Brakes Brakes And More Brakes

[Artie]

Well, first you have to decide what kind of rotor you want to use.

First thing is, do you want a floating rotor, can you find a floating rotor that fits with your caliper?

Floating rotors utilize little oval holes and are pinned to the hat with sliding bobbins. This allows the rotor to grow radially and does not distort the rotor as it gets hot, cause the hat doesn't get as hot.

Floating rotors are noisy for the street though, but you can get springs that keep the noise down a bit.

However the bolts for a floating rotor system (inserts, washers, bolts) will run about $300.

Each caliper has a range of thickness and diameter rotors that they will work with.

Next you have slotted or drilled. Drilled is BS, especially on the track... It's ok on the street, and it does help initial bite. Which is a problem with some aggressive pads, they don't work until heated to the proper range, so the slots or holes help you stop when you need to on the street.

On the track, the holes will increase stresses, and can lead to cracking.

The slots are really good for initial bite, and constant cleaning of the pads. THey are more noisey, and chew up pads fast.

Claudius' reason for the thin rotors was that he was afraid the rotors wouldn't heat up enough if they were large, but I think what he chose was waaay too thin. Probably fine for the street, not for the track.

You can usually find some good used rotors on Ebay. look for Nascar +rotor...

and look for a size similar to what the porsche runs...

Personally i went floating, with superfreakinghuge rotors, full race calipers... Of course I have yet to try it...

Yes, Claudius' reasoning was the rotors with dimensions over 1" thick might not heat up enough for normal/aggressive street driving and thus not work that well. So he stuck with .81" rotors. I will say that I don't think this would be the case in reality. I installed 13" X 1.25" thick rotors with Outlaw 4 pot calipers on my RX7 and track this car regularly. These brakes never fade and work flawlessly on the track, on the street they are just as capable and there is no issue with having to "heat them up" to get them to work! They just plain old GRAB! The street driving factor becomes brake torque not so much heat. They are a tad noisy and require rebuilds every couple of years because the calipers don't have dust shields but it's worth the tradeoffs, the brakes flat out work in all conditions regardless of my pad choice. Hawk Blue's maybe not as much, need too much heat to work, but Black HP Plus', HT-10's(Best pad ever made in my opinion), and HPS' all are awesome pads.

Artie

[Vulcan Grey]

YEah same with mine, no dust shields... though my rotors are 1.5" (35mm) thick...

I got a set of the softest compound pad available... shouldn't matter since they are 1" thick... each...!!!!

[Artie]

YEah same with mine, no dust shields... though my rotors are 1.5" (35mm) thick...

I got a set of the softest compound pad available... shouldn't matter since they are 1" thick... each...!!!!

Travis, I hope you camera has a big enough memory card cause I wanna see every aspect of the install! Any luck with the engine?

Artie

[lotus4s]

YEah same with mine, no dust shields... though my rotors are 1.5" (35mm) thick...

I got a set of the softest compound pad available... shouldn't matter since they are 1" thick... each...!!!!

You're gonna have to put a V8 in just to turn those puppies.....

[Vulcan Grey]

You're gonna have to put a V8 in just to turn those puppies.....

Yep, and with the vented titanium pistons, and 1"pads, I'm going to have to be going twice as fast just to get enough heat to stop (according to Cladius)...

Edited May 5, 2007 by Vulcan Grey

[abrussich]

Looking around for replacement rotors for the 89 I saw a set of EBC drilled and grooved rotors available from EBC.

They were advertised on a Brit site, Hangar 111. I believe they were around 123 British sterling.

Has anyone had any experience with these? And know of a source on this side of the pond?

Inquiring veggies need to know.

Al

[rydning]

I did build my brake kit myself,a heck lot of work but I learned a lot also :-)

I can not recomend this if you arent very skilled or able to obtain the information and do the work.

Main problem is to obtain good braking balance.To calculate the piston area compare to disc diameter.

I did build:

Front 322x30mm with 4pot willwood calippers and added cooling to the disc.

Rear 305x26mm with V8 calippers.

With perfect braking balance.

After exteme hard trackworks my front brakes began to vibrate and I had to find a solution.

And fitted new Porsche 330 x 32mm with new custom build hat.

But then again I ran into braking balance problem with to much front bite because i increased the rotor diameter with 7mm and had to use higer friction pads in the rear to compensate.

The main problem with most pure racing rotors is that they are incredible light and not intended to last more than one race.Then they put on new rotors for every race.Race rotors will stand very hige temperature but can/will warp when they cools down to ambient temp and then reheated.

So for street use and trackdays you gays will be better off with higer weights rotors in the best quality that are intended for repeated hot/cold use.And able to withstand watersplash cooling also........

I recomend a bolt on kit that works instead of doing this self....if you havent done it before.

A bigbrakekit that is intended for road use as big as possible.

I know that Ralf Burke at BB Sportswagon in Germany is making a 330x32mm with Porsche calipper and disc with 305x26mm rear that can take severe use with TUV aprooval.e-mail <RALFBURK@t-online.de>

Its probably several of the kit thats available that works good, just remember the bigger and wider rotors the better thay will take heat and the longer you can use it on the track.

Edited May 6, 2007 by rydning

[wiseraven]

Looking around for replacement rotors for the 89 I saw a set of EBC drilled and grooved rotors available from EBC.

They were advertised on a Brit site, Hangar 111. I believe they were around 123 British sterling.

Has anyone had any experience with these? And know of a source on this side of the pond?

Inquiring veggies need to know.

Al

I've got these on my SE with EBC Red Stuff pads and braided lines. This setup is considered pretty much the first step to decent braking.

They were on the car when I bought it, so I can't compare them to the stock brakes. They do the job OK for road use, although I would want better on track. On a recent 5 hour fast hoon round dry twisty lanes, they didn't fade at all, despite some pretty intense work at times.

Having said that, they're certainly not brilliant. They never came close to locking up, even with heavy pedal pressure, which suggests they could be a good deal stronger and I'll be looking to upgrade to larger rotors & calipers next year.

Phil

[Drfatz]

Travis your nuts that rotor is HUGE! I don't think I am going to go quite that large since my calipers are from a late 90s 911 not a 996/Boxster S. Although I will take your advice and hunt around eBay to see what I can find. I already managed to score those nice brembo 4 liston calipers for only $400!

-G

Yep, and with the vented titanium pistons, and 1"pads, I'm going to have to be going twice as fast just to get enough heat to stop (according to Cladius)...

Travis your nuts that rotor is HUGE! I don't think I am going to go quite that large since my calipers are from a late 90s 911 not a 996/Boxster S. Although I will take your advice and hunt around eBay to see what I can find. I already managed to score those nice brembo 4 liston calipers for only $400!

-G

Yep, and with the vented titanium pistons, and 1"pads, I'm going to have to be going twice as fast just to get enough heat to stop (according to Cladius)...