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      12-20-2018, 09:05 AM   #1
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Essex Designed AP Racing Radi-CAL Brake Kits for M2 Competition save 40 unsprung lbs!

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Hello Gents,

We had a gorgeous M2 Competition visit our HQ the other day for a brake kit test fitting. We verified fitment of our system, and we have the components available to immediately build and ship our front and rear Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kits.

Here are some benefits of our AP Radi-CAL systems compared the OEM N2H setup:
  • Save close to 40 unsprung lbs!
  • Allow for 18" wheels
  • Our CP9668 kit has pads that are a full inch thick while still clearing the OEM wheels without a spacer
  • You don't need to remove caliper every time you want to swap the pads (which you do on the stock caliper)
  • Huge increase in the number of brake pad compound options

The list goes on. You can see more pics details on our blog:https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...m2-competition

For those sticking with the OEM brakes, we also have Ferodo Racing Brake pads available in the N2H shapes.

We save over 9 unsprung lbs. on the disc alone!










Last edited by jritt@essex; 12-20-2018 at 03:18 PM.. Reason: edited links
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      12-20-2018, 09:14 AM   #2
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Do these have any compromises as far as street use goes? Also, is the brake bias similar enough to stock that you could replace the front setup only?

Edit: never mind on the front only, I see the site mentions that you can do that.

Last edited by chris719; 12-20-2018 at 09:24 AM..
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      12-20-2018, 09:22 AM   #3
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Sorry to be one of those guys but can you please weigh the calipers also - that will make me a 100% convinced of its value.. #Thanx
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      12-20-2018, 09:33 AM   #4
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As with pretty much all aftermarket brake kits, our systems are designed for off-road-use only. The primary problem with any brake kit that has a separate aluminum hat (including OEM setups like you see on some Corvettes, etc.) is that road salt gets wedged between the aluminum disc hat and the iron ring, and corrodes the hat. That's why the OEM unit is a dual-cast. OEM calipers have dust boots, which are designed to keep grit and grime off the sides of the pistons as you wear your pads and they extend out from the caliper. Once they are taken on track and burnt or compromised however, they are useless. If you wipe the sides of the pistons off during a pad change, before pushing them back into the caliper body, you achieve the exact same thing as a dust boot. In our opinion, dust boots are useless if you are ever getting your brakes hot enough to destroy them. They just make a tattered mass hanging from the pistons. The other issue is salt and the caliper body itself. Paint and powder coat hold up better than other coatings if the calipers regularly come into contact with road salt. Water, dirt, etc. have roughly the same on all finishes. Anodizing holds up much better to track abuse and brake fluid than paint or powder coat does.

We have people driving our kits in all sorts of environments including dirt, gravel, snow, ice, tarmac...you name it (AP Racing is a huge name in rally racing). You can see lots of feedback about how our actual customers are using our kits on our blog: https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog

We have some lengthy threads about our kits elsewhere here on Bimmerpost as well. We've been sponsors here for five years:

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1126953

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=921567
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      12-20-2018, 09:34 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris719 View Post
Do these have any compromises as far as street use goes? Also, is the brake bias similar enough to stock that you could replace the front setup only?

Edit: never mind on the front only, I see the site mentions that you can do that.
No worries. Yes, our systems very closely match the OEM brake torque output. Our front-only system can be added without any negative impact on the OEM rear performance, seamless integration with ABS, etc.
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      12-20-2018, 09:39 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poochie View Post
Sorry to be one of those guys but can you please weight the calipers difference also - that will make me a 100% convinced of its value.. #Thanx
We weighed everything earlier this week, but I didn't get pics of everything. I'd probably have to do some digging to find pics of our calipers on scales. If you look at the product detail pages on our site, we have all the tech info on our calipers there. You can see the weights of all the factory components in this thread here on the forums. Please note that the caliper weights in this thread include pads: https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1497066

We also did a blog post back when we developed our system for the 2016-2017 M2. It has some comparative pics vs. the OEM blue calipers: https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...2-now-shipping
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      12-20-2018, 09:52 AM   #7
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Thought it would be easier to just snap fresh pics of our calipers on the same scale, so here they are:

CP9660


CP9668


CP9449,50,51
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      12-20-2018, 10:27 AM   #8
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love everything about this setup
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      12-20-2018, 10:30 AM   #9
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Instead of 9668 in the front, I'm running 9660 (slightly smaller and lighter than 9668) and 9449 in the rear. Even though, I weighed the AP kit at home, I hadn't weighed the stock brakes before I sold them. Nice to see the numbers.

After installing AP Racing BBK, 763M wheels, Ohlins coilovers, GC camber plates and 10mm spacers all around, my final weight was 3494lbs with full tank of gas which is ~70lbs less than stock (More details —> https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1553577).

