[BackOnBlack]

The car has been flawless at the track. It performed superbly, did not have any mechanical or electrical issues, and I loved driving it each and every time.

The way the car comes out of the factory is so inline with its multi-purpose utility. For track performance, I really did not need anything beyond brake pads, fluid and cooling. The versatility that the car offers is really hard to put a "value" on it, a genuine Swiss Army Knife.

I did 8 track days, 4 events, 4 autoxes, and one trackcross.

Track work impact has been:

• Original tires, PS4S; fronts are done, rears still have 2 mm to the wear bars.
• I used a single set of RSL29 pads. I replaced them yesterday with the OEM pads. RSL29s are 20mm pads new, I still had 12 mm left both on the front rear. The braking performance appears to be so well balanced that both the front and rears were used equally.
• The rotors look to be in really good shape with very minor micro fractures. I imagine they'll last another season for me.
  
• Changed the engine oil 3 times in the last 7 months as an insurance for track duty.
• I did not use camber plates or springs/coilovers, and the car did just fine. If I had camber plates, it would have been better, but it is manageable without them as long as you are not doing time trials.

One thing is very apparent to me: The front brakes need cooling without a doubt. After each session on track I do 1 or 2 cooldown laps, normally. One time after about 4-5 laps, we got a red flag. I was just at the entrance of the pits, so I dove in and stopped at the hot-pit. Obviously, I could not do the cooldown lap. As I am sitting in the car, the cabin filled up with a lot of smoke from the open windows. So much so that I thought something was on fire. I got out to check, no fire, but the heavy smoke was coming from the brakes with the car sitting motionless. I don't think the front brake would have held up this well without the cooling.



I am so very pleased with this package. It appears that the car will hold up really well to moderate track use as is. We'll see. I hope you all enjoy yours in good health and while keeping the sunny side up.

Happy Thanksgiving,

[NYG]

The G82 is the first car whose brake fluid I didn't boil on the stock setup and I never switched to SRF.

Those rotors are really meaty and carrying a ton of heat but they do wear decently, I agree.

I'm going to see how the brakes do on a warmer day and with more aggressive pads. I may go ducts as well.

Glad to see you're loving the platform as much as I am.

[vrships]

My rear pads are worn out in 9 sessions during the weekend. Previously was 90% on a new car.

Tires wear seem OK but I feel it degrades on the very last two laps. Not sure if that's due to track condition.

Mine has stock fluid and no brake mods, only duct covers taken off.

I can tell you even with the pads burnt so bad, I can't really say there is any brake fade on any corner entry. I never had to floor the brake to trigger ABS.

It's powerful and long lasting. Just wish the pad wear could be better.

[BackOnBlack]

Originally Posted by vrships

My rear pads are worn out in 9 sessions during the weekend. Previously was 90% on a new car.

Tires wear seem OK but I feel it degrades on the very last two laps. Not sure if that's due to track condition.

Mine has stock fluid and no brake mods, only duct covers taken off.

I can tell you even with the pads burnt so bad, I can't really say there is any brake fade on any corner entry. I never had to floor the brake to trigger ABS.

It's powerful and long lasting. Just wish the pad wear could be better.

I saw your other post on this, but as soon as name-calling started, I ignored the thread

Firstly, I have never driven on LS, so I cannot intelligently comment on your driving. That level of rear pad wear appears unusual to me with DSC off. As I mention in this thread, my front/rear pad wear is the same over the course of several hundred track miles.

Then again, my track driving objectives or style is more of endurance driving, and trying all that is possible not to overuse consumables. Given your video, I think you have different objectives

[rafaeldelrey]

I have attended six track days with my M3 CS, all at Sebring, a track renowned for being extremely demanding on cars. Sebring is often used by race teams to prepare cars for endurance competitions, as it’s said that if a car lasts 12 hours at Sebring, it will survive 24 hours at Le Mans.

This car is simply incredible when it comes to handling track duty. I drove it completely stock, including fluids, just three days after the 1,200-mile break-in service, during the summer. It performed flawlessly, with no signs of brake fade or engine overheating. Meanwhile, other cars, such as Corvettes, Mustangs, non-GT Porsches, and even a McLaren 720S, struggled, likely due to the hot weather. By the end of the session, the front brake pads were completely worn out. I later switched to EBC rotors and Pagid RSL29 pads. I’m keeping the stock rotors and used pads to utilize with my Ultimate Care plan in the future.

