Introducing- Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Big Brake Kits for the E92 M3

[jritt@essex]

Here are a couple more nice shots of the Yost M3. Also check out the AP Racing air jacks they installed. One mean machine!

[kawasaki00]

Originally Posted by jritt@essex

Here are a couple more nice shots of the Yost M3. Also check out the AP Racing air jacks they installed. One mean machine!

Dang that looks good

[W///]

Originally Posted by jritt@essex

Thanks for the kind words, and not a stupid idea at all...that's a good idea. We aren't working on anything like that currently. Something of that sort would require a considerable approval and testing process to achieve. It's definitely something to keep in mind though.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, IMO the two-piece discs are the biggest problem. The salt wedges between the iron disc and aluminum hat, and eats the aluminum. Unfortunately, that's true of all aftermarket BBK's with two-piece discs. That's why we frequently see OEM setups that use a dual-cast iron disc instead of the lighter aluminum hat design (like the new Z51 Corvette Stingray).

We have lots of people beating up on our kits in all types of environments. You can see lots of impressions on our blog. I just posted a C7 Stingray owner's nice review of our six piston kit yesterday.

Personally, I think you northern guys really need to embrace the 'beater' lifestyle! Buy a mid-nineties Honda Accord for $1500-$2,000, slap some Blizzak's on it, and drive it like a rally car until spring! When I lived in LA I worked on the fringe of Compton. I left my Z06 at home and bought a $1,200 Civic wagon for my commute which I dubbed "The Compton Crawler." With a beater you can drive it through snow banks, never worry about squeezing into traffic, thrash it off-road, eat lunch in it, leave the keys in it...who cares as long as the heater works. Finally, if you stuff it, you can hand your keys to the tow truck driver and say, "Just keep it." There's something incredibly liberating about not caring one bit about the car you're driving (particularly if you're only driving it for a few months out of the year).

Japanese beaters are the best. I have a 97 4Runner that I bought for cheap (ODO had 150k on it, come to find out a year later the car has over 280k miles). The car is a dang tank (new radiator cost me $100 haha). In that car, I don't believe in 3 point turns, I just run over the curbs.

On a more serious note, now that I've driven the F80/2 and 991, I really feel like the E9x's weak point are the brakes. If I didn't just get an E36 M3, I really might consider (still might) these, they are drop dead gorgeous AND functional.

[jritt@essex]

Here are some pics I received from another customer who recently installed our kit...looking sick behind the black wheels.

[jritt@essex]

Originally Posted by W///

Japanese beaters are the best. I have a 97 4Runner that I bought for cheap (ODO had 150k on it, come to find out a year later the car has over 280k miles). The car is a dang tank (new radiator cost me $100 haha). In that car, I don't believe in 3 point turns, I just run over the curbs.

On a more serious note, now that I've driven the F80/2 and 991, I really feel like the E9x's weak point are the brakes. If I didn't just get an E36 M3, I really might consider (still might) these, they are drop dead gorgeous AND functional.

Amen. Japanese beaters are the business! Just add oil, thrash, repeat.

Keep in mind that if you stick with your E36 M3 for flogging duties, we have an equally awesome big brake kit for your car as well:

Essex Designed AP Racing e36 M3 Competition BBK

As with our e92 kit, the disc size in our e36 kit is very similar to stock, but the quality and efficiency of the parts is in a completely different league. There is a laundry list of improvements you obtain by adding our kit to an e36 M3:

• Roughly 6-7lbs. unsprung weight reduction from each front corner of the car vs. the OE system

• Incredible array of inexpensive race pad options at prices that are nearly $100 lower per set than the OEM pad shape. These pads are large/thick enough to handle typical lapping/race sessions

• Mitigation of pad knockback due to 4lb. anti-knockback springs in the calipers

• Less chance of damaging bleed screws or crossover tubes when changing wheels due to built-in protection

• Caliper finish that is more resistant to wear and deterioration

• Stainless steel caliper hardware for a long caliper service life under frequent pad change conditions

