Brake pads ATE or OEM BMW
I'm running Redstuff as well - they are OEM compatible.
M3 stock brakes are better, the GTI gets a little tail-happy under hard braking above 110-130mph.
Seems like there would be room in the market for a slightly detuned S55 base model without the fancy seats, brakes and wheels for about $5-8k less like the M3/M4: M3/M4 Competition.
I really love driving it though, particularly the brakes and the handling.
I don't believe you lose cold temperature bite with good OEM replacement ceramic pads like from ATE.
Have yet to find a better street pad than BMW's OE compound. Ceramics dust less but feel terrible.
Great cars. They like to eat brakes in regular intervals. With 70k make sure there is no front end shimmy that is the result in worn control arm bushings/warped brake rotors.
I have Bendix/Zimmerman rotors and stock ATE/Brembo SM pads and pound the living s**t out of the brakes on Track Days and HPDE ( instructor ). Other than a bit of fade after about 6 laps of HARD braking I've had zero issues. Pad life and condition is still excellent.
The way the brakes begin to grumble during heavy braking is less impressive, but they work well enough.
the steering lacks the consistent weighting and tactile communication that a Porsche offers. For a car this rapid, it's not as talkative as it should be. We've also got reservations about the brakes. Our test car was fitted with competition-grade brake pads to cope with track use, but they still faded badly after a handful of hard laps.
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