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I had an original GP2 caliper on my racecar crack. The actual casting cracked and was seeping brake fluid, so I had to replace it. The cost of the BMW calipers was around 1/2 price, so that car now has a yellow set of BMW calipers. I haven't bothered repainting them at this stage.
In my research, I thought I read the mounting bracket is slightly different and needs some matching to work on the Mini. If performing a like for like swap, the calipers are the same. Piecing together an upgrade, you’ll need to either have the BMW bracket modified, or try to find a GP2 bracket.
The real question is whether the 6pot brakes are a worthwhile upgrade over the 4pots?
nope, bmw owners swap them for 4 or 6 pot, like the stoptek st60. At a minimum if you track you will have to remove the shitty ceramic pistons and install stainless ones.
I mounted a GP2 set of calipers and discs on my JCW racecar no problems. When that caliper failed, mounted the 135 calipers no problems.
Obviously if you buy the 135's you need to buy the calipers only, as 135 discs will not fit a mini (5 bolt vs 4 bolt). So you need to buy GP2 discs to go with135 calipers.
Yes, it is a good idea to replace the pistons with the metal ones for trackwork
GP2 and BMW calipers are not the same.
To install BMW calipers correctly the place of bleeding valves should be changed. When we install BMW calipers in front of the wheels instead of behind the wheels the valves appear at the bottom of the calipers. So they should be screwed in the top of the calipers. The calipers should be mounted on their original sides of the car. R caliper shouldn't be mounted on the left side and and vice versa since the calipers have assimetrical piston sizes. The leading pistons are smaller then the trailing pistons. The outlets for brake lines will be directed downwards. So some special adapters for stock brake lines or cpecial brake lines may be required.
The BMW calipers are the same and work extremely well, stopping the car on it's nose. I have the yellow set, and the rears from the R56S JCW/GP2 painted the same, and they are an excellent supporting brake modification, balancing the car. Brilliant!!
A Mini I would say, is significantly lighter than the BMW so I don't care about that, the chances are they're doing it for the wrong reasons anyway.
The brackets are different, I think a guy on here fitted them with altered brackets, but I had some made anyway, big EN24 things which are likely stronger than the original.
You will NOT find Brembo brackets new on their own. I tried when working for BMW and it was looked into to production line level, and the Brembo's are supplied direct with them on, so unless you have a Brembo contact, forget it.
Fwiw, for the rears I used the correct brake cables from the R56 rather than **** about with filing bits and bodging them to fit. Better calipers with metal bushed sliders and lighter too. All together the best conversion, all parts available at the nearest BMW dealer rather than have to order special bits from different places that have to be posted.
Will this mean that mini brackets will not work in the correct
Way with BMW calipers?
Or are the mounts and calipers both symmetrical
so are able to flip without consequence ?
The brackets are symmetrical. But the calipers are not symmetrical. BMW calipers' brake line outlets are directed in the opposite side. In both cases (GP and BMW) the outlets are directed upwards when installed on the car. When we move the caliper to the opposit side of the wheel (in front of the wheel VS behind) the outlet will be directed downwards.
The most important is that the calipers have no symmetry in the sizes of pistons. So when the calipers are installed on the opposit side of the car (L on R, R on L instead of R on R, L on L) the wear of the brake pads will be uneven.
It's easy to put R to L and L to R, but it's better to undertake some additional efforts to install BMW calipers in proper way.
The BMW calipers are the same and work extremely well, stopping the car on it's nose. I have the yellow set, and the rears from the R56S JCW/GP2 painted the same, and they are an excellent supporting brake modification, balancing the car. Brilliant!!
A Mini I would say, is significantly lighter than the BMW so I don't care about that, the chances are they're doing it for the wrong reasons anyway.
The brackets are different, I think a guy on here fitted them with altered brackets, but I had some made anyway, big EN24 things which are likely stronger than the original.
You will NOT find Brembo brackets new on their own. I tried when working for BMW and it was looked into to production line level, and the Brembo's are supplied direct with them on, so unless you have a Brembo contact, forget it.
Fwiw, for the rears I used the correct brake cables from the R56 rather than **** about with filing bits and bodging them to fit. Better calipers with metal bushed sliders and lighter too. All together the best conversion, all parts available at the nearest BMW dealer rather than have to order special bits from different places that have to be posted.