• High temperature, low drag seals that will hold up to track temps better than OEM components= less rebuilding and longer service life

• No dust boots to burn up and make a big mess

• Simple pad change with one bolt and no spring clips (rather than tapping out the pins)

• Extremely compact package for superior wheel fitment

• Stainless steel pistons that keep heat out of your brake fluid to resist fluid fade during extended track sessions

• Lifetime professional caliper rebuilding support by Essex (at a fee)- pull off your calipers, send them to us, we clean, inspect, and rebuild them

• High airflow, heavy duty AP Racing J Hook brake discs that are over 1lbs. lighter than the OEM units, available at an extremely competitive replacement price ($250 each).

• AP Racing J Hook slot design that gives more pad bite/feel, and distributes heat evenly throughout the disc

• Disc metallurgy specifically designed to handle the temps typically seen on track offers a long service life

• Highest quality, Spiegler stainless steel brake line with clear sheath that reduces compliance over OEM rubber design.

Here is a very complimentary customer review of our e36 kit.

Love the technoviolet and motorsport wheels BTW!

[quicktwinturbo]

PM me the price please. thanks

[8k3]

If this was covered please ignore. There are various AP setups for the E92, Radi-Cal being what seems to be the latest. How is this setup an improvement or at least compare?

[jritt@essex]

Last night I received a nice email from one of our e46 M3 customers describing how much he's been enjoying his BBK over the past year.

[DB]

Just a quick review of this set up: After a bunch of research and some really helpful email correspondence with Jeff at Essex, I decided to upgrade the front brakes on my e90 m3 to the Essex AP competition kit. I installed the brakes two weeks ago (install was incredibly easy) and used them for the first time on the track at Watkins Glen last weekend.

At my last trip to the Glen in June (and at all of my other track events this year), I used PFC01 pads with the stock calipers. This time, I used Ferodo DSUNO pads with the new brakes and retained my PFC01 pads for the stock rear calipers.

The brakes worked amazingly well. I never really felt like the stock brakes with the PFC pads lacked stopping power, but these worked better and the pedal feel was much better.

Also, with the stock brakes (even with good pads, fluid, and several successful track outings), I was constantly thinking about them. With the new brakes, I found that after a session or two of going hard with absolutely no issues, I was no longer thinking about the brakes at all…it’s kind of hard to quantify how big a difference that really is.

My lap times were consistently lower then my previous best time at the Glen. I dropped my best time by more than 1.5 seconds (and almost all traffic free laps were within .2 seconds of my new best). I expect to be able to do even better next time out as I get used to building confidence in braking later and from higher speeds.

I haven’t measured the pad wear yet (I will when I switch back to street pads this weekend), but, after 2 days on track, the front pads don’t look very used. For comparison, I had previously been going through a front set of PFC01s in about 3 track days.

I’m very happy with my new set up and have nothing but good things to say for Jeff and the other people I dealt with at Essex.

[jritt@essex]

Originally Posted by DB

Just a quick review of this set up: After a bunch of research and some really helpful email correspondence with Jeff at Essex, I decided to upgrade the front brakes on my e90 m3 to the Essex AP competition kit. I installed the brakes two weeks ago (install was incredibly easy) and used them for the first time on the track at Watkins Glen last weekend.

At my last trip to the Glen in June (and at all of my other track events this year), I used PFC01 pads with the stock calipers. This time, I used Ferodo DSUNO pads with the new brakes and retained my PFC01 pads for the stock rear calipers.

The brakes worked amazingly well. I never really felt like the stock brakes with the PFC pads lacked stopping power, but these worked better and the pedal feel was much better.

Also, with the stock brakes (even with good pads, fluid, and several successful track outings), I was constantly thinking about them. With the new brakes, I found that after a session or two of going hard with absolutely no issues, I was no longer thinking about the brakes at all…it’s kind of hard to quantify how big a difference that really is.

My lap times were consistently lower then my previous best time at the Glen. I dropped my best time by more than 1.5 seconds (and almost all traffic free laps were within .2 seconds of my new best). I expect to be able to do even better next time out as I get used to building confidence in braking later and from higher speeds.

