EuroCarFan

Excellent write up JM.

aretardedorange

Good review. How much did this cost you, or costs drivers who wish to get the package?

jm545i

I agree with that. The throttle body is relatively inexpensive. If you wanted to add on from there, I'd add the intake. Single biggest HP gain item.

Thx man. I am looking forward to driving her more today and will share more impressions when I get the suspension installed.

Well, the prices are on Dinan's website - labor charges depend on the shop, so I'd go and get things quoted. I originally started just asking them for a few mods, but because of the 10% off on the S1 package right now (which with sales tax actually ends up being more than that), the incremental $$ to get the entire package just wasn't very much. I figured that engine plaque might be worth something to someone some day, plus the other Dinan suspension mods that I've felt I've been pretty impressed by, so I went for the whole upgrade.

jm545i

Well they say that HP goes to 354 from 325, Torque goes to 346 from 330. I was looking for some dyno graphs but couldn't find them. There are all sorts of Internet discussions about the illusions of HP gains from tuners, but from my own research Dinan's gains seem to be among the more reputable in real world conditions. All that said, you shouldn't expect miracles from anyone, including Dinan.

I'd recommend finding/reading the Bimmer Magazine review of the S1 545i posted on Dinan's site. That car also had the brake kit and lightweight wheels, so you have to kind of read around the discussion of those items, but their description of the car as an even better sport-package than the factory BMW package is sound in my opinion.

mhs525

Congratulations, I'm sure you will enjoy that set up for a long time.

I need to get off my ass and add the Dinan throttle body, intake and get a higher software tune.

One more vote for the LSD, best mod I ever did. LSD plus all the Dinan stuff equals a poor mans M5 IMO, not as fast but just as much fun and a lot easier to live with on a day to day basis.

Light weight wheels also make a big difference.

mhs525

You can fix the throttle response with the Dinan software alone, $500 bucks installed.

hoodwink33

That's in Jersey..right?

If so I went there when I was in Jersey this past summer for my stage 3 flash. Pretty nice folks.

jm545i

Y, one in the same I believe. Good guys. I've brought 4 cars to Dave and have been treated well.

jm545i

Just following up after my initial impressions. I've had now a 100 mile drive to CT today. My initial impressions are still I think valid - I wouldn't revise anything. I have further reaction on the strut brace. It is hard to say for sure as I can't now drive the car without it back to back, but I seem to feel less shake through the steering column when going over pavement imperfections, particularly when in a relatively high-g turn. The car seems to be more settled and precise.

I had them box up all of the old parts for me, and I took a look at the old strut brace. The stock unit is really a cheap thing. I was able to easily bend it with my bare hands - cheap enough that I am fairly surprised they'd put something like that on a $60k+ car. I'll post a picture of the Dinan unit installed tomorrow. It is really quite beefy looking. They used to say that these things were just engine jewelry; I don't think so any more, at least with the new cars with aluminum front ends.

I've noticed that at normal highway speeds the exhaust sound just blends into a nice quiet hum. There is a very slight resonance at about 1800 RPM or so. Not loud, and may go away in time as things settle in. REALLY love the look of the tips. They are staggered and follow the line of the rear apron. Again, will post pictures tomorrow.

skelevirus