pnm brake kit installed

[bens4s]

Hello,

I just had these installed. 6 piston front and 4 piston rear. I wish I had done a little measuring before I ordered. I assumed the big brake kit would be a little bigger. These rotors are close to the same size as the brembo I had before. They look pretty good though. PNM is the source. I thought some of you would like to see them on a car.

thanks, Ben

[Chillidoggy]

Nice one, Ben. I've been looking at that conversion, too. But I'm a bit dubious about the parking-brake holding power with such a small pad area. How do you find yours?

[top-plumber]

I have the PNM / Hispec conversion kit front and rear. The parking brake does hold but needs correct adjustment on a regular basis. I always leave the car in gear. My MOT station are quite sympathetic with the esprit as well.

Was a great improvement to the bendix brakes I had on my S4 which is an early 93 model.

Regards

Wayne

[bens4s]

I haven't driven the car since install. We have a few more issues to fix. It was a little aggravating that the braded lines from jae I installed last year would not work. I will update once I drive.

[bens4s]

On a side note,

To achieve the ride hieght shown:

I ordered spax adjustable dampers all around. I also had new oem springs installed. With dampers all the way down, the car sat 1" higher than stock. We had to cut the springs. If you want your car low, I suggest you buy lowering springs. I assumed the dampers would have enough adjustment. I was wrong.

[top-plumber]

These are the 283mm discs. Im pretty sure you could have fitted 323mm under those rims. Or maybe that is what they are?

They look great either way.

[bens4s]

They are 321

[top-plumber]

you have really large rims there Ben.  19/20"  ?

[bens4s]

20x9 front

20x10 rear

[Chillidoggy]

I have the PNM / Hispec conversion kit front and rear. The parking brake does hold but needs correct adjustment on a regular basis. I always leave the car in gear. My MOT station are quite sympathetic with the esprit as well.

Was a great improvement to the bendix brakes I had on my S4 which is an early 93 model.

Regards

Wayne

So it's as I thought, not that great? I'm not sure I want to be worrying about it at MOT time, which is a shame, as I'm quite keen on the set-up. I've been in contact with Hi-Spec to see if there is an alternative, more efficient parking brake caliper, and waiting for a reply.

[Bibs]

They're in Dartford I believe and I understand their customer service can be shocking! You're on a roll

[Vulcan Grey]

Those do look tiny in those 20" wheels.  You could fit 370's in there, but they would weigh a ton.  You have a foto showing your whole car with those wheels?

 

My 328mm rotors fill my 17" wheels.

[Chillidoggy]

They're in Dartford I believe and I understand their customer service can be shocking! You're on a roll

I shall be dropping by there very soon.

[bens4s]

I haven't done many photos yet. A TV show in Houston, TX wants to video it. If it happens, I'll post.

Before the brakes

[Bibs]

They are BIG wheels! 

[JohnstonA610]

Looks great. PNM have done a 360mm kit with bigger 8 piston calipers in the past but it doesn't fit behind any standard V8 wheels and therefore fits very few cars and so isn't really worth advertising. Will be big ££££ too. The 321 mm disc/6 piston combo fits very snugly behind the standard wheels and you can't really go any bigger safely. The performance improvement from this kit over the standard Brembo's/AP is massive as well and more than enough to stop the Esprit very well.

 

Regarding the rear calipers, I believe there is work being done on making the rear handbrake pads larger (twice the size). Pete from PNM knows more about this.

 

With Hi-spec, you have to remember that whilst they know brakes well, they don't necessarily know Lotus's (or any other of the massive range of cars that their calipers end up on). They aren't Lotus specialists so whilst they can do their best to help, they just don't have the in-depth knowledge of the cars that the likes of PNM Pete has. That's why Pete offers a brake kit for pretty much every Lotus imaginable and Hi-Spec don't.

[top-plumber]

There customer service is lame. I live just across the thames in Essex and went to the factory in dartford. Got the fronts sorted quite easily but when I went to get the rears I ended up with numerous phone calls and 2 visits and dealing with some silly sod called Alex who didn't seem

Interested in my money. So ended up going through Pete at PNM. Believe it or not Pete was cheaper than the manufacturer.

The parking brake does hold. But it does have small pads.

[bens4s]

Interesting... I wish I knew they had bigger. I was surprised at how reasonable the price was for this kit. Roughly 4k us. New brakes for my dads BMW are 9k just for the front.

[Advantage]

 

 

[bens4s]

I like it.

I should have put 22" in the rear

[Chillidoggy]

Regarding the rear calipers, I believe there is work being done on making the rear handbrake pads larger (twice the size). Pete from PNM knows more about this.

Really? He never mentioned it to me when I spoke to him about it last week. To be fair though, he maintained that the current caliper set-up would pass an MOT, however the information I have from one reliable source is that's true, but only just. I'm simply not comfortable with that situation.

I intend to visit H-Spec to see if there is any other alternative available, unless you have some more up-to-date info? If so, please share it, because I'm quite keen to upgrade, but not at the expense of parking brake performance.

[JohnstonA610]

The handbrake does work fine on the Esprit with these calipers (albeit they do need adjustment occasionally). Pete mentioned that the larger handbrake pads may be an option in the future on one of my other cars where the handbrake isn't as good (the car is heavier and needs a higher holding power due to the calculated weight percentage for the MOT). But I don't think there is any concrete information yet, so he can't really offer the information out there till he knows more and there is probably development/testing work that would need to be carried out before they can offer the caliper anyway.

[Chillidoggy]

Thanks for that. I did have a look at MOT parking brake requirements, but without it being on the rollers, it's a difficult task to calculate.

Is the adjustment you mention down to pad wear? Or cables?

I will of course post here if I have any further news from Hi-Spec, but if the reports are anything to go by, their customer service is a tad slow......

[top-plumber]

There is a grub screw that passes through the calliper and adjusts the outside parking brake pad. This seems to loosen over time. Either through wear or vibration. Put the car on level

Ground with the hand brake off , rotate the wheel until the calliper is visible 5mm Allen key and wind in to touch disc. Back off a fraction and done.

Dead easy.

Most of the development that Hispec do seems to be for fords and adapted for other vehicles. I recall seeing a billet 4 rear calliper with a separate non hydraulic parking brake being carried on the back some how. Phone them and ask for a catalogue. Or the web page.

Regards

Wayne.

[Chillidoggy]

Wayne, I'm planning on paying Hi-Spec a visit sometime, maybe this week, depending on time. I will of course be asking about any alternatives.