DINAN M5 - Another "S"aga. Here's her story

This is another of those fun projects I've had the pleasure and privilege of being involved in. As usual, there is the car inspired part - I mean, these cars are pretty much true classics now. Also, there is what is important, the human / kinship element as well. I have been blessed to meet quite a number of fellow car enthusiasts and continue to appreciate this privilege I've had.

This is one of those stories that has taken me quite a while to finally get around to doing, so please forgive me for that. I certainly hope it was worth the wait and you enjoy reading this story too.

This Black Beauty is owned by A.S., a wonderful and cheerful Client who has gone on to be a true friend with a friendship that has grown over the years. I first met A.S. and his Black Beauty in Summer of 2019, this was at a car park meet prior to attending EC Fest 2019.

Some might recognize a certain Red Sister?

It was easy to see why we might hit it off - he had an E39 M5, it had a DINAN Badge and it was wearing DINAN Champion Wheels.... sure makes breaking the ice super easy. In case you are wondering, the car was already a legit DINAN S2 M5 by the time I met him.

I would not have the fun on installing ALL of the cool DINAN bits and pieces. Maybe I shoulda just abducted him and the car? Oh well, opportunity missed.

Here is Black Beauty with her Similarly Gorgeous Imola Sister

We got to chat and I got a bit of history on his car. I had my ears joyfully ripped open when he cranked her up as he had a quite unique exhaust set up, in addition to the DINAN cans and headers. Maybe not entirely my style, but it most certainly brought out the juvenile, ear to ear grinning boy in me! LOL!

Hanging with pals at EC Fest 2019

A few months after we first met, A.S and I started chatting about some maintenance work due on the car and what additional mods we might be able to do. You gotta love that about these cars, there is always something you can add. I was impressed with his first modification request - we would be adding a BREMBO BBK (Big Brake Kit) to the car! Hello! If you gotta do it, go big or go home! A.S. is such a cool guy and one who drives his cars as they are meant to be driven, so having appropriate stopping power made sense. This was a long term dream and goal coming to fruition and I was glad to be able to help with it. Dreams do come true - especially when you have enabler friends like me in your circle! LOL!

Soon after EC Fest, we ordered a full set of DINAN BREMBO Big Brake Kit for this Black Beauty. We decided to go with the WAVE Rotors. We both agreed they would offer the right performance for street and occasional track duty (Yep! Tis an M5 that sees the track and Redline!), offer the right aesthetics and limit any concerns about drilled rotors - even though these are BREMBO, so no real worry there. We placed the order for the brake kit. Now came the wait as these are made to order for DINAN, straight from BREMBO. So.... twiddle your fingers a bit here....

After what seemed like a long wait, the day finally came and the UPS truck showed up with two big boxes - it was July 18th of that year, how could I possibly forget? Here they were, the DINAN BREMBO Big Brakes. BREMBO sure know how to package their product, gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling - I will confess here that I kept a couple of the boxes just as memorabilia for myself... LOL!

In case you'd like to know more about this brake kit, you can click on the image below for additional information:

Click on Image for more details on DINAN Brake Kit

A.S. booked the car in and she was soon at the shop for her BBK installation. It's always nice to see one of these cars come in.

Cool to have two DINAN 5's in on the same day - the DINAN S2 M5 and a 540i DINAN 5.

Installation of the BREMBO brakes are pretty straight forward. The kits comes complete with the required brackets to mount the calipers and the pads and rotors. The Front set pretty much bolts on, you just have to set aside the BMW OE Brake Pad Wear Sensor.

The rear however requires a bit of modification of the rear brake disc shield - remember, this is a BBK and thus the calipers are bigger and you need to make a lil more room for them.

Yes! He's wearing BREMBO Red!

It was so fulfilling to bolt those BREMBOs on this car. It was truly an eye catching addition to this Black Beauty, not neglecting of course the added performance benefits to be gained.

Car guys will appreciate the feeling, It's like adding Carbon Fibre go fast bits to your car. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy - makes you wanna break out in joyous dancing! LOL!

