Brake Options - E30 M3

[jamesrose]

Hi all,

Having owned my E30 M3 for several years now, I have tried various disc/pads combinations. I have settled with standard discs and DS2500 pads as a good road/tack combination.

I have recently made some upgrades to power and handling, and during my last track day 2 weeks ago the only thing I felt let the car down was the braking performance. They work well for the first few laps but then the pedal gets lower and lower and the brakes dont inspire much confidence when rapidly approaching paddock hill bend.

So now im looking at some caliper upgrades so welcome anyone who has gone down this route to share experience/costs with me !

Cheers
James

[stevesingo]

Most big brake upgrades for the E30 M3 require the use of non standard wheel. Tar-Ox do a kit that will fit behind a standard 16" wheel and Hi-Spec also, but you need a spacer. AP, Brembo and the like all require a different wheel.

Steve

[jamesrose]

Non standard wheels are not a problem, as I am currently running a set of 17" Compomotive MOs.

is it worth upgrading all 4 calipers or are just the fronts sufficient ?

[stevesingo]

It would be wise to do all four to keep the brake balance.

Try these..

http://www.massivebrakes.com/kits.html


Steve

[falkster]

Im sure Ive read somewhere that you can fit 8 series calipers that are 4 pot.

Ill have to search E30zone and make sure

[pikeyboy]

jut a thought have you removed the fog lights and fitted cooling ducts, then removed the front brake back plates and fitted proper brake cooling to the center of the disks so the ventsactually have air flow through them. If not, its a very worth while mod before you lash out a pile of cash on some big brakes. I did this on my old car and i never had any brake fade probs. I bought the cooling ducts from nigel mosley and made my own back plate replacments to supporthe hose, but I think he does some of those as well. I used to use mintex 1155 and or 1166 and had no fade probs, if a little cold for the road.

[M5Player]

I fitted 330mm ap race callipers to my e30 - no need to do the rears initially. If you have adjustable suspension (i had leda) you can make the backs work a bit harde by playing with your ride height/ corner weights. Next level is to change your master cylinder and fit brake bias but honestly there is no need.

[RLK500]

To be quite honest it's the weakest part of just about every M power car due to BMW's reluctance to really let the engineers rather than accountants loose on their braking systems. I got fed up with replacing disks on my e30 M3, I have ducts and all the doo hickeys but none of it will take the place of a really good set of proper calipers. I have AP 4 pots on mine and run the stock calipers at the back in conjunction with the big master cylinder. The brakes fit inside 15" Compomotive MO's and work an absolute treat. You can pound on the brake pedal all day, no fade, no judder just great performance. They aren't cheap, but stuff that tends to work properly normally isn't. In terms of life, the racers that run the same setup reckon that they will get at least a season from the same set of disks, so for track and some road use they are going to last an age. I have had mine on for over 2 years now and they are still spot on.

[taffyracer]

AP's really are the way to go, never had an issue with any set I have sold or used, superb kit