Rotora Super Challenge Brake Kit (impressions and review)

[richardg]

INSTALL AND REVIEW POSTED. Scroll down

OK so I received my Rotora Super Challenge Kit yesterday. I took some time this morning to take some pictures. I will be expanding on this thread sometime next weekend or the weekend after when I can find time to start installing.

So here is the basic rundown of this kit. (355x32F 355x32R)
-lightweight forged four and six piston caliper made of aluminum. They are supposed to be around 15% lighter than the standard rotora caliper
-Natural colored anodized finish which won't fade
-Oil ring sealed instead of dust boots
-ventilated titanium piston inserts w/ anti-knockback springs loaded behind each piston
-full-floating 2-piece rotors
-I do have the standard street pad that rotora provides but I also decided to try their new H9 track compound pad
(H9 are carbon/metal and street pad I believe is ceramic)
-It also comes with floating anti rattle spring hardware and SS lines

Note 4/9/12 I went with ATE Super Blue

Note my kit is the 355mm kit but they do sell at 380mm kit. I intend on purchasing Apex ARC 8 so I went with the smaller kit.


Why I bought the kit?
-I track about 5-6 times a year, but I have a lot more scheduled for this year. I took a look at the brembo GTR kit and found the kit itself and the consumables to be too pricey for my blood. This kit had all the things I wanted in the GTR kit for substantially less. Also I previously had a rotora setup on an e46m I had in the past and have nothing but awesome things to say about it.


If you would like detailed instructions for installing the kit (or a BBK in general) go to this thread I put up here.
http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=668113

Enjoy some photos







Review and Install pictures!
First I want to say that the install was super easy and had lots of guidance and instruction both from rotora and fellow forum members here. Also I did the whole thing under the watchful eye of my mechanic/engineer/best friend Charbel, who many of you would only recognize his ridiculous turbo e21.

First to give props (He has taught me much both on and off track and helped me build my last 2 M's and guides me as I work on my e92)



Now to stop beating around the bush. Please excuse my camera phone but I couldn't find my point and shoot all week. To make matters worse a couple important pictures were corrupted so I don't have pictures of all the component weights.

6 piston front with street pad loaded, mounting bracket, and small foam packaging bit to keep pad from falling out until install

Stock

4 Piston rear with street pad loaded, mounting bracket, and small foam packaging. (I don't know why my camera made the rotora logo look weird but whatever)

Stock (I know I should be shot for using such a shit camera) It said 10.5lbs

Front rotor

Stock

The rear rotor shots were corrupted so I don't have that data anymore. Sorry guys.
Here are some finished install photos

Because no one believes I ever come from behind my office desk

How I decided to cut my rear dust shield. Rotora suggests just taking it all off but I would rather have it than not.

Some other buddies who came by. Dinan supercharged e36 and HenriK's e92m

Behind my wheels




And finally the one good photo I have of my car lol (but with no brakes)


REVIEW!!!
First I want to start off by saying that I am no professional nor do I claim to know a damn thing. As a matter of fact I am pretty dumb. Now anyway all the awesome things you guys have come to expect from a setup such as this is there. The pedal is firm and consistent. A much better feel than the stock system. During the bedding process the the pedal never went soft. I did about 9 or 10 70-5 mph runs, and all was well. The following day was a small private Easter day autoX (pics soon) that gave me a chance to test out the brakes. Yes I know I ran the auto X on the street pads, but that was only because I had no intention on going. I decided at the very last moment to attend (about an hour ahead lol). I had 8 runs on the autoX setup and I did much better than I did with my stock setup on the same track configuration. Charbel did 2 runs and also had nothing but good things to say. He claims we need to corner balance the car. Personally I have heard of it, but don't know exactly what that means. According to him I have to buy coil overs now. My time came down a little bit, but the pedal never showed any signs of going soft. The event layout was very large for an auto cross course. It has some good speed sections that would allow you to get your car up to 70mph before hard braking, and then again to an even faster 80mph. The rest of the layout was slower. The real track test comes next month at waterford hills, and later at gingerman. I love them and I have nothing but great things to say about them. No annoying noise, no fade, no problems, and a very happy customer.


