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FCP Euro Service Kits

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Having brakes that provide an extremely high level of performance inspires confidence in your driving. At the track it means you can go deeper in the corners lap after lap consistently, and consistency is one of the factors that improves lap times. On the street, it can mean the difference between a near miss or mowing someone down. When the urge to upgrade your brake system hits, it's important to attack these upgrades the right way to avoid throwing a good amount of money at your car and yielding poor results.

Your brake system is a system that is comprised of a startling number of parts, but for simplicities sake there are three main parts that you can upgrade to yield the most noticeable results.

The first area of improvement is tires and it's hands down the best investment you can make in your vehicle. A tire that can provide a high level of grip won't lock up as quickly under hard braking allowing you to maximize stopping power. Modern ABS (Anti-Lock Brake systems) will maximize stopping power even on over the limit braking situations and good tires can shave precious feet off of braking distance. This is especially true in poor conditions such as wet or snow covered roadways.

The second area of improvement is in brake pads and brake fluid. Brake pad compound heavily dictates pedal feel and brake "bite." Fresh fluid allows the system to work optimally as a fluid with a high boiling point will keep the pedal firm after repeated stops. Lastly, an upgrade to your cars suspension system such as sport/heavy duty shocks will aid brake performance. When the suspension system is working as designed, it will distribute force on the tires contact patches in a way that maximizes contact and performance. Worn shocks will increase dive and weight transfer and worn suspension bushings deflect and affect wheel alignment.

In addition to the above suggestions, engineers will, on occasion, throw us a bone in the form of factory level upgrades. These upgrades are generally hidden in plain sight, and a trim level above your current model might offer all the upgrade you need with factory levels of quality, fit and finish. If you own an E36 like a BMW 328is you might benefit from the slightly wider vented rear rotors offered on the convertible version, or maybe If you own a base model 350Z or G35 have you considered upgrading to the track model's Brembo brake system? Maybe you own an older E34 BMW that could benefit from the E34 European M5 brakes with their aluminum rotor hats and 4 piston calipers.

Afterthought:
The right pedal gets way more attention than the middle one. The right pedal will also sell a car quite alot faster than the middle one will. Most college age mechanical engineering students can quote the time it takes for an Audi RS7 to push 60 but very few could tell you how quickly it can stop from that velocity. 60-0 in less than 100 should be the new benchmark that cars are measured by in my opinion,

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Written by :
Kyle Bascombe

Kyle is the Mercedes Catalog Manager at FCP Euro and has been with the company since 2014.


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