With Phase 1 of the project done A.S. got to take her home. The Black Beauty was going to make a come back in a few months. This is as good a time as any to mention this was one of those multi phase projects, I was going to see the car more than this one time. The brakes were Phase 1 of this project. I know one has to wonder just what else you can add to an S2...other than a Super Charger? Wait, What ?!?!

So, we got the brakes installed and did some of the maintenance work like replacing spark plugs and the Valve Cover Gaskets, etc.

A.S. would be bringing her back in the near future for some other work - please keep reading if I haven't lost yet.

A few months after the Brake Installation, the Black Beauty was back for some more work and some further additions.

During this visit, she would be getting an Oil Change with LM 10W60 of course, along with some other things She would be getting new Aftermarket RK Plenum Plates, a new, updated steering wheel along with some maintenance items like new Knock Sensors,, new ICV (For Idling) and some new underbody panels that needed replacing.

We had tracked down an idle issue to possible bad, worn or faulty knock sensors and a worn out Idle Control Valve. It was also an opportunity to replace other time worn hoses underneath the plenum. Opening up this car's plenum was always a smile worthy exercise, so it's always worth it.

We also acquired her new steering wheel from DINNMAN in Southern California. It was certainly a nice upgrade to the interior and the new steering wheel is really a joy to behold and to hold.

Click Image for more information about this Steering Wheel

Dinmann is a grass roots founded company that does some amazing Carbon Fibre work - makes me jelly all the time. You can click on the image above (Steering Wheel) to see more of their products and learn more about them.

The oil change happened along with installation of the new ICV and hoses. I was just a lil bit miffed... and yes, a lil bit upset to find that the issues with the Knock Sensors on Bank 1 was that they were not tightened down properly - ugh! Any-hoo, we were already in there with new ones, so in the new ones went.

We were able to get this phase of the project done. Nope, no Super Charger happened.... sorry dreamers! However, it was great getting a peek at her DINAN Throttle Bodies and Intakes.

Yes, that is an authentic set of DINAN Throttle Bodies and Plenum Stacks

With Phase 2 of the project done, A.S. got to take her home. The Black Beauty was going to make a come back again in a few months. During the the time she was back home though, A.S. had the fun experience of taking her to track days. It's quite impressive and a certain joy seeing an E39 M5 making that descent on the Laguna Seca Corkscrew.

There were still a couple of hiccups with the car that needed attention and thus she had to make her way back to the shop. However, nothing major and nothing that detracted from the fun A.S had with her on the track.

Yeah..... she goes there! She dares touch the Red Zone!

The next time I saw this Black Beauty, she came in for some suspension refresh - replacement of front shock mounts and camber plates, replacing her typically leaking BMW power steering hoses, and a few other bits and pieces.

The bit of a bugger of a task during this Phase 3 of the project was replacing the damaged Servotronic Sensor. It is buried in a hard to reach, little nook in the suspension assembly.

Surely, BMW must have contracted with the Shoe Maker's elfs to install this thing. I have slender enough hands, but it was still a knuckle bruising bloody challenging to get it done.

In addition to the work being done in Phase 3, the shifter was also modified / updated with the newer DINAN Billet Short Shift kit and she got a new E60 weighted shift knob to go with it along with a new leather boot.

Other work done was the replacing of thermostat housing and thermostat - oh how much fun the "O' rings were on this! LOL! 🙄 Also had fun replacing the li lol compressor ventilation fan in the E-Box where the DME and other electronic components are housed.

While the work can sometimes be time consuming and patience testing, it is still a great deal of fun and quite fulfilling to work on these classic BMW Muscle cars and keep them going on. As I speak, enthusiasts seem to keep appreciating then more and more - their values speak volumes.

This Black Beauty S - S2 DINAN M5 is very nicely equipped and is lucky to be owned by a fellow enthusiast who gets the best out this beast by his willingness to put in whatever required work there is to keep her going strong.

I once again would like to thank another fellow enthusiast (A.S) for his trust, patronage and giving me the honor and privilege of working on this project. What next? Who knows.... maybe that Super Charger?