades BMWs but doesn't upgrade MINIs any more.

Jason

 

:cornut: No. The upgrades were for 02-06 MCS(only) and were suspension and engine. Replacement of their suspension up grades could be easily done with after market parts of your choice. The engine up grades were mainly computer remap, CAI, and exhaust up grades that again would be easily replaced with after market parts and a remap(if wanted or needed) by any of the Computer Gurus on our sponsors list above. The 'cache' of a Dinan Cooper is equal or slightly above John Cooper Works. To most of us at MA the Cache/Bling quotient is BAAALONEY! There are owner modded cars here at MA that would BLOW a Dinan off of the track however, there is something in a name for instance I have a JCW and I'm proud of her. If she's in good shape with good maint.,Go Get'er!:drool:arf:

Jason

Thanks goaljnky-I always forget about the R53 SC pulley up grade(smaller pulley equals faster SC rpm and more power).