I am considering changing the front set-up on my coupe and would like to know what you think is the ultimate performance brake and suspension set up.

Please, no should work theories, only the tried and true!

Thanks, Matt

Get Serious, but I'm unashamedly biased

Do you mean Yahoo Serious!

Feral,
Probably not but,
What size brake? How many pots? etc.
Oh and how much to send to Christchurch NZ?

For vehicles and applications like yours I normally use the Wilwood Dynalite or Outlaw 2000 4 pot caliper. Depending on your exact rim configuration we would probably end up with approximately 260 mm diameter rotor.

To do a complete front brake kit using the above calipers, special rotors, mounting brackets, all necessary nuts and bolts, brake pads to suit application etc would be around $1600 + GST. However for rally use which is not so severe on the rotors you can normally get away with a normal car rotor. The problem there is finding a rotor that will fit your hubs and will still accommodate the little 4 pot caliper.

The next step would be to physically bring over a strut, hub, bottom arm and your rim to see what we can fit and then we can decide a plan of attack, i.e. whether we use all the special parts above, or whether you search for a normal production rotors that can be adapted.




LES HUNTER RACING PRODUCTS
110 Breezes Road
Christchurch 7
New Zealand
Phone/Fax: +64 3 3884382

Website: www.leshunterauto.com
Email: sales@leshunterauto.com

You're not asking a question that has an answer.

Everything to do with a car is to do with tradeoffs. Selecting brakes is not just about "braking". It's to do with unsprung weight, performance, and cost. I like to have high performance brakes that respond well to emergency stops (city traffic), also new pads/rotors must be easy and cheap to source. This is what you want for the street in a daily driver. Many race guys want brakes that cope with high temps and have a minimal weight. I use my car on the street, and find race brakes are unacceptable when cold.

If you are racing, then money isn't as important as performance. And the performance requirements are different! So if you want the "best brakes" then you need to start with the limiting factor, which is almost always "money".

So for race..sure visit willwood or brembo with an open chequebook.

Otherwise, look through the brake upgrade postings on this site and determine which suits your budget, requirements..In that order.

I find that on the street, single piston calipers and large vented discs do the job nicely. Rear disc brakes on the street is kind of a waste of money. Especially if you have good enough front disc brakes.

To save money on brakes, you need to buy someone elses 2nd hand brake setup, because I can't see many 1200 owners looking for $2000 brakes, which would be the approximate cost of buying performance stuff new.

The best start for a 1200 owner is to install stanza lower arms, and moving towards using L-series based (510,610,810,910) struts.

There is no such thing as a performance "bolt on" brake upgrade for a 1200. So if you want someone to tell you a combination that works off the shelf..then you will either end up with an empty bank account, or be disappointed with small wimpy brakes..

Chris

Specifically I am asking for club members to give details of different front suspension and brake setups they have tried and the performance gains they have attained with these modifications.

Chris could you be more specific with the mods you have made?

It would be good if we could have a post (or tech article) which is more specific and comprehensive than the many fragmented discussions we normally end up with on these subjects.

New 262mm Brembro rotors at b and c $70+GST each, thay are for a 318 BMW but will fit B310 front struts, correct hat size etc but will need to be redrilled.

its a lot easier to be specific when people dont ask "what is the best brake setup?"

but more like, "i have $500 what is the best setup i can achieve for my front brakes?"

or $200 or $2000

i mean give us details on how much you want to spend and even what the purpose of the car is going to be and it will be much easier to give suggestions on setup and whether you are over or under spending according to the purpose

my front brake and strut combo probably cost $400 and i would consider it pretty damn good, probably overkill for a road car and without going to alloy calipers pretty damn good for a circuit car

but you asked for the "best", that would cost $50,000 and probably come off an aircraft

and how do you define the "performance gain", i mean i could tell you most of mates say it pulls up the best out of all the cars they have been in, but what does that tell you?

im not getting pissed, im just asking you for more detail, specifically budget and use

Brakes off an aircraft?