Well what do you know… one of my good cycling buddies turns out to be the GM of Dinan Mountain View. Dinan is one of the premier BMW tuners in the US. And since the Mini Cooper is owned and produced by BMW, Dinan has a host of upgrades for the Mini Cooper S.
I call up the GM and we talk about some options. I research the Dinan upgrades and there is nothing but great things about them. R&D, performance, quality, service are all top-notch. They’re not cheap but their upgrades are not hacks or experiments. Everything is designed to work together as an optimized and reliable system.
So we go for the power upgrades today. The most important of these upgrades is the Boost Upgrade kit. It contains the single greatest performance upgrade for the Mini Cooper, the smaller supercharger pulley. The Mini Cooper S is supercharged. To get more boost from the supercharger, the pulley is reduced by 15%. This is the safest and most reliable pulley reduction available. Then the kit also, changes the fuel pump delivery system to handle the demands of the increased supercharger boost.
Dinan Boost upgrade kit
High Flow -Cowl Induction Intake
High Flow Throttle Body, 59.75mm , Stock is 56mm
Performance Software
Here’s the Dinan facility in Mountain View. The company is headquarted in Morgan Hill with a lot more staff, equipment and space. The Mountain View facility is huge too and is immaculate.
This is the GM, Jeff Hecox’s 2002 race car.
This is the bored-out throttle body by Dinan
Dinan Cowl Induction Intake – This is genius. It looks like stock, has K&N filter and is fed cold air through the vents by the windshield.
And finally, here’s the 15% pulley reduction kit with new fuel system.
Here’s the Dinan technician starting the 7 hours of work.
This is the Mountain View General Manager, Jeff Hecox. He’s the nicest and most knowledgeable guy on the BMW/Mini planet.
After the job was done, my son inspected the work and gave a skeptical thumbs up. “What did they do dad?” he asked. Then as we entered the freeway, he yelled. “OH MY GAWD! YEAHHH”. We both cheered as the car screamed like the supercharged beast from the movie Mad Max. The car screamed as it accelerated and accelerated. Wow. It’s a 205 hp car now but this is a Mini. In most cars that are bigger and heavier, it’s like having 300 hp. This car is fast.
And here’s the videos of some mild test drives:
catching up to a motorbike:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7993314720355946285
from a standing start:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6230068736010190252
Funny, the first comment was pretty much the same thing I was going to say before I got down here–the scenery reminds me of southern West Virginia, around Oak Hill. I was there a number of times as a kid in the ’70s.
Thanks for posting these notes on your MINI Cooper S. I just got one last week, and really enjoy it, but the web forums I’ve found so far are really deserted, with little recent info on what people are doing with their MINIs….
C ya,
Dutch
HPDE?
So do you have the throttle body and the boost kit too?
I always educate people to drive with hands postioned at 9 and 3 oclock or 10 and 2. This is obviously quite a novice driver. Yuck.
didn’t find underhood picture after installation :-/
Hi,Congratulations , How much did you pay for this upgrade? and did you change your exhaust or only those things that you mention in this review? Thanx and enjoy the ride…
I believe it’s Skyline Blvd. a.k.a. 35 that runs along the hills on the peninsula.
The road looks like Rt. 50 going across West Virginia