After switching to Motul 700 brake fluid, I still didn’t experience brake fade. However, I did encounter a few warnings about high brake loads, particularly after exiting the track. I must admit, I wasn’t doing proper cool-down laps, using conga-line situations for that instead. It wasn’t uncommon for me to run 8 laps consecutively, plus in- and out-laps.

For my most recent track day last month, I installed Speed Engineering brake coolers alongside new wheels and tires (19x11, RE-71RS 285s, which run quite wide). While I didn’t experience any brake issues, the tires shredded the brake cooler hose, creating significant noise by the end of the day. It took me some time to figure out the hose was the culprit.

I also installed a Mishimoto heat exchanger and oil cooler, but I regret this decision. Refilling the coolant was tricky, and I ended up running one track day with the car cutting power due to air in the system, which made cooling worse than stock. I haven’t noticed any significant improvement in intake air temperatures (IAT) or coolant temperatures after the upgrade. I only added these because it’s something I’ve done on previous track cars to ensure longevity, but it’s clearly unnecessary for the M cars.

In my opinion, there’s no other car as versatile for both daily and track use as the M3 CS, or any G8x variant. You can take five people to the track, run the car hard all day, and then drive home with a stop at the grocery store on the way. BMW truly nailed it with the suspension and engine tuning.

[vrships]

the guy had no idea about those concepts and was stubborn when shown with the facts.

Yes I had clear goals which is to see how much faster this car can be than F82 ran by Randy on LS and how close it can get to race-orienter models like ZL1 1LE and such.

What I am very inexperienced with is how to manage parts consumption smartly. Even with no chance of clean laps, I still tested the limits on most corners. Partially it's due to the car performance being so consistent lap after lap with no signs of degrade in any system.

And I was watching over the front brakes a lot while totally ignoring the rear with the misconception that rear is almost useless but the front may overheat. And intuitively I thought the tires should be the first to fail but seeing them wear gradually made me ignore rear brakes more.

[vrships]

Originally Posted by rafaeldelrey

I have attended six track days with my M3 CS, all at Sebring, a track renowned for being extremely demanding on cars. Sebring is often used by race teams to prepare cars for endurance competitions, as it’s said that if a car lasts 12 hours at Sebring, it will survive 24 hours at Le Mans.

This car is simply incredible when it comes to handling track duty. I drove it completely stock, including fluids, just three days after the 1,200-mile break-in service, during the summer. It performed flawlessly, with no signs of brake fade or engine overheating. Meanwhile, other cars, such as Corvettes, Mustangs, non-GT Porsches, and even a McLaren 720S, struggled, likely due to the hot weather. By the end of the session, the front brake pads were completely worn out. I later switched to EBC rotors and Pagid RSL29 pads. I’m keeping the stock rotors and used pads to utilize with my Ultimate Care plan in the future.

After switching to Motul 700 brake fluid, I still didn’t experience brake fade. However, I did encounter a few warnings about high brake loads, particularly after exiting the track. I must admit, I wasn’t doing proper cool-down laps, using conga-line situations for that instead. It wasn’t uncommon for me to run 8 laps consecutively, plus in- and out-laps.

For my most recent track day last month, I installed Speed Engineering brake coolers alongside new wheels and tires (19x11, RE-71RS 285s, which run quite wide). While I didn’t experience any brake issues, the tires shredded the brake cooler hose, creating significant noise by the end of the day. It took me some time [...]

I agree strongly that the car holds it's peak performance well in stock parts and your experience makes me afraid that any aftermarket "race" parts will turn out less reliable than nothing.

When your front pads burnt out at Sebring, what mode were you driving the car with? And how did the rear pads look that moment?

[rafaeldelrey]

Originally Posted by vrships

I agree strongly that the car holds it's peak performance well in stock parts and your experience makes me afraid that any aftermarket "race" parts will turn out less reliable than nothing.

When your front pads burnt out at Sebring, what mode were you driving the car with? And how did the rear pads look that moment?

I use to drive on MDM. I m aggressive on brakes, as I have been told by some experienced instructors. With stock tires I also drove with DSC ON in some sessions and I rarely trigger the disc lights.

After this first Trackday where the stock front pads were worn out, the rear pads were maybe half life.

When I mentioned this (spending the front pads in a single Trackday), some said I could be dragging the brakes. Definitely not what I do.

[rafaeldelrey]

For reliability of race parts, it's a matter of cost, installation, durability and performance. The stock consumables are expensive and don't last a lot in extreme conditions, but any dealership should be able to install without issues.
My issues so far were related to installation. Taking that out of equation, in most cases, race or track oriented parts should be more suited for track use.