New to the forum and wanted to quickly introduce myself. I'm hoping some of the long time members or others with knowledge can point me in the right direction.

Quick Backstory: I bought this 2005 Mini cooper S 2 years ago the day before Christmas eve from a guy in North Jersey. I always wanted a mini, the price was right, and it ran and drove just fine. On the test drive i was pleasantly surprised and impressed at how well it pulled with 3 people in the car. I was somewhat shocked. He told me he bought the car from the original owner who had a few mini's, and that he mainly used this one at the track. It looks to me like the guy put a ton of money into this car when he first bought it, and put a ton of miles on it over the years. The car is rough, usual rust below the driver side tail light, some undercarriage surface rust, and some dings and dents all over the place. It had a Dinan strut bar, coilovers, and what sounded like a cheap straight pipe exhaust that didn't sound half bad. I didn't think anything of it and just figured it was some simple bolt-ons from the previous owner.

Having a few other toys, this got stashed in the back of the shop. It needed brakes and lines the day i bought it and i just never got around to it. Today, I started poking around as i was curious what all had been done...which to my surprise leads me to my question.

When i popped the hood and was pulling off the driver side wheel to take a look at what brand coilovers, a badge jumped out at me. "Dinan S1 Serial No. 10495" After seeing the badge i started thinking, if it was a simple strut bar why would they put a badge with a serial number under the hood? I tried to dig up some info but i can't find for certain anything that tells me exactly what was done to the car, and i was hoping someone in here would know. From what I've read, the Dinan package was a bump up over 200hp with some added goodies.

When i pulled off the driver front wheel i found a set of KW Coilovers which i was stoked about, however they are completely gone and will need to be replaced unfortunately. I kept poking around and it appears to have some sort of race header and possibly a high flow cat.

Does anyone know exactly what the Dinan S1 package came with back in the day, and was it an "all inclusive" package, or could you pick and choose what you wanted exactly. For example, just the strut bar. (I can't imagine thats the case considering it has a badge, and i doubt they would badge a car just for a strut bar)

How about engine work with a Dinan package, or was it just simple bolt-on's?

Regardless, the car now sits at around 168K, runs, drives and pulls great still and overall isn't too bad for what i plan to use it for. Put a little money into it, clean it up and tackle some much needed maintenance and enjoy it.

I'll post up a few pictures below, but just looking for some more info for a newbie. I come from the Mercedes community and I'm somewhat handy with a wrench, but i don't know everything. Hoping you guys can chime in, send me some info and point me in the right direction.

Appreciate the help!

- Joe

 

It had a bunch of goodies. It used to be ( before they sold Dinan to Holley ) that if gave Dinan the info, they would give you the car modification data - I got it for my e39 Touring. Can’t hurt to try

 

Dinan has always been weird. Some of their stuff is fully built, some of it seems to be cosmetic. I remember the 80-90s dinan bmw stuff. It's like an American version of schnitzer. Hartge and alpina seemed to do complete cars. Schnitzer did wheels to fully built motors. Dinan seems to have followed the same model. If it turns out to be a full dinan build please post more about it. It's probably pretty rare. Also fwiw I think the kw coilovers are fully rebuildable. I wouldn't just toss those out. Cool find. Good luck.

 

Dinan Stage 1 on an R53 was a cold air intake, cat back exhaust, and a tune. The Dinan air box extended all the way back to the cowl and had a large opening the full width of the housing and was plastic like the factory JCW air box so the housing didn’t heat up like metal CAI’s. Also, it didn’t have the noise reducing flap that the JCW had to comply with European noise restrictions.

The Dinan exhaust was single sided so it was lighter weight than most but I’m not sure how the performance compared to the JCW and other aftermarket exhausts.

Stage 2 added a sc pulley and matching tune, and I think there were 5 stages overall.

KW were available in 3 or 4 versions depending on adjustability and spring type.

Any pics of the KW’s, header, sc pulley, crank pulley, or any other mods?