I haven’t measured the pad wear yet (I will when I switch back to street pads this weekend), but, after 2 days on track, the front pads don’t look very used. For comparison, I had previously been going through a front set of PFC01s in about 3 track days.

I’m very happy with my new set up and have nothing but good things to say for Jeff and the other people I dealt with at Essex.

Excellent DB! I'm glad the brakes got it done for you at Watkins Glen! That track is brutal on brakes, so it was a good test for them. I'd love to see some pics of the brakes installed if you can snap some. Thanks!

FYI...We had a very fast C6 Z06 out there the same weekend that had also just installed our kit before the event. His feedback was the same. He said they were flawless, and that his car should have come with our AP setup from the factory.

[jritt@essex]

I had a question in a different thread regarding Anti-KnockBack (AKB) Springs that are included in the calipers in our kits. I thought I'd post it here as well, since I've had several people ask about this recently.

I was asked if there are any negatives associated with running AKB springs.

Short answer= No

Long answer=

The amount of knockback that occurs definitely varies by vehicle, and depends on the amount of deflection seen in the hub, bearing, spindle, etc. I personally don't know how exactly stiff the e92 M3 is in these areas relative to other sports cars and sedans. I have no hard data, only what I hear from customers. I tend to hear more about it from my Corvette customers than I do from my M3 customers. Many of them switch to the ZR1 spindles, SKF bearings, etc. to combat the issue. I will say that for the e92 M3, a 4lb. AKB spring should be more than adequate. The amount of cornering force also comes into play, which is why knockback isn't really an issue in street driving (and why street BBK's don't have AKB springs).

There are no major downsides to a light AKB spring as long as the caliper was designed for it. More specifically, the shape and material of the piston seal. The AP Racing competition six piston calipers used in both the AP Racing Factory Kit and our Essex Designed AP Racing Kit are designed to work with AKB springs. I posted about this the other day on a different forum, but it's applicable here:

As you're driving the suspension is constantly compressing, the disc is moving around laterally, etc., and the pads are being pushed slightly away from the disc. Think of the seals in the caliper as a spring or hinge attached to the side of the piston, rather than just a ring through which the piston slides. In the AP Racing competition calipers under discussion, the groove the seal sits in isn't a square cut groove. It has angles. When forces push the piston in or out there is friction between the outer piston wall and the seal. The seal distorts a bit...visually, think of it like this:

A caliper piston sliding out to the left would make the seal look like this (the slashes are the seals on either side of the piston):
/
---
---
\

As it slides back in to the right, the seal does this:
\
---
---
/

There is a certain amount of tension or friction that needs to be overcome before the piston even starts moving through the seal ring. That tension/friction keeps the piston from dragging on the disc once the pistons are pushed back into the bores by the disc/suspension movement.

When AKB springs are added, a little more force is required to push the pistons back into their bores than would be required without them, and the spring's unloading after being compressed pushes the piston back to 'neutral.'

So all you're doing with the proper seal and spring are trying to keep the piston in the 'neutral' position, not pressed against the disc. I think that's where a lot of the misunderstanding occurs. The piston is still able to slide almost freely in either direction, but a bit of friction or tension needs to be overcome initially to get it moving in either direction. The seal offers that first bit of friction to limit movement, and then the spring provides additional resistance. The brakes won't drag, create additional or unnecessary wear, etc.

Typically in street driving, the lateral forces aren't as great as you'd see on a racecar on slicks, nor are they sequenced as they would be on a track. If you go through a series of S turns on a track on slicks, you're quickly loading the disc back and forth, causing deflection in all of the components described above, and ratcheting the pistons back into the bores. That's when you usually see knockback. You go through a series of turns, hit the pedal, and have to take up all the slack to get the pistons back to the disc. In street driving, you take a slight left at low speed and lateral load...drive straight a while...make another left...come to a stop, etc. It's rare that you'd be going left, right, left, right at heavy lateral loads without touching the brakes. Again, this is why street BBK's don't have AKB springs, but racing kits such as ours do.