These brakes are great and probably one of the best brakes (if not the best) you can have for track. Can't wait to try them out next year on my track days. My only complaint is about the pads I'm using. I'm currently using DS2500 as my daily pads since their compund is compatible with DS1.11 and doesn't require bed-in after every swap. However, DS2500 squeals little bit below 10mph when you are about to come to a complete stop. This is one thing I cannot stand in a street car. Fortunately, jritt@essex has been a great help in the past couple weeks in recommending me which pads I could switch to and finding me the part numbers. Their customer service is top notch. I've always gotten quick responses from him even though I haven't bought my brakes directly from them.

One quick question tho jritt@essex... What's the difference between 9449 and 9451?
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      12-20-2018, 10:40 AM   #10
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Thank you very much for the kind words, and glad our kit is making you happy (and lighter)!

For the M2 Competition our engineers changed the rear caliper we're using in our kit to more closely match the factory brake torque output/brake bias (we are within 1% of the OEM front to rear bias/balance). The '16-'17 gets the CP9449 rear caliper, and the '19 M2 Comp gets the CP9451.


Quote:
Originally Posted by cntzl View Post
Instead of 9668 in the front, I'm running 9660 (slightly smaller and lighter than 9668) and 9449 in the rear. Even though, I weighed the AP kit at home, I hadn't weighed the stock brakes before I sold them. Nice to see the numbers.

After installing AP Racing BBK, 763M wheels, Ohlins coilovers, GC camber plates and 10mm spacers all around, my final weight was 3494lbs with full tank of gas which is ~70lbs less than stock (More details —> https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1553577).

These brakes are great and probably one of the best brakes (if not the best) you can have for track. Can't wait to try them out next year on my track days. My only complaint is about the pads I'm using. I'm currently using DS2500 as my daily pads since their compund is compatible with DS1.11 and doesn't require bed-in after every swap. However, DS2500 squeals little bit below 10mph when you are about to come to a complete stop. This is one thing I cannot stand in a street car. Fortunately, jritt@essex has been a great help in the past couple weeks in recommending me which pads I could switch to and finding me the part numbers. Their customer service is top notch. I've always gotten quick responses from him even though I haven't bought my brakes directly from them.

One quick question tho jritt@essex... What's the difference between 9449 and 9451?

Last edited by jritt@essex; 12-20-2018 at 10:47 AM..
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      12-20-2018, 11:26 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jritt@essex View Post
Thought it would be easier to just snap fresh pics of our calipers on the same scale, so here they are:
Worth the effort, I'm sure you just generated like 5 more believers..

The fact that it can accommodate 18 inch wheels is just icing on the cake..
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      12-20-2018, 11:50 AM   #12
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The diameter of the wheel barrel is surprisingly small for 19" wheels...
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      12-20-2018, 11:59 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poochie View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by jritt@essex View Post
Thought it would be easier to just snap fresh pics of our calipers on the same scale, so here they are:
Worth the effort, I'm sure you just generated like 5 more believers..

The fact that it can accommodate 18 inch wheels is just icing on the cake..
Make that 6, although I have been having these conversations with Jeff on email lately and I'm 99% there on buying a set in January and having them shipped to the UK ready for when my M2 Comp arrives 😎
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      12-20-2018, 12:31 PM   #14
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The price for front and rear are over 14% of what i paid for my m2c with 2NH...
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      12-20-2018, 12:51 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Twinsturbo View Post
The price for front and rear are over 14% of what i paid for my m2c with 2NH...
Exchange rates, duties, and shipping all stink! When considering the price, please keep in mind that our brake kits don't plummet in value like OEM brakes. Our kits typically trade hands on the used market for 60-70% of their new MSRP. That means if you spend $5k on a front kit, you're going to get at minimum $3,000 back when you sell it (typically more). You then take the remaining $2k you have invested and spread it across your total time of ownership. When you factor in the lower consumable rates (pads, discs, and fluid bleeds), our customers typically find that our kits par for themselves over the course of 2-3 years. The more you track your car and are burning things up, the faster our kit pays for itself. We had one BRZ customer run an analysis of that sort, and he found that his cost per track mile was less than a third of what his OEM brake equipment was costing him:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...ght=essex+cost

That also doesn't factor in all the time one spends jacking up the car, missed track sessions, swapping pads and discs, bleeding brakes, etc.

Most people also don't factor in that they'll probably have to spend some money on their brakes when they go to sell their car on the used market. Most buyers of this type of car are looking closely at the brakes because the OEM bits can be pricey. If you have your OEM stuff new on the shelf to drop on the car, you put those back on, sell our kit for a few thousands of dollars when you sell the car. If your OEM stuff is trashed from track duty, not only is the car not going to present well, you may need to drop a big chunk on new pads, discs, fluid, etc. to prep the car for sale. That's the difference between a substantial cash outlay when you sell your car vs. a significant cash collection. Nobody likes to dump a bunch of money into something that they're about to sign over to someone else!

