355 and 345 Brake Kits
 

I am currently looking to upgrade my brakes again after pushing my last brake kit to it's limit. My car is heavily modified and 90% of its use is on tracks like Sebring and Road Atlanta.

I have printed the brake templates for both the Brembo 355/345 kits and Alcon 355 and neither fit my current wheels. I was wondering if anyone was using any of these kits, or similar size kits, what wheels and sizes you were running? I am currently running a staggered 8.5/9.5 18" set up and would prefer to stay with that, but am open to a square set up, but would like to stay with 18".

Thanks in advance for your input.

1. What kind of tires do you run?
2. How much power do you have?
3. What's your approx laptime at Road Atlanta?
4. What's your current braking set-up?



- Andrew

These are good questions.
How long do your pads last at Road Atlanta?
Do they just fade or totally fail?
How soon before they start to fade?

-Currently running r888r tires.
-Car has around 550 hp.
-Lap times at Sebring are around 2:45, haven't ran at Road Atlanta yet, but plan to.
-Current set up is the 08 STI brakes. Last trip to the track one of the front brake bleeders started leaking fluid. Was running Project Mu Club Racer pads, only experienced small brake fade halfway through 3rd sessions before fluid started leaking.

Yes I know I shouldn't race with brakes not made for our car. This car was more of a show/autocross car until recently, which is why I am now trying to get a brake set up designed specifically for racing.

The AP Racing endurance kit developed by Essex Parts will likely meet your needs and shouldn't have any clearance issues with your existing wheels.

A kit that uses a 355mm or 345mm disc is complete overkill for your car, regardless of how many modifications you have. As mentioned above, our 325mm Endurance Kit will get the job done, save you considerable unsprung weight and provide superior wheel fitment vs. those larger kits. Also, unless you're specifically buying a racing kit from Alcon or Brembo, our kit will give you a host of other track-specific advantages that keep both temperatures and long-term running costs at a manageable level.

The wheel fitment template for it is here: https://www.essexparts.com/storage/w...l_template.pdf

1. Our Endurance kit will fit inside tons of 17" wheels, while you'll need an 18" wheel for a 355mm, and most 345mm kits. Seventeens are lighter and cheaper than 18's, and 17" sticky tires are far cheaper than 18's as well. Switching to our 325mm kit could allow you to drop your wheel/tire size down and save a bunch of weight and money.

2. Our calipers have stainless steel pistons, akb springs, and use a very inexpensive, 20mm thick pad that comes in every flavor under the sun. If you're tracking frequently, you will be replacing pads frequently no matter what kit you get. Our calipers are also 5 lbs., which is likely lighter than anything else you're considering. They have a durable finish that won't burn up like paint or powder coat, and they have temperature piston seals that will last far longer before they need to be replaced (caliper rebuild).

3. Our 325mm discs have 70 vanes and a thick wall. Despite not being huge in diameter, that have a great deal of thermal mass. They are very efficient at flowing air and shedding heat, while not weighing a ton.

4. Our Endurance Kit shaves 5 lbs. vs. stock per side. Most likely any 355mm or 345mm kit you find is going to be heavier than the OEM brakes.

5. Our Endurance Kit comes with a very trick, built-in brake duct provision. That will save you even more money if you want to do any type of ducting.

6. In addition to inexpensive spare pads in all flavors, our replacement iron disc rings are only $250 each to replace. Any disc from Brembo or Alcon is going to be considerably more $$$ than that. Also note, attachment hardware for our discs is $30 per disc, vs. $100 per disc for Brembo.

In summary, if you go 355mm or 345mm for track use, you're going to be shooting yourself in the foot in many areas. Everything related to the upkeep and running costs of a larger kit will be considerably more expensive than our Endurance Kit. It will also be heavier, as will the wheels and tires you'll need to run to accommodate them.

If you're concerned about a 325mm disc not being large enough to support your power and abuse level, you shouldn't be. We have loads of customers with heavy, powerful cars running our 325mm systems. There are a bunch of examples in the links below. Many of these cars are 400-500 HP and weigh well over 3,000 lbs. If the system is designed efficiently, you don't need giant discs to get the job done. Anything larger than necessary is simply dead weight to drag around.

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...n-brake-system

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...regional-champ

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...for-lancer-evo

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...ast-evo-faster

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...-racing-brakes

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog/customer-review-ap-racing-corvette-competition-brake-kit

https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog...t-buttonwillow

You can see many more examples on our blog: https://www.essexparts.com/news-blog

If you want to see more details on our kit, including comparisons to the features of other systems, check out the videos on our YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-nRnuq_JLpTBXW_IT3tzOQ

This one in particular is a good example of comparing our feature set vs. what you'll get with painted road car calipers and accompanying discs from other suppliers:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iduAqKqiQXs"]Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Brake Kits: Part II - YouTube[/ame]

We've had very good experiences with the Essex AP Endurance kit on our own car. :)

- Andrew

As I mentioned earlier I have already done a complete STI Brembo conversion, so I no longer have the stock rear brakes. Would I encounter any performance issues if I paired the STI rear Brembo's with your front Endurance kit? Are their any rear kits that you could recommend to run with yours? I've seen where Stillen makes an AP Racing Kit with rears, but all their kits are a lot larger then the Endurance kit.

Thanks

I don't have the numbers handy, but my hunch is that the STI rear could have considerably greater torque output than the OEM 86 rear.My advice would be to simply buy an OEM rear 86 brake setup used. I'm sure you can find one for peanuts. That is what our front kit is optimized to run with out back. If you browse through our blog, you'll see bunches of 86's running the OEM rear mated to our front kit with high power levels and no problems.

As with the fronts, anything larger than necessary to get the job done is just dead weight to drag around.

Run the stock rear caliper.