Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Endurance Brake Kit - Review and Install
 

Link to the post on Import Addicts: http://www.import-addicts.com/home/?p=7776

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Import Addicts Project FR-S: Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Endurance Brake Kit - Review and Install

Part.1 Information
In preparation for the future track tests of our project Scion FR-S we decided to address one of the short comings of this car, its stock brake system, which has been documented to begin to fade after only a lap or two of hard driving at most circuits around the country. But with this customers are usually left with one of two options, either 1) Upgrade to a more aggressive brake pad combo, slotted or drilled rotor setup, and stain-less steel brake lines or 2) Upgrade to a front Big Brake System or BBK for short. For the majority of people tracking their car they usually choose option 1 due to its immediate noticeable results and initial cheaper price all round. But for those who go with option 2 they will be paying huge upfront costs compared to option 1 users, but if you look at the long term costs of both users and the consumables that each of them will have to pay for; those users who go with option 2 will pay substantially less when it comes time to pay for replacement parts. This lead us to our decision to purchase an Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Brake kit for the FR-S/BRZ paired with Front & Rear Spiegler Performance Parts stainless steel brake lines, dedicated Ferodo Racing Pads for both the Street and Track duty, and Project Mu G-Four 335 Brake Fluid.

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A few years ago, when I purchased this car in its infancy, we didn’t really have that many options when it came to BBK for the twins, this was soon remedied when SEMA 2013 rolled along and with it many companies began to release performance brake systems for the FR-S/BRZ. One particular company was Essex Parts who spent countless hours of R&D on these cars to really find out what this car needed in order to start setting lap records and address the short comings of the stock brakes, specifically the front brakes.

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Unlike other BBK’s out there (on the market), that many FR-S/BRZ users end up going with, they usually come with dust boots around the pistons that prevent containments from entering around the pistons. But if you know one thing about the relationship of tracking and dust boots, you will probably know that they don’t get along well and often crumble and tare with repeated track abuse. AP Racing understood this relationship and made sure to incorporate high temperature, low drag seals without dust boots instead of the dust boots that most manufacturers go with. AP Racing also uses properly sized stainless steel pistons with anti-knock back springs, so it works flawlessly with the OEM master brake cylinder and ABS system right out of the box.

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Essex also includes beautiful precision CNC’d billet caliper brackets with every kit and, since we opted for the Endurance kit, it comes with a provision for brake ducts to channel in cool air directly to the center of the rotor for proper brake cooling.

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We absolutely love the build quality with the included Spiegler Stainless brake lines that comes included with every “Sprint and Endurance” competition kits. We also decided to opt for the optional rear Spiegler brake lines so we could properly complement the fronts and ultimately get a better feel through the pedal when we begin to track the car this summer.

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One huge pro about the Spiegler brake lines is that they’re DOT compliant, which can assure the user that it is a quality product that is 100% road legal. Another nifty feature that Spiegler incorporates in all their lines is their state of the art Du Pont PTFE- Teflon® lining that reduces line expansion and overall provides for a quality long lasting component.

Ferodo Racing Mu vs. Temperature Chart
We used this handy chart that Ferodo Racing has provided to help guide users on which pad to go with for your specific needs, like e.g. “Bite, Longevity, and Temperature Range”

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In terms of all the available brake pad options that are compatible with our AP Racing CP8350 calipers, we decided it was best to choose both a street and track dedicated pad so we can easily swap them back and fourth. We ended up choosing Ferodo Racing DS2500 (#FRP3079H) for the front as our street pad, and Ferodo Racing DS2500 (#FCP4187H-N) for the rears as they perfectly complimented the front pads since they’re made of the same compound, which is a important aspect when choosing brake pads for any application in order to keep a good brake bias. We specifically wanted the DS2500 since they offer many great benefits and are often referred to as a hybrid track/street pad, with its great initial bite, low dust levels, low noise, and flat fade characteristics which as stated in other words as the temperature goes up the feel through the pedal remains consistent.

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For our track pads we opted out for Ferodo Racing DSUNO (#FRP3116Z) for the front, and decided to run these paired with our DS2500 since many other FR-S/BRZ owners have reported back positive reviews with them using this combo at the track. Another great choice for a track dedicated pad would be the DS1.11, but since we wanted a better initial bite and also since we wont be running endurance type racing in the first few years; we came to the conclusion that the DSUNO’s would be a perfect fit for our starting goals.

