I want M Coupe or E36 M3 rear brakes on the E30. I'm going to finally be able to finish the S52 swap at the end of next month (barring any major problems). In the winter, I want to go 5 lug. I want to use E36 M3 stuff up front (so I can use the Euro floating rotors), but the Ti stuff out back would not be a good combination, I believe. I'd like to have the brakes off the car that the engine came from. Considering the E30 is lighter it should be a NICE upgrade while avoiding the expense of expensive rotor/pads replacements of a BBK. I know the E30 M3 guys use a rotor spacer to use the E36 M3 stuff, but thus far, it seems no one has figure out how to get E36 M3 or M Coupe brakes on the back on an E30 without swapping on the M trailing arms, which are not only very difficult to find, but expensive as all get out when you do. Any ideas? I have some car enthusiast buddies with ME degrees and I think we might see if we can work this out, but wanted to see if anyone else had some ideas.
I am not so certain this would be better. Compare the E36 weight bias to your E30 (as modified) weight bias and I think you'll find that the E36 carries a lot more weight back there, especially if your E30 is now heavier in front than most other E30s. As a result, there's a very good chance your ti brakes might be not only adequate, but maybe even better matched for the weight, compared to the front. Even in endurance racing, you rarely see cars wearing out their rear brake pads. Before changing the rear brakes, I would drive it and see if you have any issues. If not, buy me a beer and thank me for saving you that expense.
Very interesting perspective! I'm also planning on ditching the stock limiter and going with an adjustable proportioning valve, so I think you're right that it could be dialed in nicely. BBKs are nice but the buy in is high and I have to think they would be complete bling/overkill on an E30 like mine that will see the street and some Auto-X and Hpde duty. Although I admit, I want M stuff up front to help fill the 17s that I will run. You can barely even see my e30 rotors in my 17s. I want to run those tasty TRM MT1-Rs from tirerack!
Great insight CR! Z31, I will be running this combo (M3 front / TI rear) on my M50 swapped E30 so I will report back to you on the braking. I think Daniel over on r3v runs this setup with an S52 so I would try asking him as well. The only thing that concerns me about the TI rear setup is the tiny wheel bearing and solid brakes.
Thank you. Not sure why wheel bearing size would be a problem. Solid brake disks would not concern me absent some evidence they're getting overheated. You can tell just by looking at their size that they don't work very hard. In my racing days, we ran Hondas with rear drum brakes one year and disks the next. The 'better' brakes made no real difference in competition (and we won championships anyway).
I've also removed the tools, trunk tar and would remove the spare for Autox/HPDE use, so that's another 80ish pounds out the rear in addition to added weight in the front. I wonder if I should stick with the stock E30 or go with a bigger one to better match the bigger pistons. Oh and I got to drive daniels OBD-I S52 Saturday, didn't get much time to drive the tristies or anything, but wow is that motor amazing in the lighter E30.