Oh and for anyone who cares to know.
Avante Garde M359 matte black
LS3 Angel Eyes w/full blackout
Eibach w/shaved mounts and e36m bumpstops
AE Performance section 3 w/adjustable tips
Hankook Ventus K110 V12 255/35/19 275/35/19 (Should have bought the super sports. Good tires but I drove henriK's car on MORR wheels with the new SS and they are awesome)

All that I have left to do is Turner Test Pipes with Evolve Tune
Plattforme AG Aero package
Apex ARC 8 square on something sticky
and maybe a CIC retrofit (maybe, trying to avoid wasting the cash)

[NOTFA5T]

Love it and looking forward to the install and review after track use.

[tmntmn]

Looks good rich! Can't wait to see the install pictures

[Dave07997S]

May I ask where you got them from? Are you aware that Vivid Racing used to be a major distributor for them and they stopped carrying them due to manafacture issues along with poor customer service. Now I am very aware of Rotora as they were very big in the E46 M3 days and I am very interested in this kit as well. So I am going to be watching for a full review on this kit.

Dave

[richardg]

I was aware of the issues Vivid Racing had, but first hand I had a completely different experience with Rotora in the past. I am completely confident in my purchase from Rotora. I will PM you my choice of vendor.

[Mike Lu]

Looks Awesome Rich, looking forward to seeing the kit in person...

[richardg]

Thanks a lot. Trying to make some time this upcoming weekend to get them on.

[Dellort_M3]

Is this kit really worth comparing to the Brembo GTR kit? What about the GT kit? and what would be the differences?

[richardg]

Originally Posted by Dellort_M3

Is this kit really worth comparing to the Brembo GTR kit? What about the GT kit? and what would be the differences?

I would say so because the main selling points behind the GTR kit is the weight savings in the caliper (compared to the stock GTR caliper), stainless steel vented pistons, calipers are forged, they have metal ring seals instead of dust boots, and a special finish that shouldn't fade or discolor. These are things I wanted in my brake kit on top of the other "standard" benefits to a BBK over stock systems.

I was able to have all of those features in the super challenge kit AND the pistons are titanium. Something you must upgrade from the GTR setup to the GTR Race setup to get. The only feature of the Brembo setup I don't have is a monoblock caliper.

Also something that I didn't know about in a BBK was the term knockback. I didn't quite understand it at first but after researching it I knew I wanted a anti-knockback spring of some sort. This kit has them. I saw no where in any product description for the GTR kit (or the stoptech offerings for that matter) that had that.


And the big thing for me was honestly price.
Front kit
http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/b...-p-130070.html
Rear kit
http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/b...-p-130072.html

While I do believe brembo is a great brand the cost of the GTR kit is silly. I think the standard kit is fair but the gtr upcharge is way out of line.


Oh and for those who don't know what knockback is (such as myself lol)
read this
http://stoptech.com/technical-suppor.../pad-knockback

[richardg]

Installed last night. Going to put some pictures up today and a small review. I am typing this from an AutoEx event as we speak.

[Brucewonder]

cant wait for the review and pics

[kitw]

Do the pistons have dust seals? I don't see any but the pistons are retracted.

[richardg]

Oil ring sealed instead of dust boots

[kitw]

Originally Posted by richardg

Oil ring sealed instead of dust boots

Thanks, I missed that in the first post.

But, "instead?" All pistons have o-rings, no dust seals mean they aren't going to last long. I'd keep an eye on them. (the Brembo GT-R are a similar design)

[RickyBobby]

I'm curious to hear your review on this kit and how it stacks up against the likes of ap, pfc, etc. It certainly is packed with great features like ventilated pistons and knockback springs. These are the details that separate the street kits from the race stuff.

Here's a similar competition kit for an e46 m3 that also fills the same niche. I am looking forward to the day when this type of setup trickles its way down to the e90 platform.

http://www.essexparts.com/shop/competition-brake-systems/essex-competition-brake-system-bmw-m3-e46.html

[richardg]

Review is up everyone

[richardg]

Oh and so everyone knows, changing the interior brake lines is the most annoying fucking process. Seriously I don't want to go through that again.

[Bubbles]

Originally Posted by richardg

Oh and so everyone knows, changing the interior brake lines is the most annoying fucking process. Seriously I don't want to go through that again.

Agreed, but worth the swap.

[richardg]

seriously is there some kind of special tool that could make that easier? I took almost 45 minutes on that alone.