Cooper DINAN...confirmed

Dinan not necessarily the "best" for BMW's

Dinan are seen by a lot of people as being the "best" tuner for BMW's here in the US. one of the reasons for this is that Dinan have a relationship with selected BMW Dealers to add a Dinan-backed warranty on all BMW factory parts that are affected by the Dinan upgrades. many people incorrectly assume that Dinan is "backed" by BMW.

in _general_ Dinan does well integrated packages of upgrades, but they charge much more than other tuners who supply the same level of performance upgrade. their suspension packages are one example where they have put together well integrated & tested collections of parts.

they also sell a lot of items that are of dubious function, such as jointed strut braces with carbon fiber "inserts" (basically stickers), cold-air intakes that allow water ingestion into the engine & some other items I'm none too impressed with.

one other area where Dinan provides a service others cannot is in that their software upgrades (not as good as Jim Conforti's by nearly all accounts) are CARB/Smog testing-legal in California, which is important to people who live there.

I generally also think Dinan has a bit too much of an attidue about their own greatness - one example is that as you buy various upgrades you "earn" Dinan points. if you get enough of these points, you can get an actual badge for the boot of your car. what an honor

it would be too bad if Dinan hooks up with Cooper Garages to provide the JCW products here, but I fear that is what will end up happening, just with the JCW items being much more expensive than they need to be.

for whatever reason, Alpina, Hartge & AC Schnitzer have never managed to get into the US market the way they have in Europe.


Ben
3 BMW's, no Dinan parts
need the rumoured AWD Alpina Cooper S, will be annoyed if he has to go thru Dinan to get JCW items for the family Cooper S

AWD Alpina Cooper S

need the rumoured AWD Alpina Cooper S

Click to expand...

Ben, I did a search for the AWD Alpina Cooper S...no luck. Is this something you heard in another forum?

I recently posted at the end of a 'dead' thread some info regarding a 260hp AWD Cooper by GermanFormula. Could this be what you were thinking of?

Funny thing is I spoke to the product developer at GermanFormula today and he didn't have a whole lot to say. Apparently their website is making some pretty gross claims that he had no knowledge of. I have sense been back to the site and things have changed around a bit. It can now be reached at:
r-sport.net
I put in an email to the site director and hope to get some answers regarding the claims this site is making...for instance, how can they be posting a price of $2800 for a turbo kit that produces 260hp without a US test platform yet?

I am going to start a new thread in General Discussion regarding this matter...stay posted...

-Eric

I'm only guessing

I have no information about Dinan offering upgrades for the Mini other than the (scant) info noted here on the board, none of which is confirmed by Dinan as far as I know.

I would think that JCW would team up with Dinan because Dinan is a trusted name here in the US & already have existing relationships with many BMW (& therefore likely Mini as well) dealerships. on the other hand they could just as likely decide to go it alone. I would think that the financial & organizational backing that Dinan could provide to a Cooper effort here in the US might make it a good initial option, but would short Cooper in the long run on potential profits, having to give Dinan a cut of the mark-up on parts.

I would expect any timing to be largely a function of demand, Cooper's capability to supply the parts & setting up a dealer system & getting whatever training would be required to the service side of the business.

tho there have been confirmed orders for the JCW package for the S on this board, the specifics of what the people with the orders in are getting have not been revealed. the talk is of ~200hp and the expected leap in performance, so it sounds pretty tasty.




Ben

DINAN: Cooper or Cooper S

Just to update all regarding the conversation I had with DINAN. I spoke to Jeff Hecox there in Product Development this morning. The conversation was quite short but very explicit. I asked a few basic questions and started the conversation off as follows:

"I wanted to ask you a couple questions regarding new product development at DINAN...there is a pretty good chance your lips will be tied regarding this but do you have any plans for the new MINI Cooper and/or S?"

He response: "Yes, in fact we just took delivery of our Cooper recently for product development."

He made it very clear that DINAN's efforts regarding the MINI Cooper will be determined by customer demand.

He said the probable scenario would be very similar to that of the rest of their DINAN lineup, with the possibility of dealer sold Cooper DINANs and of course the list of aftermarket gadgets and stuff to acquire 'points.'

