BMW Tuner Dinan Enters the MINI Market

Dinan is a highly regarded BMW tuner that often matches all of BMW's factory warranties with their modifications. They typically offer the mods ala cart or in “Dinan stages”. Here's an excerpt from Dinan's latest newsletter:

Dinan began the evaluation and development process for performance enhancements with two Cooper S models and one naturally aspirated Mini Cooper the moment the cars became available. Having access to the three cars has enabled our engineering team to work on several different areas of performance tuning simultaneously in the interest of shortening the development time frame. While we recognize that some other “tuners” have already introduced performance products such as exhaust systems, designing and producing quality products that actually enhance performance, as well as backing them up with the most comprehensive warranty in the industry does take time. Dinan is rarely first to market, but certainly first in performance.

Our primary focus has been on the Cooper S models to date, with the fairly obvious goals of enhanced power and acceleration, as well as even sharper handling characteristics. Miles and miles of shall we say “spirited” driving have provided our development team with the data necessary to improve the performance of an already well designed, fun to drive car. As with all Dinan products, our philosophy of enhanced performance without sacrificing driveability or reliability carries through to the MINI performance product line as well. And as you might expect, Dinan will offer our industry leading warranty, matching the MINI new vehicle warranty coverage year to year, mile to mile and bumper to bumper.

Both the supercharged and naturally aspirated versions of the cars are being treated to intake and exhaust enhancements, very much in keeping with the approaches used to extract more power from BMW models. Naturally performance and driveability will be optimized with Dinan engine management software, specifically calibrated for the various combinations of Dinan performance products. Initially, there will be two engine performance programs offered for the Cooper S.

You can read the entire newsletter here.

Analysis

The Stage II kit will probably be very popular for MCS owners. The combination of matching the output of the JCW kit while costing much less and including a warranty that matches MINI's will raise some eye brows in the aftermarket arena. Combine that with one of the most trusted names in BMW tuning and you have a potential winner on your hands. But beyond increased power Dinan is also promising it's own version of just about every key performance modification out there – everything from suspension pieces, forged wheels, and even limited slip.

The biggest question I see at this point is will the late start will hurt Dinan?