I had my M5 at Road Atlanta on 3-24-01 for the first time since opening up the brake ducts. Believe me, it makes a substantial difference. When I was at Road Atlanta back in November 2000 the brakes would fade to almost nothing after 4 to 5 laps. This time, I ran the car even harder and experience no brake fad whatsoever. The only thing I have done is open up the brake ducts and put SuperBlue brake fluid in. Stock pads and rotors. Give it a try. it works !
Nothing like a hands-on, before and after comparison. Thanks, Parkerfe. I think this is the most important upgrade you can do if you want to track your car.
Out of curiosity, how did the outside temperature compare between your before and after runs?
I gotta agree with Frank-- there were three of us M5ers at Road Atlanta on Saturday, and nobody had issues with fade! My first time on that track (last April, at 1400 miles) I encountered fade (pedal-to-floor! kind) four laps into my third session. Now, by opening up the ducts, I had no such problems. I also upgraded fluid (SuperBlue), front pads (Mintex C-Tech) and ran Goodridge stainless lines. Bottom line: more air to the rotors, and a higher T fluid works wonders!
It's interesting to note that we had three stages of cosmetic appeal: bmurphy had the all-out body-colored splitter, straight out of the M-Technic book (sharp!); I had the M-Technic 'web insert' installed, but no splitter (still workin' on that one, DrKev!), and Parkerfe had the OEM grill drilled out to feed the channels.
BTW, bmurphy had the Stage II Dinan suspension set-up, and he was experiencing considerably less oversteer (per the cornerworkers and instructors on Turn 7) than either Frank or I. Sounds like that could be next....
C4M5, The way I done it involves no new parts. I drilled multiple holes in the outside blanked out panels on each side of the grill. One hole per square. I then turned the wheel all the way to the side to get to the front panel of the wheel well. I then drilled several holes directly behind the existing duct in order to get a small keyhold saw in there to cut it out to match the size of the duct. Thats it. You can now through the holes in the grill and see down the existing ducts directly to the brake rotors. It is a straight shot. The whole job took less than one hour.
Originally posted by Parkerfe: C4M5, The way I done it involves no new parts. I drilled multiple holes in the outside blanked out panels on each side of the grill. One hole per square. I then turned the wheel all the way to the side to get to the front panel of the wheel well. I then drilled several holes directly behind the existing duct in order to get a small keyhold saw in there to cut it out to match the size of the duct. Thats it. You can now through the holes in the grill and see down the existing ducts directly to the brake rotors. It is a straight shot. The whole job took less than one hour.
Hey Parkerfe...
Any chance that u took a few photos of the whole process??
Instead of doing it the "legit" way, what about just taking drilling holes in the plates, as well as cutting out holes in the panels next to the foglights, and then taking flex tubing and routing it directly to the brake area?
Personally I think it would be easier and you don't even have to pull the bumper off. Opinions?
Sorry Guys, my car wasn't ready in time due to some issues with replacing my TriFlo exhaust system. The jerks at the dealership thought it was a stock system even when I told them that it was a TriFlo exhaust they needed to replace. That delayed everything a few days but as a result I have a brand new exhaust on both sides (all nice and shiny again). B&B will not fabricate just one side of the exhaust so my insurance had to pay for a completely new exhaust!
Anyhow, is there going to be a general Atlanta meet? Motorbahn in Roswell is having their raffle for a 2001 M3 at the end of this month, $100/ticket, max of 750 tickets to be sold (only 300 or so sold since the Petit Lemans), and the raffle goes on regardless! We could meet there!
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