All of that sounds nice 'on paper,' but the proof as they say, is in the pudding! To date we've sold hundreds of kits with AKB springs in our Essex Designed Competition Kits, and I've yet to have a single complaint about the springs, dragging brakes, excessive wear in any way related to the springs, etc. It's just not an issue. Since that's the case, I don't really see any reason not to use them if they're available. You get their benefit, without any major downside.

[RickyBobby]

I can say from personal experience that the M3 suffers from major pad knockback. I put 6lb springs in my stoptech st60's and it helps a little bit. My pedal travels an additional 25% after esses rather than 50% without them. The pedal goes almost to the floor after the corkscrew I left foot tap the brakes before my brake zones to combat the knockback.
There are no downsides to the springs for street or track driving.

[jritt@essex]

Originally Posted by 8k3

If this was covered please ignore. There are various AP setups for the E92, Radi-Cal being what seems to be the latest. How is this setup an improvement or at least compare?

I didn't miss or forget about this question...just didn't have time to address it properly! So here it is...

Essex and AP Racing Relationship- How it works

I’ve had a number of customer questions regarding our relationship to AP Racing, to Stillen, and how our kits compare to other options on the market generally labeled “AP Racing.” Hopefully this post clears everything up!
Essex is AP's exclusive importer and distributor for competition parts in North America. Stillen is AP's exclusive importer and distributor road car parts in North America. Essex and Stillen are completely different entities. Stillen buys AP Racing brake fluid from Essex, and we refer customers to each other based on the customer’s needs. There are no other ties between the two companies.

Essex has been in the racing business for roughly 30 years. You can read about our history here. We service ALMS, IndyCar, NASCAR Sprint Cup...from the pinnacle of pro racing all the way to club racers and track day enthusiasts. We have twenty+ people on our staff (including our own engineering department). Our chief engineer was the director of engineering at Tilton for 14 years prior to coming to essex. He has immense brake and clutch knowledge and design experience. We also have a full-time AP Racing engineer who works from our office (he's been with AP for 35 years). We have a brake dyno, disc burnishing cell, and we are AP's only authorized caliper reconditioning center in North America. You can see more about our services here.

In England, AP Racing sells their own brake kits for various platforms, including the M3, which are listed in their catalog and on their website under "Factory Big Brake Kits." They create both road and competition systems under the “Factory Big Brake Kit” banner. Their Factory Competition Big Brake Kits would be most similar to what Essex sells in North America. AP puts fantastic complete kits together, but they aren’t always the ideal kit for our local North American market. Customer needs in various regions tend to differ, sometimes greatly. Both where and how the drivers in different regions use the brakes may be different. In many cases, the actual cars being used are quite different! As we all know, euro-spec cars aren’t always the same as USDM cars. Also, you don’t typically see many Caterhams at Road America, and there aren’t that many Corvettes tearing up Silverstone on most days!

As AP’s representative in the racing market, it is our job to assess customer needs and fulfill them with the appropriate AP Racing products. What we do is buy the calipers, iron discs, and attachment hardware from AP Racing. Our engineers work with our in-house AP engineer to design complete kits geared towards the North American market. We share data with AP depending on who has the car, when they have access to it, etc. For example, we bought a C7 Stingray long before AP ever had the chance to look at one in England. We then build the required parts to adapt the AP components to the USDM cars (caliper brackets and disc hats). Many of our kits, such as our e92 kit, have custom features such as the machined, ventilated, domed-back pistons. These specs are unique to the Essex components, and aren't available elsewhere in the world.

