There is an article in this week's Autocar on the M6. They say that the M6 has got the same brakes as the M5 which is not very good. They they mention that hot hatches have 4 pot brembo callipers and porsches have ceramic brakes but BMW has given us 2 pot callipers.
The new carbon ceramics were supposed to be the end-all in brake tech but they have had more problems with them and a lot of owners have consider swaping them for steel. Moral of the story is pretty doesn't make good. BMW ///M brakes are tried and true. I have had many people comment on how hard my little E36 ///M3 stops.
There is an article in this week's Autocar on the M6. They say that the M6 has got the same brakes as the M5 which is not very good. They they mention that hot hatches have 4 pot brembo callipers and porsches have ceramic brakes but BMW has given us 2 pot callipers.
I think a lot of articles are based on figures/descriptions/press releases rather than first hand driving experience. Owners haven't had much doubt on past M's and I don't think the flagship M5/M6 brakes on them are going to that flawed.
There is an article in this week's Autocar on the M6. They say that the M6 has got the same brakes as the M5 which is not very good. They they mention that hot hatches have 4 pot brembo callipers and porsches have ceramic brakes but BMW has given us 2 pot callipers.
This is just numbers talking. Whoever said that doesn't now anything about brakes. He/she can count and so decided that 4 pot brembos must be better than 2 pot floating (and i'm sure without understand of what the floating part means...).
This is just plain non-sense. Also, there have been several posts about this, including one of a fellow member who called BMW M and spoke with an engineer there about several matters, including the braking. His responses are enlighteningh enough...
There have now been multiple comments from highly respected magazines in Europe, i.e. EVO and CAR, (and now Autocar it seems), alluding to what they perceive as potential problems with the brakes on the M5, and hence M6. Most comments have stated that while the brakes perform very well initially, the testers were soon noticing 'fade' after a relatively short period of time.
Poor brakes are a chronic problem with BMW's, and it is a shame that the M Division cannot for a few hundred $'s more outfit their vehicles with World class brakes.
A good braking system entails far more than the ability to stop once or twice well from high speeds. The best high performance systems can stop well, REPEATEDLY, without fade. This aspect of braking performance is best noticed during track driving, or during the mountainous test driving that some of the European writers have been able to do.
The simple fact is that once again, BMW have taken the cheap way out with the M5's brakes; it's a real shame imho, and is the one true disappointment in the overall mechanical package which is otherwise superb; (a pity one can't say that about the external/internal look of the car though!).
Isn't it possible that BMW M has designed their brakes for street, not track use? I've never had the brakes in any M car fade on the street. Even at the Driving Experiences I could not get the brakes to fade, and that was with the Z8 (using the E38 750 brakes). The excercises were relatively short though.
I'd love to get a really good explanation on the benefits and detriments of the different brake systems, but as I understand it, you can't just say this brake has 4 piston calipers or 2 piston and that initself makes the system better or worse- like everything else its a balancing of factors. You know what, Dave Z would be a good guy to ask. I will see if he can provide some insights....
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All the best,
Jerry 00 Z8 Jet Black/Red Sport / some others
The real issue here Jerry is that Porsche brakes are 'designed' for the street also, BUT they don't fade at the track, (at least at the usual DE type of events most of us would use our M cars for). Both my '01 M5 and then my '02 M3 had pathetic brakes for DE events, whereas I've never had a problem with the brakes on either of the Porsches I've owned, or a '99 E55 for that matter. Further, no other high performance car that I am aware of has the type of brakes that BMW cling to. Every other system is using multiple pistons, pads, etc., in order to reduce the effect of fade imho. The resistence to fade IS a component of a high performances car's braking system, or at least should be!
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