Carl,

Terry Donohue and Andrew Kalman are giving you good advice. Try extra cooling ducts to your front brakes first. Your car will stop more consistently and the brake pads will last longer at the lower operating temperatures. If extra ducting doesn't completely solve your warping problem, the increased cooling can only help with any other improved brake set-up.

Proper cool down is also critical for preventing warping. After hard use, it helps to drive for a while with minimal braking so the rotors can cool evenly (if the cool down lap isn't enough, try driving slowly around the paddock area). Stopping immediately after hard use increases warping because the brake pads cover an area of the rotor, reducing cooling, while the rest of the (uncovered) rotor cools more quickly.

As I've mentioned in several other brake posts, my best advice is to purchase the "Brake Handbook" (Fred Puhn, HP Books), available from Classic Motorbooks 800.826-6600 for about $15.

That's what I did after warping my first set of M5 rotors. I figured I'd spend $15 and a little bit of time understanding the basics before spending big bucks on brake upgrades. After reading the book, extra brake cooling seemed like the logical first step and, in fact, has worked
quite well.

The book covers all the basics that have been discussed recently. One piece (normal), two piece (bolted hat), and floating rotors (dog drive between hat and rotor). Vented rotors need cooling air directed to the center of the rotor while solid rotors need cooling air directed on each side of the rotor. Curved vanes on vented rotors (and slotted grooves) alway lean back away from the direction of rotation -- and so forth. Highly recommended.

Regards,

Pete Read
'88 M5