Photo: autoblog
For decades now various companies tried to enhance your cars as much as possible, whilst also keeping the costs down. One of the primary reasons why people tuned their cars was to achieve more performance without having to pay premium prices.
Dinan is a company that started working on BMWs (and other brands too) back in 1979 so their experience is more than vast. The guys from autoblog took one of their stage 3 BMW F10 550i models out for a drive to see what’s what.
The improved numbers of the Dinan modified car look impressive on paper. Out of the 4.4-liter V8 that delivers 400 HP as stock, they managed to get almost the same HP output as the M5, being just 18 HP shy. However, with 542 HP and 587 lb-ft (796 Nm) of torque, the S3 550i has more torque than the M version.
The power delivery is linear but you really have to be careful as the car lacks launch control and you can end up destroying your tires in a matter of seconds if you’re not paying attention. Furthermore, all the other upgrades work really well: the suspension is more comfortable or rigid, depending on what you want, the gearbox shifts gears with ease and without kicking you in the back of your head and so on.
There is a problem though. Nobody denies the fact that the S3 550i is a great car. The problem is that it’s even more expensive than an M5. And that kind-of defeats the whole purpose. Why get a car with a tuned N63 engine when you can buy the M5 with an original M tuned S63 one?
The base 550i starts at roughly $62,000 ( €47,700) and goes up to over $100,000 (€77,000) with the Dinan package, whilst the M5 simply starts at $90,000 (€69,000) and gives you even more. We’d stick with the M5, it’s the obvious choice, no matter how good the S3 is.
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