The BMW F80 has great brakes from the factory, so driving hard on a race track usually only requires a set of track worthy brake pads and some form of brake cooling.
Vorshlag has offered ducted hose style brake cooling backing plates, inlet ducts, and tubing for a number of cars for many years - and we still do for some models. This is how everyone cooled the brakes for track use for many decades.
Well there are issues doing that, namely the corrugated hose feeding a ducted backing plate has some serious flow restrictions, plus wider front tires and wheels can rub holes in them approaching full steering lock. But there is another way...
This is our brake cooling deflector kit for the BMW F80 M3 and M4, which takes the place of the factory dust shield. This takes the air stream from the front of the BMW F80's heat exchangers and redirects that airflow into the inside of the rotor. The rotor vanes act as a pump and push the air out of the rotor, cooling it from the inside-out. We have track tested this style design on many cars and it works.
This design completely replaces the factory dust shield, and in doing so we have built in two heat shield sections that leave an air gap between the deflector and the two lower ball joints - on the tie rod and at the control arms.
How do these deflectors work? The incoming airflow from the heat exchangers and from under the car feed cooling air to these deflectors, which then pump air inside the rotor hat. You will need to remove the factory dust shields, obviously.
This volume of air cools the hubs then the vanes inside the vented rotors pull air through like an air pump, which cools the rotors and pads. It works surprisingly well. On every car we have built these for and tested on track they outflow and outcool even 4" ducted brake hose kits!
All Vorshlag brake cooling deflectors kits are built in-house, with CNC cut plates bent to fixtures we keep on hand. Remember: There are no 3" or 4" corrugated "consumable" brake cooling hoses needed. Those hoses can get smashed by tires while near steering lock, and have to be replaced regularly. This kit is still less costly than our ducted backing plate + hose kits.
FEED IT: BRAKE INLET DUCTS OR TUNNELS
The brake deflectors need to be fed cooling air from a high pressure source, such as the front of the car or tunnels in an undertray or splitter. The F80 BMW doesn't have a factory duct, like the E30/E36/E90 models did before. There is some airflow from the front grill openings through heat exchangers, which is better than nothing!
The easiest way is the OEM heat exchanger ducts that already exist on the M3 and M4. BMW created a perfectly adequate air flow on these models.
Alternatively a well placed "tunnel" molded into an undertray or added to a front splitter can feed as much or more air to the deflectors - while also adding downforce.
If your F80 is a race car and has a splitter - and your class rules allow for tunnels - point them right at the deflector, like in the picture shown above. You can also see our S550 Brake Deflector Kit for ideas on tunnels.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
Installing the Vorshlag F80 front brake deflector cooling kit is easy, as it does not require removing the front wheel hubs like some other BMW models. Just get the car in the air, remove the caliper and rotor...
The next step is to remove the factory dust shield, which is behind the rotor and bolted to the spindle. The stock dust shield is behind the front hub, so you have to pull the caliper and then the rotor to gain access.
With the OEM dust shield set aside, save the upper bolts.
Next, the brake deflector is bolted in place of the dust shield, as shown above. Use the factory bolt for the upper hole, and the two aluminum spacers with longer M6-1.0 bolts for the lower two mounting holes.
The video linked above shows how to adjust the deflector once installed to clear the control arm at full steering lock.
The last step is to re-install the brake rotor and caliper. This car has an AP brake, but the OEM brakes work well also. The deflector should have an air gap to both the rotor and the ball joints - feel free to bend these lower parts if they touch one or the other. This is all the lower portion of the original dust shield does, act as an air gapped heat shield, so we aren't losing that capability - just gaining a lot of brake cooling!
