Quote:
Originally Posted by dre99gsx
UPDATE:
First time at the track with the 135i rear calipers/Z4M rear rotors, and 335i front calipers/Z4M front rotors - PFC08 all around.
Brakes were very soft and squishy after installation, possibly due to the pads not being square or needing to be worn in. Felt like the brake pedal had tons of air.
After the first few laps, I had a solid pedal and braking was predictable yet progressive. No brake fade throughout two HPDE days, and could induce ABS if I really wanted to from high speed. When induced, steering wheel would get 'light', thus still front-biased to some degree.
Brake bias: Didn't notice anything strange. I'm running 295/255 R888R and on a 80deg day, was able to brake from 150 to about 70 without much fuss.
Pedal/knockback: I didn't feel anything strange while braking->trailbraking-> tight turn with regards to brake pedal loosing pressure or vibrations. Note last HPDE I had felt the pedal drop a bit on a turn, and indeed was a bad front wheel bearing.
I think this upgrade to your nonM-Z4 is definitely worth a look vs a full fledged BBK. Out of every session I've run (not advanced group mind you), I was able to out-brake mostly everyone with some headroom. Noticed I said: "MOSTLY everyone".
Here is where I am perplexed.
I know my car has lots of power, and it is masking my driving ability. I have a lot to improve as a driver, but more so, I have a lot of work to do on harnessing the extra power from this vehicle (and the open diff, and the fact that I have either 10%, 20%, or 100% throttle...).
There were occasions where on a long straight, I would pull pretty hard on a seemingly stock E46 M3. Let's just say a few bus lengths. I would then hit my brakes as hard as I could to the edge of ABS at marker 5. Then, 5, 4, 3, 2 and about 1 where I start to trailbrake, I look in my rear view and the M3 has made up all of the distance.
I thought I had very strong brakes. I thought I was applying them as hard as possible. Is it possible to brake even harder with these cars? Am I missing something else? Surely can't be a BBK that is allowing increased stopping power? Suggestions welcome  |
Function of pad compound, 08’s don’t have the strongest initial bite but they last forever. I’m still on my set from last year and have ton of life left. If you were to run say 01’s you’d notice drop in braking distance.
That said, braking 5 marker sorta early (acknowledge you’re carrying way more speed than most cars) but you might want to try practicing different threshold braking points... OR maybe you can actually carry more speed into T1. What’s your entry speed?
Thanks for the update btw. I just snagged a set of 335i calipers and CSL rotors and plan to install mid-season after I burn through my current pads. However I’ll be upgrading fronts only for now.