WTB: Rare/NLA Dinan Parts for E46 M3

[bigjae46]

Cool project!

The value of Dinan was you could own a factory supported modified BMW backed by a similar warranty. You're less likely to get the "warranty denied" reply for any warranty repairs. One could potentially drive a new supercharged M3 supported by a factory-like warranty. Any E chassis car that met the usual mature BMW enthusiast owner criteria (old school maintenance, all original BMW parts and fluids, receipts, all original certain acceptable modifications) with a Dinan badge commanded a LARGE premium.

Dinan is all but dead now and the value of a Dinan badged car appeals to fewer people...usually old people like me and others on this forum.

[M9Seth]

I actually had to reach out to Ron Davis and have him make me one when mine started leaking.

Ron made the radiators for Dinan back in 2000, but he didn't have any of the specs or measurements left... so I had to ship him my old Dinan radiator to copy. Ultimately I ended up with a Dinan/Ron Davis radiator made in 2026 which is pretty cool, but I imagine yours would have been much, much cheaper lol.

I wish that were so, but no, I bought the supercharger kit new from a Dinan BMW dealership. After experiencing overheating issues on track, I replaced the Dinan radiator and Dinan oil cooler with a custom made C & R radiator / oil cooler - heat exchanger.

[bmw m3 s50]

I have an E46 M3 coming soon that currently has exactly 10 Dinan points. I’ve ordered a carbon airbox, so I’ll be removing the Dinan intake and changing the tune. I’d still like to keep the car at or above 10 points and retain the Dinan badge with other period-correct Dinan parts.

I’m searching for any of the following:

• Dinan high-flow throttle bodies
• Dinan performance cams
• Dinan/Brembo brake kit
• Dinan 3.91 differential
• Dinan rear trailing-arm bushings/RTABs
• Dinan forged wheels

I am looking for all of these, but I definitely don’t expect to find, or necessarily purchase, every item on the list. I mainly want to see what may still exist in people’s collections or become available for resale.

I know these parts are NLA and extremely rare. From searching forums and Facebook groups, it seems like some of them only surface once every year or two. I’m open to used parts, worldwide shipping, leads on dismantled Dinan cars, or recommendations for specialty resellers that may handle discontinued Dinan components.

Please message me if you have any of these parts or know someone who might. Documentation, original invoices, part numbers, or information about the Dinan car they came from would be greatly appreciated, but not required.

I’m not on this forum often, so feel free to message me on instagram (@megandhercars) or email me ([email protected]).

Thank you in advance!
Megan

There is no Dinan Police that requires you to have 10 points at all times to keep the badge. That was a Marketing Gig, to get you to buy some extras to get that vanity Dinan badge. I wouldn't be concerned of you removing the Dinan intake system for a far superior CSL airbox, as not being able to retain the DInan badge.

Anyways, the Dinan Brake kit is a rebadged Brembo GT kit. The only difference is that the sticker on the calipers say Dinan instead of Brembo.

I actually have a Brembo GT 380mm front and 345mm rear kit that I will be selling soon that was originally sold to me as a Dinan kit. I got the calipers refinished and just put the standard Brembo sticker on the calipers because the Dinan sticker seemed super tacky.

[bmw m3 s50]

Also while on the Dinan discussion.

As many pointed out, all of these Dinan parts that were offered happened in the early 2000's while the e46 m3 was the current generation. I am old enough to remember all of the misconceptions among tuners when the s54 was released. How everyone was scared of the s54 because of 11.0:1 compression ratio an the 8k rpm limit. How getting NA power was almost impossible.

Now fast forward 20 years and we have s54's making 360whp NA and FI s54's breaking 550whp while revving to 8200-8400rpm. This was something never imaged back then.

A tuner like Dinan was more about getting packages out there with proven engineered parts that worked together. They didn't make the most power but when packaged together definitely transformed the car. To top it off, still retained the factory warranty which was huge and kept almost everyone from modding their car until the factory warranty expired. Remember people though that these engines were extremely fragile because of all the rod bearing failures. Everyone wanted that peace of mind that the warranty provided.

You also need to remember that Dinan catered to the uninformed e46 m3 buyer that didn't research what worked and was didn't. The Dinan packages allowed this types of buyers to upgrade their cars without research, fulfilling a "bought not built" model.

[9kracing]

the Dinan sticker seemed super tacky.

I wish I could find them.

[bigjae46]

There is no Dinan Police that requires you to have 10 points at all times to keep the badge.

Oh, I disagree. The Dinan police are a sub-sector of the M-badge police. Most who care are going to be adding up those points in their head.

[RockyMtnM3]

M-badge police are on motorcycles and the sub-sector Dinan police are on e-bikes?!

[Slideways]

I like how the OP has responded to this thread

While DINAN made some nice parts for this chassis, having someone else's last name plastered all over your car is a little odd lol