The AP Racing Radi-CAL

The racing Radi-CAL was introduced in 2007 and is considered by most to be the pinnacle of brake caliper design. They’ve now won countless races at all levels of motorsport. “Radi-CAL” is a blanket term used to describe AP Racing’s patented asymmetrical caliper design and process. The Radi-Cal technology is based on Computer Aided Design. The process allows for stiffness and weight optimization far beyond what was previously thought possible in a brake caliper. Compared to a more traditional design, caliper material is redistributed based on dynamic, rather than static, loads placed on the caliper. In other words, the caliper is not designed to be a stiff box to hold pads while sitting on a table. It’s designed to be an incredibly stiff box to press pads against a disc on a car doing 200mph and decelerating at 4 G’s. AP’s brilliant engineers figured out how to assess the dynamic real-world stresses placed on the calipers under race conditions. They then altered the fundamental structure of the caliper to accommodate those loads. The resulting designs were dubbed “Radi-CAL” because of their radical departure from conventional caliper design.

The result is a very alien looking design. The mass of the caliper is located on a diagonal, rather than a square box. Radi-CAL designs contain many voids/empty spaces. That is because any unnecessary mass is either removed from the caliper, or relocated to where it is actually needed to accept a dynamic load. Many racing Radi-CAL’s also incorporate a provision for an air bridge. A channel is cut into the top of the caliper that allows for air to travel from a brake duct, across the top of the caliper, and through the outside caliper pistons to the outer disc face. The air bridge itself is constructed of carbon fiber to keep the weight down. These intricate calipers are usually machined from proprietary aluminum alloy billets. As one can imagine, machining away all of that material to achieve the final form is both time-consuming and costly. As a result, the price of these calipers is prohibitive for the average club racer or time-trialer. AP has introduced, and continues to work on, some new forged Radi-Cal’s, which are less costly to produce, and do show some promise for use in amateur motorsports.

Below are some pics of the racing Radi-Cals that we sell to our professional racing customers. You can see all of the design elements that I mentioned above.

Originally designed for German Touring Car (DTM)





Aussie V8 Supercar


NASCAR Caliper


Formula 1 Caliper hanging out on my desk on a sheet of paper.


Can you buy these racing Radi-Cal’s for your car at this time? The answer is a qualified yes. As mentioned above, the racing Radi-Cal calipers are extremely expensive. In many cases one caliper costs as much or more than our complete standard front six piston kit. Again, that’s just one caliper…nothing else. The other issue is packaging. The asymmetric design makes the calipers wide, which makes wheel fitment difficult on many platforms.

Last year AP Racing decided to take the Radi-Cal concept and apply it to road calipers. The result is what AP calls their “World Radi-Cal”. In a similar fashion to what we do for our Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Big Brake Kits, Stillen puts together their own road car brake kits using these calipers. They’ve been doing so for many years, and in the past they’ve used conventional AP Racing road calipers.

The CP5060 racing caliper we use in our Competition Kit weighs 6.2 lbs , and the six piston World Radi-Cal weighs 10.25 lbs. Our rear CP5040 caliper weighs 5.8 lbs. vs. 7.4 for the World Radi-Cal four pistons. The calipers in our kit have ventilated, domed back, stainless steel pistons with anti-knockback springs and no dust boots. The calipers we use have been around a long time, and as such, have a huge range of available pad compounds from all of the major pad manufacturers. The World Radi-Cal’s have aluminum pistons with dust boots and no springs, and have a painted finish. The AP Racing discs we use in our front kit are a 355x32mm, 72 vane, heavy duty endurance design that has won championships in pro racing. With the hat installed they weigh 17.6 lbs. Stillen is using 370-380mm x36mm, 48 vane discs, which are a few lbs. heavier.

Overall our Essex Competition Kit shaves roughly 40 lbs. of unsprung weight from the car, whereas the World Radi-Cal road system is very close to the stock weight. They’re both outstanding designs, but they’re designed with different goals in mind. Whichever option is right for you will depend completely on how and where you will be driving your car.

[8k3]

Thank you that was an excellent explanation of different offerings in the AP lineup.

[lsmkr01]

Originally Posted by jritt@essex

Overall our Competition Kit shaves roughly 40 lbs. of unsprung weight from the car, whereas I believe the Radi-Cal road system actually adds weight vs. the OEM brakes.

