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RostHaus

Active member
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
34
While I'm not needing the change out the brakes yet, I was looking to improve the aesthetics and compile some parts for the time being.

My first thought was to just powder coat a set of i3 calipers in frozen blue, put on some slotted rotors and be done with it.
But then i saw the oem i8 calipers and knowing they share some wheel specs. might have similar caliper brackets too.

do they fit the i3 or has anyone attempted? They are a surprisingly small 2 piston brembo caliper. I'm guessing the easiest way to cross it off the list, is to see if an i3 wheel clears the calipers when attempting to fit it on an i8.

They look like they could be a rather inexpensive bbk upgrade for the i3, if they fit. I've seen used i8 calipers as low as $300 for a set of fronts.

I know this is purely subjective as the i3's regen does most of the work, so this is mainly for looks. I just haven't had a vehicle without a BBK or a set of Brembos in decades.
 
I like the idea of swapping out the little brakes but I expect that BMW looked at the brake size and combined that with the regen effects to give us what we have.

I am looking at changing out our GTI brakes to big brembos mainly because I can do it for a good price and not too far from OE brake costs.

I would think that the powder coating idea would be fun to dress up the car.
 
found a bit more info, for BBK fitments, sadly nothing on the i8 brakes.

Since BMW used mini brakes, specifically the r58 mini(the mini with the helmet), there are quite a number of small BBKs that should bolt on. Pricier, but some of the wilwood and dynapro caliper kits can be had in the $800-$1k range.
I know very little about the latest mini, maybe one of the non JCW models has a set of bigger calipers.


You'll like the brembos on the GTI, I've put quite a number of the OE porsche brembos on Audis in the past.
 
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