 

I was trying to figure out what would warrant a Dinan Badge with a serial number but I cant seem to find any solid info. I cant imagine a strut bar and some other simple stuff would, however i suppose a tune would warrant a badge. If they tuned it I would imagine they would have put a smaller pulley on it as well, but i cant tell just yet what brand pulley that is.

Like i said she's rough, it was definitely enjoyed and will need some work to get it back road worthy.

Brakes, oil change, some routine maintenance, an alignment and a good cleaning for starters, however I did drive it back about 1.5 hours when i bought it and it ran, drove, and pulled hard. Especially for having 168K on the clock, i'm hoping she still has some life left in her to enjoy. If theres anything you guys recommend i do first and foremost to make sure it will be somewhat reliable, let me know. I would appreciate the advice from the experts in here. I don't want to go dumping thousands into this thing if its not worth it.

Thanks

- Joe






Looks to be a stock header?

Looks like an upgraded smaller pulley but I have no clue on brand or size

 

The pulley is a Dinan. You can measure the diameter, or see the belt size, assuming it’s the correct belt, you should be able to figure out the %.

From the linear springs, it looks like your KW’s are possibly the custom TSW sprung set offered exclusively by Way Motor Works. Looks like your KW’s also have adjustable camber mounts up front.

For some reason, your car has a JCW intake despite being a Dinan stage 1 which originally should have had a Dinan CAI. Not necessarily a bad thing as both are rare and are pretty much the same performance wise. The JCW might be considered a plus to many as it was a factory item.

The engine stabilizer looks like a Lord of the Flies or TSW brace. Need a more complete pic to tell if the header is the factory one or not. Should be able to tell from a good pic of the cat.

Any pics of the bottom/subframe? Seeing all of the old mods there’s a chance your car also has a long discontinued TSW X-brace up front.

 

Looks like a winner, spread a little ATF on those rusty coil-overs, plug some new bushings in here and there it'll be good as gold. Looks like it may be ready for a new valve cover gasket soon. Order some power steering reservoir cap o-rings and swap 'em out when you start to see drip trails on the bottle. Look into an oil catch can when you get time, it's never too late to install one of those.

 

The Badge. It’s all about the Benjamin’s.

you get points for the parts you buy. Get 10 points, you got a badge. Strut bar, 2 points, pulley, 2 points, engine software, 3 points ( I am guessing at the point values - it’s been a long time ). My e39 wagon is a Dinan badge car - and it has 11 points - but no serial # badge like yours. I’ll see if I can find more in old stuff I have.

 

When in doubt you can always just call us or send us an email as we keep records of badged cars -- or at least try to. Its largely a hand kept database so is only as good as whomever was in charge of its upkeep at the time. That serial number though has been recorded.

The vehicle was originally flashed with stage 2 software November 2006 in NJ when the car had 45k miles on the odometer. At time of entry it had stage 2 software, intake, exhaust, front strut tower brace and floor mats. However, the software database shows in February 2008 it was later flashed with stage 5 software (car had 62k on the odometer at that time). The assumption would be that the supporting mods for the stage 5 software would have also been installed at the time which would have added the throttle body and boost kit (pulley and modified fuel regulators) to the mix. Seeing as how the pulley is physically there that seems to jive.

FWIW - The "S" when it comes to Dinan badging does not mean "Stage" but rather "Signature." S and S1 packages would always start with at least stage 2 software.

 

Wow thats great information! Thank you for that.

According to your records with those mods, do you have an estimate on what kind of power it should be putting down?

This certainly gives me some incentive to go through this car and clean it up a bit. It felt very quick when i first drove it, but seeing that this is coming back with some decent work it makes sense.

It was also a NJ car its whole life up until i purchased it, so that checks out as well.

Thanks again for the Info.

- Joe

 

With stage 5 and supporting hardware it should be outputting ~205 HP @ 7000 RPM and ~180 lb-ft of torque at 4500 RPM. As a comparison the factory JCW dealer kit for that generation was nearly identical output.