Quote:
Originally Posted by Bozman52
. . . so I'm still looking into brake mods for my 530d.
One thing that I hadn’t researched much up to this point was tangible evidence of the actual improvement these brake mods make, so I started looking into braking distances. The 550i has the larger front and rear rotors that would be an easy upgrade for my 530d, so I pulled up 550i braking distances. As I can’t get figures on an F10 with X5M calipers, I figured the M5 would be a decent comparator to judge what slapping on some Brembo multi-piston calipers would do. Here’s what I’ve found for 60-0mph braking distances:
530d- 118ft ( http://www.zeperfs.com/en/fiche4317-bmw-530-d.htm)
550i- 116ft (MotorTrend)
M5- 110ft (MotorTrend)
M5- 113ft ( http://www.zeperfs.com/en/fiche3969-bmw-m5.htm)
The short story is that there isn’t nearly as much difference as I’d expected. I appreciate that these braking numbers will have been done at different outside temperatures, on different track surfaces, with different tires, etc. Nonetheless, I really expected the M5 to stop a LOT quicker than the numbers I’m finding. Given that the mod I’m looking at would put 550i calipers/rotors on the rear and 4-piston X5M calipers/rotors on the front, I’d expect to see an improvement somewhere between the 550i and M5 numbers.
After seeing these numbers, I’m having a hard time justifying spending $1,200-1,500 on this brake upgrade just to shorten my stopping distance by a couple feet. Moreover, the X5M upgrade will add 7kg per front wheel to my car (and 2-3kg per rear wheel), so I’ll have to sacrifice some acceleration. Other than the obvious cosmetic improvement, I just can’t see why this would be a valuable upgrade to my 530d. I could put a full set of KW coilovers on the car for this kind of money, which would be a much more noticeable improvement!
I’m happy for dissenting opinions, as deep down, I totally want to do the X5M brake conversion . . . |
Remember that the Weights of the cars you chose to compare are significantly diff rent than your 530d and each other.
530d 3,792Lbs.
535i 4,090Lbs.
550 4,200Lbs.
M5 4,288Lbs.
This being stated the stopping distance on your lighter car should be significantly better than the direct comparison you listed.