,
Driving a Wilwood-prepared E46 M3 on the street is drama-free. Says, UUC’s Rob Levinson, “when fine tuning the brake bias, we’re looking at several factors in braking, including the rotor diameter, piston size, pad height, and coefficient of pad material.”
Wilwood and UUC have done great to keep the setup with a front-to-rear brake bias of 55/45%, staying close to the 56/44% brake bias of pre-September 2002 M3s using the DSC3 master cylinder. Post-September 2002 M3s had a less aggressive 61/39% brake bias with the MK60 master cylinder.
The brakes also produce zero noise and a seemingly low dust level—although it’s harder to tell with these matte black D-Force wheels (as a clean freak, I like that fact). The pedal is super firm and very responsive.
Whereas the previous stock-sized brake and tire setup provided a good amount of deceleration grip that also gave way to plenty of ABS interaction, the recent installment of the BF Goodrich G-Force Rivals changed that. It was difficult to get any ABS-induced tire chirps with the new-found grip from our upgraded rubber.
After the Wilwood brakes installment, however, the ABS was back in action during solid depression of the brake pedal. The brakes are just powerful, even with the medium pad compound in there. That said, it's a moot point to test stopping distance and G-Force improvements over stock, simply because we're at the limit of the tire. It would be like testing 0-60mph with a 1000whp Supra on street tires, then adding another 200whp and testing again (who knows, it may even be worse in that scenario).
For fun, we tested anyway, but saw only a 1 foot improvement from 60-0 (122.5 vs 123.5 ft), with identical 1.14 peak deceleration G's under hard braking as the ABS kicked in. The only way to truly test these brakes is on a track, where you could see repeatable stopping distances with a firm pedal lap after lap, with consistently lower rotor temps.
Off track, the E46 M3 Wilwood/UUC brake system is a phenomenal setup with numerous advantages over its stock counterpart. It provides a low-dust, noise-free alternative to using very aggressive pads with the otherwise factory components. And the day this M3 hits the track we won’t have to change the pads, unless the car gets entered into an endurance race, which it won’t.
Let's also not forget that, coupled with our wider D-Force wheels and BFG Rival tires, we're up to a 30 lb weight loss overall. Lastly, it's pleasing to the eye to see brakes fully engulf the inside of a wheel, let alone black ones. It's the icing on the cake we already ate. But we're hungry for more, and it appears Project E46 M3 is now ready for almost anything.
With a more-than-adequate brake setup, we're ready for more power. In Part 4 we mentioned that our DME had crudded out, so we set out on an adventurous path by ordering AEM's new Infinity engine management system. Our setup includes the S54 BMW engine-specific ECU harness (top) for true “plug and play” convenience and operation.
Within an hour, Chad at Modified by KC had the system installed and the car purring like a kitten, confirming AEM's “plug and play” reputation.
Stay tuned to see just how well the M3 runs with this new EMS, and the cool features behind the AEM Infinity. Exciting possibilities…!
SOURCES:
AEM
BF GOODRICH
D-FORCE WHEELS
MODIFIED BY KC
UUC MOTOWERKS
WILWOOD