Whichever option is right for you will depend completely on how and where you will be driving your car.

That's an amazing amount of weight savings and your not to far from my home in Columbia. Can you PM me pricing on both the front set and the whole kit for front and rear? My car is only street driven but in the manner it was made for on the many great back and mountain roads we have in the south east. Wondering if this would be the right fit for my car as added stopping power is something i've wanted for a good while now.

[vastano]

Originally Posted by lsmkr01

That's an amazing amount of weight savings and your not to far from my home in Columbia. Can you PM me pricing on both the front set and the whole kit for front and rear? My car is only street driven but in the manner it was made for on the many great back and mountain roads we have in the south east. Wondering if this would be the right fit for my car as added stopping power is something i've wanted for a good while now.

Alex, Jeff will definitely hook you up.

Also, if you need a hand with install, i'd be more than happy to help. Check out the shots of the rear earlier in the thread...that looks like a pretty sweet ride...

[lsmkr01]

Originally Posted by vastano

Alex, Jeff will definitely hook you up.

Also, if you need a hand with install, i'd be more than happy to help. Check out the shots of the rear earlier in the thread...that looks like a pretty sweet ride...

Did you scoop up a set??? Just wondering if this is too much for non track driving since I daily my car.

[vastano]

Originally Posted by lsmkr01

Did you scoop up a set??? Just wondering if this is too much for non track driving since I daily my car.

I was the guinea pig for test-fitting the rear kit.

You can daily these but id use the Ferodo DS2500 pads.

[jritt@essex]

Just a quick review of this set up: After a bunch of research and some really helpful email correspondence with Jeff at Essex, I decided to upgrade the front brakes on my e90 m3 to the Essex AP competition kit. I installed the brakes two weeks ago (install was incredibly easy) and used them for the first time on the track at Watkins Glen last weekend.

At my last trip to the Glen in June (and at all of my other track events this year), I used PFC01 pads with the stock calipers. This time, I used Ferodo DSUNO pads with the new brakes and retained my PFC01 pads for the stock rear calipers.

The brakes worked amazingly well. I never really felt like the stock brakes with the PFC pads lacked stopping power, but these worked better and the pedal feel was much better.

Also, with the stock brakes (even with good pads, fluid, and several successful track outings), I was constantly thinking about them. With the new brakes, I found that after a session or two of going hard with absolutely no issues, I was no longer thinking about the brakes at all…it’s kind of hard to quantify how big a difference that really is.

My lap times were consistently lower then my previous best time at the Glen. I dropped my best time by more than 1.5 seconds (and almost all traffic free laps were within .2 seconds of my new best). I expect to be able to do even better next time out as I get used to building confidence in braking later and from higher speeds.

I haven’t measured the pad wear yet (I will when I switch back to street pads this weekend), but, after 2 days on track, the front pads don’t look very used. For comparison, I had previously been going through a front set of PFC01s in about 3 track days.

I’m very happy with my new set up and have nothing but good things to say for Jeff and the other people I dealt with at Essex.

DB, who posted the review above, sent me a few nice shots of his car in action at the Glen.






And here's a great one that shows the OEM cinder block, erm...caliper, next to the AP Racing CP5060. One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong...

[DB]

Not all pics from the Glen, but all with the new brakes. These have been a great improvement. And the Ferodo DSUNO pads have now lasted 9 track days (including 2 at Watkins Glen and 3 at VIR) with some pad to go. With stock front calipers, I was getting about 3 days out of a set of PFC01s.

[Estragon]

Any chance Essex's going to put together an AP Racing ENDURANCE kit for our E9x M3s, as you did for the C6 Corvette?

With the weight of our cars, it seems the current COMPETITION kit available is more akin to the C6 SPRINT kit. If we could get the kit with rotors in the 368-378mm range, we should still be able to fit it under many 18" wheels but have the added benefit the larger rotors would offer. It would look a bit like the AP Racing setup on the M3 GT4. Now that would be nice!

[jritt@essex]

duplicate post...ah, tech-mology.