Modifications to braking systems are particularly hazardous because brake failures are inherently dangerous. This article is for informational purposes only. The standard disclaimer applies: work on and modify your car at your own risk. Take the time to learn it now, and your installation will go smoothly.

Fair warning: brake systems are pretty complex, so there is a lot of information in this article. The methodology we used is likely to work for many 90’s and 2000’s BMWs. These are our findings, and we hope they’ll help out future BMW drift builders.

Nothing was available off-the-shelf like it is for more popular drift cars, so we had to do some research. When it came time to actually source parts and install the hand brake, however, we found that information was sparse for the E39 chassis. The wagon’s 4.4L V8 makes plenty of power, but still there are times when a quick lock of the rear wheels would be preferable to a clutch kick. While building our rotting-in-a-field rescue BMW 540it wagon for drift, we eventually came to the conclusion that a hydraulic handbrake would make a nice addition to the car.