[Mk2] [Generic] new brakes on - BBK

[raptor95GTS]

so my brakes were prety much fubar'd, the front calipers needed replacing as did the discs and the rear discs were in need of being replaced too. Did some sums and decided i hated the std brakes enough to pay some extra and fit something a little better (in my opinion )

So i bought a set of rear caliper re-locating brackets from Ant via his group buy and they came with all parts and fitted perfectly. So the rears are std calipers (cleaned up) and Mazda RX8 front 323mm discs however I chose not to fit the front kit as the calipers there were knackered. After chatting to various people and seeing some other setups I chose Porsche 996 front 4 pot monoblock calipers fitted over the Supra 325mm disc. Now I know the std mr2 brakes when working properly with race / endurance pads are the best thing in the world but if we all thought the same the world would be a little bit boring. Pedal feel is consistent, travel isn't excessive though I'm still bedding them in and tbh my original brakes were so pants the travel and feel of them was different on every press

For track day fans, the front setup per side is half a kilo heavier (alloy calipers) and the rears are 2.5kilo's heavier per side (same std kit but a bigger and heavier disc) Anyway some pics below, wheels are 8x17 ET 35 and rears 9x17 ET35. Rear clearance is fine as expected, the fronts do clear with plenty of space but it was heart in mouth til I'd done a test fit



close up of fronts


showing clearance of the calipers, wheel design here helped massively



close up of rear


Not to everyone's taste I know and some might say a waste of time effort and money but I like it and it's my car!

[monkeyra]

What year 996 did the calipers come off? Do you mind me asking how they cost as well? Thanks

[raptor95GTS]

it was a 99 model but I think it runs from 99-2005. The calipers cost me 310GBPounds and that includes 40quid import tax. I ended up buying from the states as the sellers on Ebay couldn't confirm the model of car they were selling from. 996 units have similar piston sizes to the std units (obv 4 instead of 2 pots) so the clamping force is similar

[Race Idiot]

What offset and width are those wheels? Did you have a bracket fabbed up for the 996 calipers I assume?

[raptor95GTS]

What offset and width are those wheels? Did you have a bracket fabbed up for the 996 calipers I assume?

as per first post fronts are 8x17 ET 35 and rears 9x17 ET35. Got some brackets made up for the front calipers, as they are radial mounts the work required is simplier but still needs to be accurate

[cantfindausername]

Looking good Allan. Very nice set up indeed!!

If I can find some readily available and affordable 4pots I may look at making an alternative front adapter

[Race Idiot]

Looking good Allan. Very nice set up indeed!!

If I can find some readily available and affordable 4pots I may look at making an alternative front adapter

i'd be interested if I had wheels that they'd fit under

I'm pretty sure some older lexuses came with 4 pots also 300zx calipers are 4 pot im pretty sure.

[JJ]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice !

[raptor95GTS]

cheers JJ - me likely a lot lol

Race Idiot - watch the piston size otherwise pedal travel gets larger and brake bias moves too far forward. i have a copy of the global Z brackets that allow you to fit the 300zx / r32 calipers but I had problems with the disc - it rubbed lol

Ant, fix the rears lol! give us decent calipers for the rear please hehe

[cantfindausername]

Yeah I'll be looking into something there too.

Would happily do the work if someone gave me a set of calipers to play with

[SFLee]

hehe , want to do a 355mm brembo caplier to play with

[cantfindausername]

Would be nice! I think I'd be happy to undertake anyones personal requirements if they supplied the calipers/discs/pads and a little beer money for my time.

[raptor95GTS]

got the brakes nice and hot today and my goodness do they pull the car up quickly . It's subjective how much better they are since the front tyre grip hasn't altered but it's so easy to stand the car on it's nose however the ABS isn't coming on so there's more to come. (I did on purpose thump the brakes on through a river of water and yep the ABS came on straight away - wasn't very harsh but I feel the pedal vibrate and hear the tyres complaining)

Ant, if you can find a handbrake caliper that doesn't have sliders, ie oppposed pistons then we'd be on to a winner.

[cantfindausername]

There are a few calipers out there with that set up that could be worrth a look. Do you know what piston sizes you'd want?

[raptor95GTS]

There are a few calipers out there with that set up that could be worrth a look. Do you know what piston sizes you'd want?

same as the stock rear would be a good match for the front upgrade or maybe a little bigger for those running different calipers. Stock rear is what 42mm? so anything upto 46mm would be cool and able to take 24mm disc though we could shave the pads if necessary.

A bigger m/c would be great too - supra one is 1inch but the 4 runner is 1 1/16inch and that would be fabby (i think)

[raptor95GTS]

ok a bit of feedback on this little setup. Was away on a wee trip oop North weekend just gone and the brakes were amazing. No fade, no fuss just oggles of braking power really nice feeling. As the pads got hotter the bite was better and better and I really did push that pedal a good few times and all I got back was windscreen smacking performance.

Love it, sure std discs and carbotec pads would do a similar job but I am running std pads so no need to wash the alloys after every run to stop the dust eating the wheels.

[kgx]

Allen, glad to see they're working for you. I got a chance to take mine out on track a couple weekends ago at Road America, and while it was mostly slow touring, there were a couple laps where I got to really test the brakes.

The pedal feel is actually amazingly consistent hot or cold. There was no fade at all (despite using the pads that came with the calipers), and the brakes didn't even seem warm when I checked them off track later. I think part of the effectiveness has to do with the Porsche calipers using ALL of the swept area of the Supra TT disc, rather than the Wilwood calipers that only use about 2/3 of it.

-karl

[raptor95GTS]

hey squire nice to see you in here . It's amazing the swept area, total coverage and that's got to help with keeping the pads cooler too? I bought new pads for the calipers, Pagid I think they were and it's just amazing. I'll maybe need to upgrade the master cylinder but no real need to do it now. I'm just stoked I have a brake setup that works, really really works Many thanks again karl

How is the rear setup coming on, have you sorted the E brake out? I see oteck has almost finished his rear drum / disc conversion and that's going to be awesome to have Shame my rear wheels won't fit with the wider hub

[kgx]

the rears work beautifully. i'm surprised at the braking the car can do now with the 235/255 tires as well. for some reason, it's so much easier to threshold brake than it used to be, and requires little in the way of modulation to keep the ABS from kicking in.

haven't bothered sorting the e-brake yet. it's silly and wouldn't take much to finish it, but the car is so much fun to drive i just don't want to take it apart until it's off the road for the winter.

i've also learned to live without it. i'm considering upgrading the rears to porsche rear calipers as well with bigger discs and running an hydraulic e-brake. i don't use the e-brake to hold the car for long periods of time, but it would be nice to have something to hold the car when i close the garage door, etc.

i'm glad you're as happy with the setup as i am with mine. i'm kind of surprised that we're the first ones to use these. i think paul woods built one car using big reds, but that's pretty much it. oh well..

[raptor95GTS]

haha I forgot you had the 235's up front, my skinny 215's get squirrely once the brakes heat up! I can feel the ABS coming on sometimes but as you say you can control it upto the edge. I couldn't do without a handbrake so Porker rears are out but with the RX8 323's on mine it's a fairly rapid stop. I do need to get someone else to drive / brake it and see what they think with regards to feel, stopping distance won't be that much different for one or two stops but for repeated stops the bigger discs are much more capable.

You see the track day junkies get by with std brakes and fancy pads so why waste money upgrading.... Paul Woods did JohnnyG's monster turbo'd V6 with big reds and his mk1 V8 has some Porsche blacks on it, there are a couple of others on here with Brembo's and ST205 4 pot calipers but aye not as many as have bigger turbo's ECU's etc