Stoptech's First BBK for E92 M3

[badfish]

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.

[KKSigua]

nice pics congrats. Did they have pricing yet?

[PencilGeek]

Congratulations on the nice set up. My M3 will be at SpoCom too -- in the Eibach booth.

Since I know a bunch of people will be asking these questions, I took the liberty to compare the OEM, Brembo, and StopTech brake parts. Please forgive me for the formatting, I couldn't figure out how to turn it into an HTML-style table on this site.


OEM Front Rotor ____Brembo ______StopTech
26.6 Lbs ___________24.8 Lbs ____22.01 Lbs

OEM Front Calipers _Brembo ______StopTech
15.2 Lbs ___________13.0 Lbs ____13.11 Lbs

OEM Rear Rotor _____Brembo ______StopTech
22.8 Lbs ___________17.0 Lbs ____19.33 Lbs

OEM Rear Calipers __Brembo ______StopTech
12.1 Lbs ___________9.6 Lbs _____11.145 Lbs

OEM Weight Front ___Brembo ______StopTech
41.8 Lbs ___________37.8 Lbs ____35.12 Lbs

OEM Weight Rear ____Brembo ______StopTech
34.9 Lbs ___________26.6 Lbs ____30.475 Lbs

OEM Total Weight ___Brembo ______StopTech
76.7 Lbs ___________64.4 Lbs ____65.595 Lbs

[swamp2]

Nice, looking really good. By the way we had this "debate" already. You can not feel 20 lb of weight on a car with ~400 hp and ~3700 lb, even if it is rotating. Last but not least - pricing please!

[badfish]

Originally Posted by KKSigua

nice pics congrats. Did they have pricing yet?

I'm going to use an educated guess here and say configured as I chose with drilled rotors and zinc coating just under $6200. Definitely give Stoptech a call if you are interested.

My M3 will be at SpoCom too -- in the Eibach booth.

See you there.

[PencilGeek]

Originally Posted by badfish

I'm going to use an educated guess here and say configured as I chose with drilled rotors and zinc coating just under $6200. Definitely give Stoptech a call if you are interested.



See you there.

Not sure I'll be there. I live 350 miles away...and my son's up visiting from college (UCSB). I have an open offer from Eibach to go with my wife; but we'll need to decide tomorrow.

[e92leon]

very very very very nice

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by badfish

I'm going to use an educated guess here and say configured as I chose with drilled rotors and zinc coating just under $6200. Definitely give Stoptech a call if you are interested.

Stoptech or Brembo this $6-7k brake upgrade is just a bit absurd to me on the price side. Such a miniscule performance benefit to price ratio. If it cost $2k I'd jump on it in a heartbeat but at these prices, I'll just "suffer" with the "OK" performance of stock and add some cheap BMW track pads as required for track work.

Car still looks killer, JMHO above.

[PencilGeek]

Originally Posted by badfish

I'm going to use an educated guess here and say configured as I chose with drilled rotors and zinc coating just under $6200. Definitely give Stoptech a call if you are interested.



See you there.

OK, I'll see you there tomorrow.

[consolidated]

I've always thought the Stoptech logos to be very distracting.

Otherwise, they look nice and I bet work well, hopefully they offer their kits w/o a logo.

[Nick@Jlevi SW]

Those are beautiful, absolutely gorgeous setup with the Vorsteiner wheels.

[badfish]

Originally Posted by PencilGeek

[font=Arial]
OEM Front Rotor ____Brembo ______StopTech
26.6 Lbs ___________24.8 Lbs ____22.01 Lbs

OEM Front Calipers _Brembo ______StopTech
15.2 Lbs ___________13.0 Lbs ____13.11 Lbs

OEM Rear Rotor _____Brembo ______StopTech
22.8 Lbs ___________17.0 Lbs ____19.33 Lbs

OEM Rear Calipers __Brembo ______StopTech
12.1 Lbs ___________9.6 Lbs _____11.145 Lbs

OEM Weight Front ___Brembo ______StopTech
41.8 Lbs ___________37.8 Lbs ____35.12 Lbs

OEM Weight Rear ____Brembo ______StopTech
34.9 Lbs ___________26.6 Lbs ____30.475 Lbs

OEM Total Weight ___Brembo ______StopTech
76.7 Lbs ___________64.4 Lbs ____65.595 Lbs

There is one thing that needs to be pointed out with this list that the Stoptech caliper weights listed above include the pads and bracket. I know the weights that OC Kid provided were without the pads but I don't know if the bracket was included. Overall, I think the weight savings is about equal, maybe slight edge to Stoptech because the pads for the Brembos are surely more than 2 pounds, but the difference is trivial. Stoptech uses a smaller rotor in the back and both rotors are thicker overall.

Stoptech 380x35 (F) 355x32 (R)
Brembo 380x34 (F) 380x28 (R)

[GT3 Tim]

Originally Posted by consolidated

I've always thought the Stoptech logos to be very distracting.