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In order to complement the new shiny Essex brakes and track abuse that the upgraded braking system will face in the future, it came time to address which brake fluid we wanted to go with for our goals; this brought us to a hard decision between two popular brake fluids that we noticed amongst track guys Project Mu G-Four 335 or Torque RT700. In the end we were convinced first hand by the experience that our friends over at Evasive Motorsports have had over the years, with this particular fluid on their time attack EVO IX and Voltex S2000 racecars. With its high dry boiling point at 335ºC and wet boiling point at 221ºC, we’re confident that the Project Mu fluid would serve our goals just fine! We also love the fact that the fluid changes from green to clear, which gives us a clear signal when it comes time to change the fluid out for a fresh batch.

Part.2 Essex Designed AP Racing Endurance Install

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Installation was a piece of cake if you have all of the tools stated in the instructions. Essex Parts did a great job with the instructions for this kit, it didn’t leave much unanswered and was very informative. I would say the hardest part was re-bleeding the brakes with our new Project Mu G-Four 335 since it was a bit messy.

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The first huge noticeable difference came when we took off the OEM caliper setup with bracket and rotor. When we compare this to the AP Racing Endurance kit you’re saving a total system weight savings vs. OEM of 10 lbs or a savings of 5 lbs per corner compared to OEM. If you opted out for Essex Parts other more popular kit the “Sprint system”, you’re getting a total weight savings vs. OEM of 20 lbs or a savings of 10 lbs per corner which is huge weight savings on these lightweight cars and its UNSPRUNG weight removed the best kind to take off!

Also when you look at the photo above and compare the size difference of the Essex Rotor (Left) vs. OEM Rotor (Right), the Essex rotor is significantly taller and wider and still weights less then the iron OEM rotor.

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Just check out that huge clearance of the Endurance kit with our street Advan GT in 18×9.5 +40 no signs of rub anywhere!

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Part.3 Final Thoughts and Test Drive
After everything was set and done and I had a chance to recap on the whole experience, I would say that if you have the tools and time to take on a installation of this kind in your driveway I would highly recommend you to do so; because you gain great experience and gain a better understanding of how your brakes operate as well as a great sense of accomplishment when you finish the job with your hand. Once we bled the brakes toward the end of the evening, I took the car on a test drive with the street pads to see if I could notice an improvement over OEM and all I can say is that it’s really noticeable. The car still seems really balanced with these pads but has so much more bite then the OEM brake pads that we replaced. The DS2500’s squeaked a bit during the first 5 min’s of driving, but once I started the bed in process the sound went away and once I properly bedded them in the initial bite was improved. I can’t wait to try out the DSUNO’s at the track and really compare the differences that these pads have when compared to one another, to be continued.

Great writeup and review with awesome pictures!!!:thumbup:

Thanks! It took awhile to write up and fully edit :)

Hi and sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just got a bit confused.
I recently acquired a set of AP Racing brakes for my 86 GTS (AUS Spec) and when I was doing my research, the CP8350 (you guys call them something difference as part of your sprint and endurance packages, but they look identical and I think I spy "50" on the inside of the caliper) was listed as coming with aluminum alloy pistons by AP Racing themselves. With no option for stainless steel.
Was this something that you added as part of your kit? Or is it just because I'm in Australia?
I ended up going to a set of Pro5000+ front and rear as they were listed as aluminium or OPTIONAL stainless steel (I got the SS).

I just checked on the Essexparts.com and they have them listed as the following on both the "Sprint" and "Endurance" kits respectfully,

Endurance:
CP8350-2S4L/3S4L
http://www.essexparts.com/essex-desi...0325brzfrsgt86

Sprint:

CP8350-2S4L/3S4L
http://www.essexparts.com/essex-desi...0299brzfrsgt86

To my knowledge Essexparts doesn't ship any Sprint or Endurance kits sold in North America with Aluminum brake pistons, because of many reasons that they state in the description of those kits on their website. I would email JRITT or any representative at Essex if you still have any questions, I hope this helps.

The Essex kit or the AP Racing Formula kit?

Different kits completely..

The CP8350 in this spec has SS pistons. (in the spec Essex uses that is, which is for roundy round late model racers)

Edit: See this customer drawing from AP: https://www.apracing.com/drawings/CP8350-1CD.pdf

If the PN ends in L, it has SS pistons.

Thanks for clearing that up.
As i said it was more just that I got confused when I was purchasing brakes.
Those models may not have even been available here without custom ordering.
Over here all these things cost so much more generally so I just wanted to get the best I could.