[dradernh]

TLDR; after twenty-five miles, I like the kit's looks; feel free to see the pics at the end and to check back later for updates.

I finally got around to having my local dealer install the M Performance Brake Kit I bought from getbmwparts back in June: (https://www.getbmwparts.com/oem-part...ge-34112450470). Pics below of the kit on the car.

Due to what's going on now I've hardly been driving the car (<1K during the last calendar year), but BMW insisted it was time for a "free" brake fluid flush, the installation cost was close enough to what my independent would charge me, and so I decided to have the dealer do it. No regrets there.

My photography skills are not very good; however, I can say that the rear caliper photo is the best representation of what the car and calipers look like in person.

I bought the kit for a number of reasons:

1) My OEM blue M-Sport calipers, having been examined, needed, sooner or later, a refresh of their dust boots and fluid seals.

That was the result of fifteen track days. Despite running Castrol SRF and having an IMSA race shop create front brake scoops for me, the OEM M-Sport brakes get extremely hot on these cars when run at speed on the track. (More on these scoops, and the difference they did and didn't make, here: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1670372).

Almost all of my track laps were at Mid-Ohio, a track with a single heavy-braking zone and five much lighter braking zones in a 1:45 lap. IOW, it's not at all a heavy-braking track. However, our 6-cylinder cars are heavy and quite powerful, and that affects the performance and life of any braking system's components. I acknowledge that many don't agree that we have powerful cars. In reality, however, the physics are what they are: a car of whatever weight requires a braking system matched to the speeds at which it must be stopped in an expeditious manner.

Despite the limitations of the OEM braking components, I didn't burn them down (pat-on-the-back emoji here), as any number of other members and owners of both our "lesser" cars and M2 owners have done. (See: photos of green and green-brown calipers posted by track-driving owners who often have asked: "Why do my calipers look this way?") To that I attribute the fact that I'm easy on the brakes (full props to a number of pro drivers/coaches) and that the car hasn't been run hard on heavy-braking tracks like Watkins Glen.

2) I wanted the car to be in my garage and drivable while the calipers were being refreshed. In other words, that was one of the excuses to buy the kit.

3) When I chose to buy the kit, I thought I would continue tracking the car and that the 370mm diameter of the front rotors would serve me better than had the original 340mm front rotors' diameter. While technically true, in what would likely have been a very minor way, that was yet another excuse to buy it.

4a) The Bling Factor. Yes, that was certainly operative, especially as I knew I wouldn't be tracking much longer.

I considered all three M Performance Brake Kit colors before settling upon orange. A Porsche yellow would likely have won out, but the yellow of the BMW MPBK calipers (at least as presented online) had way too much green in it for my taste. See images below. In person, I may well have come to a different conclusion.

As for the red calipers, and as Maynard put it so very well to me, they're now on "everything from lift trucks to SUV's", not to mention almost any rolling object owned by an enthusiast.

Mind you, I'm not knocking red calipers at all; if I thought they were the best of the three choices for my Estoril Blue M240i, I would have gone with them without a second thought. And, if I'd found/ordered my car in my favored color of Alpine White, red is definitely the MPBK color I would have chosen.

4b) So...more on the Bling Factor, which as a thing has never been my thing. Or...maybe...now it is. I went with the orange because I thought: if you're going to go crazy, get a color that at least complements your car's body color. Simple, right? The only issue I experienced is this: the orange is quite a bold statement for an old guy like myself. So, all right, after getting over that, what's next?

Well, next are the dimpled and slotted rotors – which I would love to have had at the track while running time trials, but are useless anywhere else. Once I looked at how much I was already spending for kit and installation, choosing to give serious consideration to replacing the fancy rotors with plain rotors had to go by the boards.

Side View of the Car


Front Caliper


Rear Caliper


All Three BMW M Performance Brake Caliper Kit Colors


The BMW M Performance Brake Caliper Kit Yellow Color

[Rollo`]

They look great. I love the orange with your blue car. Did you say that you have had a track day with the new brakes or is that still to come? I would be very interested to hear how the m-perf pads performed.

I replaced my pad as you probably know with brembo ceramics and their performance is great but the dust is only about 50 percent less than the m-perf pads that come with the kit. Way more dust than the factory sliders on my 230. I am going to live with them but next set of pads might be akebonos.

[Maynard]

Looking great! The orange really does go wonderfully with the blue.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by Rollo`

They look great. I love the orange with your blue car. Did you say that you have had a track day with the new brakes or is that still to come? I would be very interested to hear how the m-perf pads performed.

I replaced my pad as you probably know with brembo ceramics and their performance is great but the dust is only about 50 percent less than the m-perf pads that come with the kit. Way more dust than the factory sliders on my 230. I am going to live with them but next set of pads might be akebonos.

No, I've stopped going to the track. If I did take the car with this kit to the track, I wouldn't use the kit's pads – I wouldn't expect them to hold up very well. For the track, I would just have slipped in the DTC-70s. I don't recommend tracking our cars without using race pads; they're the single most effective way to check the amount of heat being passed into the brake fluid.

I recall that you went with Brembo ceramics in an effort to lessen dust production and accumulation. I can understand that, as I'm pretty happy that I'm no longer going to have to clean my wheels nearly as frequently as I've had to with the DTC-70s on the car year-round.

I expect the kit's pad dust to be much easier to remove, too. Race pads have a lot of metal in them and their dust can really stick to wheels. I did find that coating my wheels with Sonax Rim Shield and using Sonax Wheel Cleaner Plus to clean them was an effective way to stay on top of the race pad's dust. Using them, the BMW Orbit Greys and the Apex ARC-8 track wheels look like new.

There was so much dust after a track event that I thought it best to clean the ARC-8s the day after I returned from an event. You may remember this post where I noted the brushes I've been using to get the DTC-70 dust off: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show...6&postcount=14.

If you do decide to run a race pad at the track, I suggest calling Bimmerworld and asking them to recommend a race pad matched to your car that has less dust than something like the Hawk DTC-70. One of the Performance Friction pads would likely perform just as well while producing less dust.

[Maynard]

I have run the stock MPerf pads on a small private track and they do fairly well. They don't fade or glaze despite being worked fairly hot, but this wasn't true track duty (two main brake zones, probably about 75mph entry speeds, but down to very slow turns).

[ggggbmw]

With the 370mm rotors, and I'm assuming some slightly longer brackets for the calipers, can you still get 17" wheels on? Or does this force you to 18" wheels only?

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by ggggbmw

With the 370mm rotors, and I'm assuming some slightly longer brackets for the calipers, can you still get 17" wheels on? Or does this force you to 18" wheels only?

There are no brackets in the kit. While I don't really know, I've assumed the adjustment is made via the mounting points on the inner caliper halves.

Installation instructions say that 18" wheels are required. Of course, the world in which that statement is made is a BMW-only world. Bimmerworld sells the kit and likely knows if there are 17s that fit.

[WolfGTI]

It may fit - but I am guessing if it does - the selection of 17's that it does fit will be limited. Looking forward to hearing if anyone get 17's over these.

Originally Posted by dradernh

There are no brackets in the kit. While I don't really know, I've assumed the adjustment is made via the mounting points on the inner caliper halves.

Installation instructions say that 18" wheels are required. Of course, the world in which that statement is made is a BMW-only world. Bimmerworld sells the kit and likely knows if there are 17s that fit.

[CarbonLion]

Great color choice, the kit looks amazing! Particularly with your darker wheels I bet they pop nicely while the car is rolling.

[larsonmotorsports]

Looks great! I think they discontinued the Orange kit.