Dinan S3 BMW 335i – Specialty File
The car you see here was no doubt envisioned by a legion of Internet dreamers—breathlessly commenting, “Crank up the boost!”—mere seconds after BMW debuted the twin-turbo 335i for 2007. But it took five Dinan employees hacking away at BMW’s software for a year and a half to finally make it happen.
It was worth the wait. Steve Dinan has sold more than 2000 software upgrades for the 135i/335i, making it the most popular upgrade in his company’s 31-year history. And it’s easy to see why: For $2199, a simple download at one of Dinan’s 129 U.S. dealers immediately endows a 335i with as much as 384 horsepower and 421 pound-feet of torque (versus 300 and 300, respectively). Dinan notes that this is actually more like a 60-hp gain, as BMW’s twin-turbo inline-six comfortably makes more than the advertised 300 horsepower in stock form.
The car tested here goes a little further. Outfitted in “Stage 3” trim, the S3 335i has an oil cooler that is twice as large as standard, a bigger intercooler, a better-breathing carbon-fiber intake, and a freer-flowing exhaust that allows for 1 additional psi of boost versus the 384-hp setup (14 psi total versus 8.8 psi stock). The result is 408 horsepower and a bombastic 440 pound-feet of torque. But it doesn’t come cheap: The aforementioned mods total $8895.
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