Z4MC

D

dmsmith401

Member
Hi All

Can someone explain to me the brakes on the Z4MC. As i understand it they are taken from the M3 CSL. Was this the case for the Z4M Roadster? If not why?

But more to the point, what elements are different? I often read/hear the E46 M3 suffer from poor brakes when pushed (i.e. on track). Not that i have had the opportunity to really push the brakes continuously yet, but despite lacking a small amount of feel initially (usually when driving around town) the brakes are powerful and offer me confidence when 'driving'.

What are others feedback? I have recently come over from a 993 911 so i'd be particularly critical as they were superb.
 
dmsmith401 said:
What are others feedback? I have recently come over from a 993 911 so i'd be particularly critical as they were superb.
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Porsche has always believed in more brake than you need, so these won't compare to those. The common complaint about the BMW brakes is that they're single-piston, when most performance cars have moved to multi-piston set-ups like Brembo.
 
Think they are pretty awesome. Might not be up to heavy track work, but hardly ever are road brakes quite up to that anyway - it`s a compromise. Great track brakes aren`t so good on the road (need to be up to temp to work correctly) and can cause premature wheel erosiion.

with the M brakes I find they can fall out of "the zone" a little during road use so in that respect are probably a good balanced compromise. With good driving (ie correct braking technique) I bet they are up to pretty heavy track work.
 
2 weekends ago i REALLY got to push my brakes on a tight and twisty sprint track, normally i would do one timed lap and the car would be parked up, but as no-one turned up i got to do 4 runs and i have to say the brakes held up VERY well, infact the car in general just seems very well suited to the track, the brakes i find are excellent, i was slightly alarmed to get back to the paddock and see the discs a bright Blue in colour. i did Another 3 sets of runs and then drove the car home with no warping to the discs, no noises and plenty of meat on the pads, and everyone that passengered in the car commented on three things, the noise, the acceleration and the brakes!!

if i remember correctly the CSL outbraked some serious cars in braking test, including some higher end porsches. So i can only assume with the lighter z4m times must be even better.

fyi the Z4MR/C have exactly the same brakes, why would they not, they have the same power?
 
Mine were mega-fading after about 6 hard laps of Bedford, after some adjustment and more cooldown time they improved but if it was going there more regularly I'd upgrade.

No doubt they're great on the road though.
 
Beedub said:
if i remember correctly the CSL outbraked some serious cars in braking test, including some higher end porsches. So i can only assume with the lighter z4m times must be even better.
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The CSL is 100kg LIGHTER than the Z4M, so is easier on the brakes.

Although I do agree that I've not (yet) had any problems on track, even after 30 minutes of pushing it. Different tracks and different braking techniques will give different results though as I tend to brake hard initially and then ease off, rather than easy initially and getting harder to help balance the car before turning in. Which also means the large amount of heat generated from braking hard is dissipated in the faster air at 120mph rather than at 60mph.

I will however be swapping to EBC Yellowtuffs when I need pads, because I want to give BMW as little of my hard-earned as possible.
 
Hello everyone!
Ive used stock pads,Performance Friction (cant remember which ones, similar to HP +), Hawk HP + and Hawk HT10's on the track. When I went from the stock pads to the PF pads, or the HP+ pads the difference was huge. Either street/light track pad had alot more bite, and much much less fade after 20 minutes on track. I burned through the HP+ and switched to the HT10's in the middle of my last event and I could not believe the difference in braking power. The HT10s didnt fade at all, and have INCREDIBLE braking power (I run Dunlop Dirrezza's, and you'd probably need a similar tire to see use the stopping power of these pads)

In a nutshell try some different pads before upgrading to a big brake kit.
 
Using Hawk HT-10s here...they have very good initial bite and resist fading ALOT better than OEM. After 25 minutes of hard braking they are still very strong.
 
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