Clamp me harder, baby: high-performance brake lust
By Straight-Six, published on 29 September 2011
Many years ago, during the launch of the Porsche 996 GT2 Mk. I in Italy, Walter Röhrl demonstrated the power of the car’s ceramic braking system to Straight-Six to great effect.
How? He hit 304 kph before shouting “BRAKING!” and stomping on that middle pedal with everything his powerful right leg could give
The deacceleration was so fierce it had Six’s chin hitting his chest while his limbs flew into the dashboard. It was hard for the little guy to breathe for several seconds afterwards. The experience was never forgotten, and the lesson that you can never have enough braking power was forever enshrined in his little brain.
And so it was that shortly after buying his E46 M3 in October 2003, little Six drove on over to Germany to get a company called MOV’IT to fit a high-performance braking system to his new ride. The consensus was the standard brakes were shit and definitely not up to track day work – something Six intended to do on a regular basis. Relieved of almost €6,000, he now had red, shiny 4-pot brake calipers front and rear with larger brake discs than standard and various other little improvements only geeks care about.
The result? Simply superb, being fade-free, powerful and consistent. The MOV’IT brake set-up has performed impeccably over the years, helped further thanks to the introduction of Castrol SRF brake fluid two years ago. In other words, it was well worth the money.
But after almost 7 years in service, thousands of hard stops from speeds up to 290 kph and a host of track days, the front brake discs on the MOV’IT set-up were shot to hell, the cast holes plugged like a waxy ear-drum and brake feel had become sloppy and slushy. Time to replace them and all of the brake pads.
Cue PowerPlus Engineering, the Brussels BMW M wizards who ordered all the goodies, installed them in less than 3 hours and all for, um, a bit less than €2,000. Gulp. And again. But this is the price of performance, and in return for the cash, we have new and improved (ventilated brake rotor hat!) front discs/pads that now need bedding in.
We don’t know about you, but we love these kinds of deep-dives, where you uncover bits of nerdiness and geek crack that would reduce your average person to hysterical jelly. Any serious automotive enthusiast will tell you that the process of bedding in your new discs/pads is paramount towards ensuring proper performance and even wear on all these frictional parts. There’s also something terribly racy about breaking in metal. Heating every element up so they fit together just so.
We’re guessing we’ve now lost most of you, and those who remain are turning down the lights, locking the door and getting comfortable…
Anyways, MOV’IT recommends that you do 10 – 20 stops from 80 – 120 kph down to 20 kph, taking 10 – 20 seconds to slow down. It’s vital that you allow the brakes to cool in between each stop too. An alternative method found on an M3 forum is a series of ten increasingly hard stops from 100 kph to 15 kph, just on the verge of wheel lock-up, once again allowing time for the brakes to cool in between.
We’ll let you know how it all performs at Spa when Six hits the track yet again on October 11. Cause simply put, there’s nothing like the hard clamp of a mighty performance braking system…
Clamp me harder, baby: high-performance brake lust
There’s nothing like the clamp of a high-performance braking system on your beloved ride of choice. Straight-Six gets new brake discs and pads and gets ready to bed them. Literally.
