[terraphantm]

Originally Posted by EricSMG

Agreed. The OEM brakes last forever if used only on the street/autoX (my original factory brakes are finally done @ 65k miles) which means you'll almost never have to replace them, which makes the cost-per-mile negligible, which makes "downgrading" a ZCP street car's brakes sorta retarded. And that's not considering that you most likely paid extra for a ZCP car in the first place.

No offense.

It's not really any different than someone without ZCP rotors buying zimmerman blanks over euro rotors, is it? Why is it okay for non ZCP owners to "cheap out", but not ZCP owners? For street applcations, the ZCP rotors have no advantage over a hypothetical set of blanks (asides for bling). So why should one just piss that money away?

I have considered going back down to 325s up front myself. + as has been mentioned, that opens up options like PFC. I don't really go through brakes that quickly so Im okay with just spending the money. But if like the OP I get 24k miles, then I'm chucking this as far as I can (which at 24ish lbs a rotor, won't be very far... But you get the point)

[kmfurdm]

Originally Posted by Simann

'46 M3 owners cheaping out.

Hardly.

You lose nothing moving down to "normal" rotors except some bling and gain a huge amount of options on rotor choice.

[jkman720]

I made the move from ZCP's to pfc DD's. You'll notice the shift in bias, but I haven't had any problems.

[RedM3/4]

You absolutely do NOT need to change your rotors because they are at min. The common standard is that the minimum is the lowest number at which NEW pads should be put on without replacing rotors, or stately differently, this is the min value you can turn the rotors down to and put them back in service. For no track or EXTREME street use, you are wasting your money replacing them because they are at min.

BMW brakes are not different than every other brand and this practice which in general is applied across the planet. (track use or other specific use cases or situation can obviously affect what is/should be done). This is one of those rare cases where the defacto practice is in fact the accepted standard - the best way to have a standard developed.

And you're correct. My car, bought at 16,100 miles from original owner, also went to 24k miles, one track day to get to min spec. I'll replace them before another track event; they now have almost 35k miles!

I've thought about going to standard brakes, but will likely go the racingbrake way, since they should easily last twice as long for a given use and provide better track performance than blanks.

ADS

Originally Posted by 305miami

yeah its not really a downgrade, oem sizes for the front allow me to have so many more choices in rotors.

my pads are 6 months old hawk hps, and the rotors just reached minimum thickness. you guys think i can run them till i need new pads? my driving is all street no track events.

[p0lar]

Originally Posted by EYEHAVEYOU

Your rear piston size is different, so it will throw off your bias slightly

It will be 1.66:1, as opposed to an OEM M3 of 1.99:1, or a "slight" shift of ~16% rearward. The piston diameter in the rear ZCP/CSL caliper is considerably large at 46mm.