Otherwise, they look nice and I bet work well, hopefully they offer their kits w/o a logo.

I had the Stoptech BBK on my 97 M3. It was a wonderful upgrade. I loved the Stoptechs.

As for the logo, I also did not like it. Being as the caliper is powdercoated, and the logo is painted on, all I had to do was take a rag and a bit of carb cleaner and wipe off the logos! Then I had nice red calipers on there with no BIG ASS logo on them!

If I go BBK with the new M, I will almost certainly go with StopTech. Wonderful company and product!

[BRDHNTR]

Originally Posted by swamp2

Stoptech or Brembo this $6-7k brake upgrade is just a bit absurd to me on the price side. Such a miniscule performance benefit to price ratio. If it cost $2k I'd jump on it in a heartbeat but at these prices, I'll just "suffer" with the "OK" performance of stock and add some cheap BMW track pads as required for track work.

Car still looks killer, JMHO above.

+1, I couldn't agree more Swamp.

Maybe, if I got lucky and found a wrecked M3 that had Brembos and could buy them for pennies on the dollar, then I would go for it. But if I thought that was realistic, I would play the lottery.

[Ilia@IND]

The stoptechs look fantastic!!

Have you driven aggressively on these yet? How's the fade?

[icemang17]

It will be interesting to see a comparison test between the BBK kits and the stock brakes.... I think the standard 60-70-80 to zero test only once....there won't be much of a difference....only on the track after repeated hard braking will the BBK's start to show improvement over the stock brakes...but for a street car....its not worth it.... but the BBK's sure look better!

[badfish]

Originally Posted by Ilia@IND

The stoptechs look fantastic!!

Have you driven aggressively on these yet? How's the fade?

No I have not. I haven't had much time with the car since the brakes were installed but you can expect that this system performs as the other Stoptech systems do with the ST60 and ST40 setup which is excellent. The most aggressive braking performed was during the bedding process and fade was minimal. I have to get some 19" wheels for the track, these 25 series tires are like rubber bands....

[OC kid]

Originally Posted by badfish

There is one thing that needs to be pointed out with this list that the Stoptech caliper weights listed above include the pads and bracket. I know the weights that OC Kid provided were without the pads but I don't know if the bracket was included. Overall, I think the weight savings is about equal, maybe slight edge to Stoptech because the pads for the Brembos are surely more than 2 pounds, but the difference is trivial. Stoptech uses a smaller rotor in the back and both rotors are thicker overall.

Stoptech 380x35 (F) 355x32 (R)
Brembo 380x34 (F) 380x28 (R)

...actually my measurements included pads and brackets. Your car is looking great badfish, keep up the good work!

[badfish]

Originally Posted by OC kid

...actually my measurements included pads and brackets. Your car is looking great badfish, keep up the good work!

Thanks OC Kid. I was just going by this thread here might want to have him update the incorrect information. Regardless, 1 pounds here 2 pounds there is trivial...

Brembo F caliper assemb: OC reports 13.0 lbs without pads
Brembo F disc assemb: OC reports 24.8 lbs.
Brembo R caliper assemb: OC reports 9.6 lbs without pads
Brembo R disc assemb: OC reports 17.0 lbs.

[OC kid]

Originally Posted by badfish

Thanks OC Kid. I was just going by this thread here might want to have him update the incorrect information. Regardless, 1 pounds here 2 pounds there is trivial...

Ohhh...I see lucid has not updated that post. I did mention it here in the thread...nonetheless, thanks for pointing that out. See you on the streets.

lucid: Can you fix?

[badfish]

Updating this information since I re-weighed the stock brakes.

OEM Front Rotor ____Brembo ______StopTech
22.7 Lbs ___________24.8 Lbs ____22.01 Lbs

OEM Front Calipers _Brembo ______StopTech
14.5 Lbs ___________13.0 Lbs ____13.11 Lbs

OEM Rear Rotor _____Brembo ______StopTech
19.7 Lbs ___________17.0 Lbs ____19.33 Lbs

OEM Rear Calipers __Brembo ______StopTech
11 Lbs ___________9.6 Lbs _____11.145 Lbs

OEM Weight Front ___Brembo ______StopTech
37.2 Lbs ___________37.8 Lbs ____35.12 Lbs

OEM Weight Rear ____Brembo ______StopTech
30.7 Lbs ___________26.6 Lbs ____30.475 Lbs

OEM Total Weight ___Brembo ______StopTech
67.9 Lbs ___________64.4 Lbs ____65.595 Lbs

[M3_Kidracer]

Does Brembo have an M3 specific BBK? Because the last time I phoned them about a month ago, they told me they do not have it. sorry if this has been asked or mentioned before!

Cheers!

Btw, the Stoptech brakes look sweet on your ride!