Dinan Engineering Defines The Ultimate In BMW Performance

"Our customers are the people who want to have their cake and eat it, too, "chuckles Steve Dinan, president and owner of Dinan Engineering in Mountain View, California, by way of explaining how his company has been serving BMW owners for the past 13 years. In reality, that statement is a very apt, lighthearted summation of this company's very serious motto — Performance Without Sacrifice. After Dinan modifies a stock BMW model, the owner may be driving a supercar with the speed of a Ferrari Testarossa, but the turbocharged BMW retains all its luxury and original comfort.

Dinan Engineering is a BMW "Tuner," one out of five or six in the world and the only one in the United States. Dinan designs, engineers, and creates high performance modifications for BMWs. The range is from a high performance computer chip to a full blown, twin turbocharged V12 BMW 850i. Prices for performance modifications depend on what components are ordered for a particular model BMW. Dinan reports that 60 percent of their business is mail order and 40 percent is high end work that can only be performed in-house.

Customers regularly ship BMWs from all over the country to have them transformed in Mountain View. While a few thousand dollars can buy some significant modifications, real enthusiasts commonly spend up to $35,000 to get the BMW of their dreams.

Performance parts that might be sold to mechanics or used at Dinan are brakes, suspensions, larger displacement engines, turbo chargers, engine software and more. Whenever Dinan Engineering puts in a new engine or overhauls an engine, they use Deves piston rings exclusively.

Steve Dinan says simply, "It's for durability reasons. We tested Deves rings 13 years ago and have been using them ever since." He goes on to explain that chrome-plated rings had actually melted at the temperatures reached during Dinan tests. "We take pride in gaining an extra 100,000 miles (with average maintenance over time) for our customers," he says.

Dinan Engineering employs 26 people, including six engineers, one of whom is a software engineer. Steve, who grew up in St. Louis and moved to California in 1975, admits that founding a company to work on cars really stems from his boyhood interests. "In first grade, I was the one who was looking out the window daydreaming about cars," he says. After engineering training and over five years as a working car mechanic, he was ready to launch his company in 1979. Dinan engineering has grown steadily, even during the recent recession, by remaining flexible and creative.

Although the company works on BMWs exclusively, in the last six months they have also been selling chips for the engine software in BMWs and a number of high-end Japanese cars like Infinity, Acura, and Nissan models.

This chip business has proved highly successful. People are interested in the chips, he goes on to explain, because through reprogramming their engine software, "They can gain 10-15 percent in power, and the chip installation is so easy that it can be done by the customers themselves."

"Innovative products that no one else has — like these chips — plus attention to marketing is what keeps our business up," Steve concludes.