Quote:
Originally Posted by Dermator
Nice pictures! Did your brake fade in the mountains?
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The majority of my 35K kms so far with my M2: German Autobahn and mountains.
On long Authobahn drives (many consecutive hours of driving) I experience some mild brake vibration and mild fading after some time, as a result from repeated braking at very high speed. Why 'repeated braking' and not simply releasing the throttle to slow down ? Well, I guess you know how the Autobahn works: once you get the famous "no speed limit" sign you can take your car all the way to the limit (± 270 km/h for a delimited M2), of course depending on road conditions and road traffic (safety first). But at some point a speed limit sign shows up out of the blue and you must decelerate quite quickly to abide to it (you certainly don't want German police to stop you for speeding). If you see it from faraway you can simply release the throttle and eventually mildly brake, but sometimes you got to slam the brakes. Or another road user forgot to use the mirrors and suddenly moves to the left lane upon your approach, requiring you to slam the brakes. For other's safety and your own safety, you got to anticipate all the time that those things can happen. Also lots of road works require you to slow down (mostly announced in advance). And subsequently there's the "no speed limit" sign again, or the slower car moved to the right again, and you can floor the throttle again. This acceleration/deceleration pattern goes on and on if you fancy a spirited Autobahn drive (but sometimes you prefer to cruise at high speed instead of very high speed). As you can imagine, those repeated hard decelerations strain the brake pads: energy - heat. And so after some time you hear this kind of 'voooaaam' noise when hitting the brakes, whilst experiencing a mild vibration under your right foot pushing the brake pedal (and sometimes some mild fading too if intense decelerations have been frequent).
Mountain drives: even during stints ranging from 8 up to 12 hours, my M2 brakes keep up quite well for me. Of course you got those variations: uphill driving, downhill driving (more demanding for brakes), cruising through valleys, chilly temps way up high, hot temps in the valleys. But IMHO it mostly depends on your braking behavior. Alike karting: don't overuse the brakes. When following a car in the mountains, you can fairly easily spot if the driver is used to mountain driving: those who don't brake often whilst keeping a steady pace through the turns. And if you notice a burning smell or even see smoke evaporating from the front wheels: no good (the driver in front of you is cooking his/her brakes).
Quote:
Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster
The question is... is stopping capability of the car actually improved...? or is this just keeping up with the extra 150 lbs..
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I'm interested to get the new M Performance Brakes ("BMW M Compound Brake Discs of the BMW M Sports Brake System Red") for my M2 to optimize the brake capacity. Even with the extra 16 kg compared to my current standard brakes, my car will still be lighter when compared to a similarly equipped M2 Competition with standard brakes.
This was last Saturday (encountering rain and sun in the Dolomites the same day):