Finally, most of our customers find that our setup provides lower lap times, more consistency, and far more confidence behind the wheel. It's tough to assign a value on confidence, but it's always one of the first things our customers mention when we talk to them at the track.

When you look at the big picture numbers, the equity in the parts, and what you're getting in return, top-shelf brake kits start to make a whole lot more sense. It's easy for us to see these things because we have customers who have been with us for years telling us every day. It's certainly far more difficult to understand for people who don't know us or what we do. We believe our system truly is an investment. Hopefully that makes sense.

Last edited by jritt@essex; 12-20-2018 at 12:56 PM..
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      12-20-2018, 12:57 PM   #16
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Wait you need to remove the whole caliper to change pads on the stock caliper?
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      12-20-2018, 12:57 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Poochie View Post
Worth the effort, I'm sure you just generated like 5 more believers..

The fact that it can accommodate 18 inch wheels is just icing on the cake..
Hahaha...thanks man.
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      12-20-2018, 01:06 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Twinsturbo View Post
The price for front and rear are over 14% of what i paid for my m2c with 2NH...
I bought my kit used with only 1 track day on them. It came with brand new sets of DS1.11 and DS2500 pads. I paid $6K for the set (both front and rear) and sold my 2NH for $5K. For $1K out of pocket, it was hard to pass for me.
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      12-20-2018, 01:08 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmosMpower View Post
Wait you need to remove the whole caliper to change pads on the stock caliper?
Do you see those pins/bolts? You just unscrew them and slide in/out the pads. In fact, changing pads on this kit takes significantly less than changing pads on blue brakes (for which you have to hammer the pins in/out). I'm sure jritt@essex will explain better than me

Edit: Nevermind.. I thought you were talking about changing the pads on AP kit. I should have read carefully

Last edited by M-Pilot; 12-20-2018 at 01:24 PM..
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      12-20-2018, 01:21 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmosMpower View Post
Wait you need to remove the whole caliper to change pads on the stock caliper?
Yes. Here's what the N2H caliper looks like on top...fixed bridge. There's no way to remove the pads without taking the caliper off the car.



On the base blue brakes you can punch out the pins to remove the pads, and you do not need to remove the whole caliper. This is what cntzl mentioned. The pins are a bit of a hassle. I've had them on several cars and never liked them. In the pic below, you can see the blue standard caliper in the middle with the pins removed.



On the AP Racing calipers, you do NOT need to remove the caliper to swap pads. On the AP's there are little aluminum bridge pieces that pop out with hex head bolts. There are two bolts on the front calipers, and one on the rear. As noted, with our calipers it takes longer to jack the car and remove the wheel than it does to change pads.

Here's the top of the CP9660:


Our CP9668 front caliper (the one that takes the inch thick pads) was designed for quick pad changes during endurance races. As such, it comes with two bridge options in the box. The standard one that looks just like the one on the CP9660 above, and a quick change spring clip. With the spring clip, you don't even need tools to remove the pads! You just squeeze the spring clip, lift, and it swings up out of the way so you can pull the pads.



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      12-20-2018, 01:27 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jritt@essex View Post
Yes. Here's what the N2H caliper looks like on top...fixed bridge. There's no way to remove the pads without taking the caliper off the car.

On the base blue brakes you can punch out the pins to remove the pads, and you do not need to remove the whole caliper. This is what cntzl mentioned. The pins are a bit of a hassle. I've had them on several cars and never liked them. In the pic below, you can see the blue standard caliper in the middle with the pins removed.

On the AP Racing calipers, you do NOT need to remove the caliper to swap pads. On the AP's there are little aluminum bridge pieces that pop out with hex head bolts. There are two bolts on the front calipers, and one on the rear. As noted, with our calipers it takes longer to jack the car and remove the wheel than it does to change pads.

Here's the top of the CP9660:

Our CP9668 front caliper (the one that takes the inch thick pads) was designed for quick pad changes during endurance races. As such, it comes with two bridge options in the box. The standard one that looks just like the one on the CP9660 above, and a quick change spring clip. With the spring clip, you don't even need tools to remove the pads! You just squeeze the spring clip, lift, and it swings up out of the way so you can pull the pads.

My bad... I replied thinking he was asking about AP pad replacement but he clearly said "stock brakes"

I didn't know stock calipers required removal for pad replacement. Now I'm even more glad I don't have to deal with them.
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      12-20-2018, 01:43 PM   #22
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Quote:
I didn't know stock calipers required removal for pad replacement. Now I'm even more glad I don't have to deal with them.
Lol...Indeed! We see the same thing in the Porsche market. We upgrade a lot of GT3 and GT3RS, which have a front caliper very similar to the one on the M2 Competition (see pics below). The bridge is integrated/all one-piece. Because that bridge is so darn tall, it also makes wheel fitment a lot tougher. The integrated fluid pathways on the AP calipers also make them shorter...no fluid pipes hanging off the end of the cailper...which tucks them in even tighter.



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