Anyway, the car needed brakes and I felt confident that the value and quality of the set up offered by the guys was the correct way to go, so I ordered my kit and weighted for the delivery. Soon enough the parcel arrived at Gary's APT premises and I collected the box like an excited child. The kit was comprehensive and very well packaged. Some of the instructions were a bit poorly translated but in truth, this was of little consequence.
The fitting, even for someone with my abilities, was really quite straight forward. The car threw in some complications that I hadn't foreseen but the kit did everything that I could ask of it in terms of the way it went on. I have to say that this was a nice surprise; very little on the BM has been simple so far :lol:
OK, onto the feedback on the performance as I'm sure that's most people reading this will want to know about.
I had read the supplied notes from K Sport and also read the Carroll Smith book( the latter of which was given more credence) and I'd tried to digest the finer points of how best to bed the new discs and rotors in on a car that couldn't be driven on the road. I know it would have presented a fantastic racing excuse in my first sprint at Cadwell ('Oh, I'm only crap because I'm bedding my brakes in :wack: ' ) but I decided on several short bursts of acceleration followed by increased braking pressure. This was all done in about 15 minutes before I'd gone out onto the track for the first time, so it couldn't be easier.
The first real test for the set up was at Snetterton where the big straights command consistent and powerful braking. I have to say, the K Sports stood up brilliantly. Lap after lap, they hauled me down from 120 plus on the back straight with no complaints and no real dramas. I progressively broke later too, such was the confidence in the set up, eventually getting to the marker between the 100 and 200 boards, level with the foot path for those in the know. Now to take a 1270kg car (inc me) down from those speeds time and time again, when the car has major stability issues with around 150 feet to go is pretty good.
In fact the braking power of the car has now highlighted several other issues, all of which will need to be addressed to take advantage of the new stopping ability. I often look at well sorted cars and see the balance of that cars abilities being the most important factor. If the car has loads of power but poor grip, it will normally perform less well on a circuit than a car with more balanced virtues. Well, I have the power with the grip to match and now I have the brakes too. If I can sort the stability of the car and control the weight transfer I think I'll have a genuinely well sorted package with which to attack circuits and sprint venues.
So some statistics and figures. (All based on my opinion)
Front set
8 pot 330mm kit
braided hoses
Ferodo DS 3000 pads
Halfords fluid
Rear set
OE M3 evo discs
OE pads
Value for money 10/10
So cheap that you can buy a full set, front and rear, for less money than AP fronts on their own. I will be buying the rears when funds allow
Quality 9/10
Some of the bolts were a bit shonky but changed for pennies and really not a big deal. I have mentioned this to try to show that I'm not a K Sport fanboy. 'Honesty is the best policy' and all that.
Performance 9/10
The only area of improvement will be in the balance of the braking force, and that is down to me using OE rears compared to the K Sport variant. I dare say experimentation with different pads and fluids will give marginal improvements also but testing by my 19 stone at Snetterton didn't yield one murmur all night and I was lapping well with AP equipped cars. They'll have to tell you whether I was braking like a girl
So there we are. I'm delighted that the gut feeling I had, the faith in Bren's testing, has paid off. I'm proud to have his brakes on the car and a third place at Lotus and a win at Cadwell in the recent sprints back that up nicely :thumb:
Well done guys!