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      06-19-2008, 08:43 PM   #1
badfish
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Drives: E92 AW M3
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: SoCal

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2008 M3  [0.00]
Thumbs up Stoptech's First BBK for E92 M3

I spent a long time shopping and trying to decide which kit to get for my M3. I gave a call to Stoptech one day and talked to Howard. Next thing you know, I scheduled an appointment this past Tuesday to have the kit installed.

I arrived at the facility in Compton where they have a huge building and several CNCs and other manufacturing equipment. They make their own stuff, those rumors about them using someone else's calipers are incorrect. They OEM a lot of stuff, they make the kits for a lot of these aftermarket companies (one of which I cannot mention by name but all of us BMW folks know who they are). I was surprised to know about some of the stuff they are turning out. They even have their own dyno where they stress the products to do pre-TUV testing before they send it off to Germany. It was cool to see that machine go.

Stoptech had already taken measurements of the E92 M3 in Europe. My car would be the first car which the kit would be installed on. One really nice thing about Stoptech is they have a wider range of rotor combinations than the other companies. For example, their 6 piston calipers have more different combinations of piston sizes so they can customize the caliper to the application more than the other companies.

My car was driven and tested by the engineers and this is what they came up with. 380x35 front rotor, 355x32 rotors on the rear. ST60 6 piston calipers for the front, ST40 4 piston calipers for the rear. PFC1038 pads for the front, Axxis ULT pads rear. The pads are high performance street pads which also minimize dust. I asked for the cross-drilled option on the rotors (they won't crack as Stoptech has eliminated that by using a special pattern), black hats, black calipers, and zinc coated rotors.

Weight is as follows:

Front
380x35 DRILLED disc + 37.160.D613(hat) + hardware ~22.01 lbs
ST60 w/ pads & bracket ~13.11 lbs

Rear
355x32 DRILLED disc + 37.160.7425(hat + hardware ~19.33 lbs
ST40 w/ pads & bracket ~11.145 lbs

The car no longer has that strong initial "amplification" as their engineering manager Steve calls it. That artificially strong bite at the beginning is gone. The pedal feels more natural and sits just a tad higher. I couldn't be happier. They bedded the brake pads in for me. The car feels faster as there is a good weight savings.

So here's how it all looks and you can see the car at Spocom on Sunday at the KW booth. Big thanks to Howard and Steve at Stoptech. Sorry the car's a bit dirty in the pix.

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Last edited by badfish; 06-21-2008 at 09:04 PM.. Reason: Added better pix
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