Quote:
Originally Posted by Gastoys
I read a couple of reviews that found little to no difference in performance to stock brakes.
Why not spend the money on Brembos?
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First of all, the standard 4-piston fixed front calipers on the F30 335i are made by Brembo for BMW.
Second, the M Performance Brake Kit is entirely made by Brembo for BMW. The kit consists of Brembo 4-piston fixed front calipers and Brembo 2-piston fixed rear calipers.
When I had my F30 M Sport 335i, I upgraded to the M Performance Brakes.
When you get a Sport or M Sport F30 335i, the car comes with fixed 4-piston Brembo calipers up front (non-painted) and single-piston sliding rear calipers at the back (Base and Luxury 335i cars might have them too but I only mentioned what I was certain of). The standard rotors have no drilling or slotting present.
When you upgrade to the M Performance Brakes, you get the same 4-piston fixed Brembo calipers up front (now painted in either red, yellow/gold, or orange), and the rear calipers are upgraded to 2-piston fixed Brembo calipers.
Furthermore, with the MPB, you get rotors with dimpling (partial drilling but not full cross-drilling) and slotting. These features both help with keeping the brakes cool by venting hot gasses away from the surface of the rotors.
During daily driving, the two different brake setups may feel similar. This is likely due to the fact that both setups have the same front calipers. In addition, while the M Performance rotors are dimpled and slotted, they are no bigger than the "standard" rotors.
As others have said, when tracking the car, the dimpling and slotting on the M Performance rotors, in conjunction with the larger rear calipers, will both help to mitigate brake fade.
Finally, the biggest difference I noticed between the standard brakes and M Performance Brakes was the pedal feel. With the latter, the pedal felt much less like an "on/off" switch. Instead, you could modulate the brake pedal and be more precise with how much speed you trimmed. In short, the pedal feel was more linear and progressive.
To those not used to BBKs, this may feel unusual because you may have to get deeper into the pedal to get more bite but trust me, as you do get deeper into the pedal,
the bite is definitely there.