BMW with Pedigree!
Behold! A common BMW 5 series! But what wheels are those? Dinan?!?!
BMWs are a favorite of mine, and while there’s usually quite a few up for auction at any given time, Cars and Bids has one that caught my attention for a particular reason: one of its previous owners.
Yes, this 1997 BMW 540i has the distinction of being owned by the legendary BMW tuner himself Steve Dinan.
For those that have never heard of him, Steve Dinan started tuning BMWs back in the late 1970s and his company, Dinan Engineering thrived for decades. Manufacturing all sorts of performance parts for BMWs (ECU chips and tunes, suspension kits, exhaust, intake, etc), their name and products became highly desirable for many years.
Steve Dinan registration card just casually sitting next to the window sticker and owner’s manuals.
Steve sold the company over 10 years ago, and while it’s still around, it’s a bit of a shell of what it used to be. He’s still out doing his thing, this time running CarBahn. CarBahn still produces parts for BMWs, but has also expanded into the Audi and Mercedes world.
But back to the car at hand. This one came out during the peak Dinan (and arguably BMW) years. The engine in this 540i started life as a 282 horsepower V8 that has since had a Dinan supercharger added to it, boosting it to approximately 440 horsepower.
Dyno chart showing the car’s current horsepower. Love the period correct Windows 98 (?) program apparently used.
It has a host of other desirable Dinan parts as well, including a set of highly coveted Dinan wheels. No receipts are included in the auction, which is a shame as this build would have cost many thousands of dollars.
Mmmmmm…..supercharger….! Love the intercooler up top. Looks very “prototype”. And is it just me, or are those the largest v-band bolts you’ve ever seen?
The parts also add up in a way that isn’t entirely monetary. Dinan runs a program where each part on a car is worth a certain number of points. 10 or more points earn a Dinan badge, which you see here in place of the stock “540i” emblem. Gimmicky or cool is an endless debate. I am in the “cool” camp.
Dinan 5 badge denotes this 5 Series is a bit more special than most.
Another opinion: the car itself is kind of a bland spec. It has minimal options, and is in a color combo of silver over gray. Some some enthusiasts might consider it “classic”, but I find it “blah”. It also has one glaring negative that cannot be ignored: Its driven the distance of the earth to the moon.
Yes, it has accumulated 255,000 miles, and that is……a lot. The auction does mention the expected age and mileage items like the sagging headliner and ubiquitous 90s BMW issue of: “creaky and slow window mechanisms”. Ah yes, BMWs and window regulators: Name a more iconic duo.
It also has tires from 2015 and 2018. C’mon seller, throw on some fresh rubber. The other items can be addressed by the buyer, but a set of new tires would reflect well on you.
Mileage and mechanical issues are definitely drawbacks, but the slew of rare parts and provenance of Steve Dinan ownership helps boost it massively I say. It would be like having a Porsche previously owned by Alois Ruf, and I don’t think many people would shun that.
If you’re a Dinan and/or 90s era BMW enthusiast, I say jump on it. It’s a cool car with a cool pedigree, and I’m eager to see how much that pedigree brings. My estimate is it hammers somewhere in the mid teens. What do you say?