So...give him a call...I didn't want to push him 'cause I felt I got the info out of him that I needed and that he would be able to share with us.

Are they looking into upgrades for the BASE Mini or the S? Anyone have a guess?

Click to expand...

Now this is me talking...My guess is the Cooper will be the likely platform at first simply because this is what DINAN has currently in their possession. It seems too that since the Cooper S will already have a supercharger and the 6-speed gearbox, owners probably wouldn't be driving into their closest garages to squeeze more horsepower out of them. It is not that they won't want to, it is just that in order to do so they would most likely (hp determinate) need to remove a good portion of the bit that makes the Cooper S the Cooper S under the hood. I know that if I just spent the extra cash, waited the extra months to have the Cooper S, surely wouldn't go an wrip out everything that gives it its S badging for a few more ponies. The Cooper just seams the likely candidate...cause if you do yank stuff out, it would be because they were substandard for the kind of performance you'd be looking for. And since you didn't have to pay for any of this as an 'option' per se (of course you did pay for it) then it wouldn't be that hard to yank a 5-speed for instance to drop in a custom built 6-speed that could handle 260hp. There is no doubt that the S will get pretty potent with some exhaust, chips, aircooler etc., but probably only to the limit of its 6-speed gearbox. Eventually we may see higher boost supercharger units that are bolt in, but then that will probably require a larger intercooler mounted behind the front bumber/air damn.

The bottom line...your Cooper S could get increased hp without yanking all that hardware you payed extra for...

The Cooper, hell, yank that 5-speed and give me anything but a Chrysler powerplant,ugh while your at it, how about AWD?

I think your coopers will become the true 'sleepers' on the street. It will be just too damn hard for Cooper S owners to part with the stock configuration to truly compete with Cooper owners that really want to cram a small block into a Cooper, figuratively of course!

just an fyi...you dont need to lower the compression ratio to use forced induction on an engine. it helps in high boost applications but youd have to be either crazy or have an extensive budget to run high boost on the naturally aspirated cooper. with the cooper having a small displacement with most likely weak internals, and a moderate C/R the only feasible option for forced induction seems to be a low boost turbo. if i was a cooper owner (i have an order for an S) i would free up some hp by adding an exhaust and intake. this will give you a few more hp at the top range of the powerband while sacrificing some low end torque at the bottom of the rev range. after this point you might wanna go for a lightweight flywheel. beyond that modifications will become expensive an involved so it would probably be best to focus your efforts on proper suspension tuning. suspension seems to be the strong suit of the mini anyhow...i can go into detail about suspension if anyone is interested...dig up some of my old articles =). btw the comment about the s/c engine responding better to mods is true...it simply takes a new s/c pulley for decent HP increase. forced induction engines generally respond better to basic bolt-ons as well...the old quote of "how fast do you wana go? how much do you wanna spend?" is fitting.

I am not looking to hunt a camaro or mustang, just a WRX...

...just want to add a little.

There is probably no doubt that soon the JCW Kit for the Cooper S will be available and then it will be up to speed with the WRX...power to weight ratio wise. I don't want the WRX for many reasons, other than the fact that it looks cr*p. I think the thing that will win me over on the MINI is its suspension, among others of course(still haven't driven one yet, only a Mini).

WRX 3085 lb / 227 hp @ 6000 rpm

Cooper S 2678 lb / 163 hp @ 6000 rpm

For the S to compete with the WRX just in pure grunt, it would need to be boosted to 197 hp. So the JCW Kit looks like it would be more than enought at 204 hp.

Lets run the numbers price wise...

Cooper S w/ Sport Package (just the go fast essentials)

Price $21,500
JCW Kit Installed $ 3,500 est.
Total $25,000

Cooper

Cooper w/ Sport Package $18,600
Addition Upgrades to match Cooper S Price $ 6,400
Total $25,000

Subaru WRX Sedan

MSRP $23,995
Suspension upgrade and STI Muffler $ 3,090
Total $27,610

So the question is...I want a Cooper that looks like a 'sleeper', but will scoot like a Cooper S w/ JCW kit or a WRX. Could you make this happen for $6,400 installed?