hmm i want these now!! haha when are they going to be fully available? any different colors?

Will do...Yes, I wouldn't exactly call the stock brakes particularly attractive.

I'd estimate roughly 8 weeks before all of these systems are available...some sooner. We are considering a special pre-order offer if people are interested.

The calipers in the Sprint and Endurance Competition Systems are anodized gray with a yellow AP Racing logo. They are very neutral and look good on just about any color car.

The Formula Systems will be available in Red, Black, and Silver. I'll post sample pics as soon as I have them.

Yes please pm final specs and prices when they are ready please

Jeff please post some pics with the ap kit on the enkei wheels id love to see how the combo looks. Also what color wheels did you guys go with?

Extremely over kill for this car (Unless used as a pure competitive track car). Awesome regardless.

I am more inclined to see the reduction of unsprung weight in the Sprint System as being the major benefit with the extra fade resistance being thrown in as a free bonus.

Agreed 100%

Hi Jeff,
Chris in Oz, I wondered if you can PM me with all types and price options once they are done. Mine will be 100% Production based race car. It is about to have the full cage put in and when it's back I need to crack on so any information would be great when you have it..
Regards
Chris

I will indeed. I'll get you more info as soon as I have it.

We have a few of the prototype pieces complete. I'll try to get some pics up. We should have both of the Competition systems on the car next week.

The weight savings on the Sprint System is extremely compelling, and I think your viewpoint is certainly a valid one. I don't think you'll be able to knock that much weight off a corner in any other manner. Wheels and tires may shave a little, but most people will go wider than stock, which will negate some of the potential savings. Most will not go to 16's. Coilovers will likely shave some weight, but not 8lbs. each.

The extra fade resistance will be gravy, but so will all of the other features...better pedal feel, far superior longevity of pads and discs, cheap pads in just about any flavor, elimination of knockback, easy pad change, and they look at least 3.6 million times cooler. :)

can't wait!

I like your Sprint system for the weight savings. Here are a couple of questions.

1. Would this Sprint system work on the street in the winter in Minnesota? I am thinking specifically about resistance to road salt and sand corrosion. Could calipers be rebuilt if they have some salt corrosion? While I could change calipers and rotors for winter, it is a bit of a pain (and potentially $$$) to do so, so I prefer to run the same all year long.

2. Does AP Racing offer any Cryogenically treated rotors? I have had good experiences with these and live near and know the owner of one of the largest cryo firms in the U.S.

Hi Jeff,
Are you able to comment on fitting the Sprint System to RPF1 17x7.5 yet?

I would recommend swapping out whatever system you choose for the winter if you're going to be driving in those conditions frequently. Any aftermarket brake system is not going to handle that type of environment well. The salt and sand cakes around the pistons, eats the boots/seals, eats the caliper finish, and gets between the hat and disc...eventually eating away at the hat, and rusting all of the hardware, etc. It's a big 'ole mess. If you do it once in a great while and thoroughly rinse everything, you'd probably be okay. Sure rally cars do it, but the brakes are removed, cleaned, and maintained on a regular basis.

In my opinion, you'd be far better off just taking your brake kit off the car before winter if it is your daily driver in consistently nasty weather. Put the factory brakes on and sacrifice them to the salt instead. In a couple of years once more of these cars are on the road and crashed, etc., OEM spares will be dirt cheap from a junkyard. The three hours it will take to swap the BBK will save you money in potential maintenance. It will also keep them in far better condition, and you'll get much more for them when you go to sell them someday. Even if you pay someone to remove them, it will still be worth it IMO. Road salt is nasty stuff!

AP does not currently offer cryo discs. They have not seen the need to do so on their discs, even at the very top levels of motorsport. Many places allow you to send them your discs for treatment. The process of removing the hat from the disc is very simple on all of the AP Racing systems we will be selling, so that would be your option.

I'll post some pics of the wheel fitment template inside our 17x8's in a little while. I (we) can't guarantee fitment unless we physically try it, but on paper it looks like you'd probably be okay. I just ran the numbers on this wheel offset calculator. You will lose roughly 9mm wheel face clearance on the 7.5 +48 vs. the 8.0 +45's. Again, you'll probably be okay, but we can't be certain until someone actually tries it. I'll post those pics up, and you'll get a better look at what we're talking about.

Captain Snooze, I put the template pics on our blog site.

So torn.. want, but no need :P

If the Sprints fit under the RPF1 17x7.5 I'm very interested.

We snapped a few pics of the caliper brackets for our Competition Systems. You can see them on our blog.

Um, why are you guys asking about a brake kit designed for track use fitting under a 7.5" wheel? If you're set on skinny tires a 225 RS3 is a pretty good match for a 17x8. I would want an 8.5 or 9" wheel.

1/ Weight saving of sprint system over stock
2/ 7.5 weigh (marginally) less than 8.0
3/ 225 fit on 7.5
4/ You might want 8.5 or 9" but I don't.

Neither are you.

I didn't suggest I was. If he wants to run 8.5 or 9.0 he is welcome but he is implying that everyone who wants this brake upgrade should as well. I have edited that post to be less harsh.

http://www.essexpartsblog.com/news/FT86-competition

Updates! This was on their FB earlier.

Seeing them ready for brake cooling ducts makes me crazy and a real eye-opener for the exemplary brake upgrade attitude.

I dont have BRZ yet, and even the prices here in Russia haven't been announced still

But I'm drooling on your kits, for real

Keep it up! :laughabove:

Very excited for this kit to hit the streets/track.

My stock brakes are done the rotors took a beating at the track, looking forward to upgrading to this kit!!

Looking good Jeff. Very excited to see this kit on more cars.

Perhaps you can answer a question. What do the OEMS do that use 2 piece rotors? Are they special in any way that makes them usable in 4 seasons? I don't recall any of them using full race calipers, most seem to be the "street" version 4 or 6 pot so I assume with full dust boots, etc.

Thanks, me too! OEM's many times use a one-piece disc when running a fixed four or six piston caliper, for both cost savings and for the 4 season durability reasons. Some good examples are the Evo VIII-IX, STI, 350Z Track, C6Z06, etc.

Two-piece discs from the factory are fairly rare. A good example would be the Nissan GT-R. They use standard Brembo factory mounting hardware/spring clips...the same parts you find in one of Brembo's aftermarket GT kits. The typically address the issue by having some qualifying language in their warranty to warn people that the brakes are high performance parts, and as such, you need to be more mindful of maintaining them. For the GT-R, they even have a disclaimer for the brake pads in the owner's manual, stating that they are a high performance compound, and that they may make noise, squeal, etc. The car is so targeted in its appeal, that they are assuming the customer would rather have the performance and deal with the slightly greater maintenance. I believe it was a smart choice. Most of the owners only use that type of car in good weather, and even if they don't, they don't mind spending a little extra for the added performance benefits. As for the calipers...yes, they are not full race calipers from the factory on these cars. They all have dust boots on them.

Yeah only bad thing about the GT-R's rotors is that they crack, mine did at least but then i upgraded to AP j hooks and was the happiest man alive. :thumbsup:

How is the fitting going?

Got some wheels to test your paper matrix

Endurance System is on the car, and pics are up on our blog! We are going to tinker with the duct inlet on the bracket a bit, but everything is looking good.

Sprint System will likely go on the car Wednesday.

Everything is moving along nicely.:party0030:

Wow, that is a really nice integration of the bracket and ducting placement. I guess the big question for the consumer is, is it strong enough in such a critical location? A big hole right there kind of scares me!

Great work, looking forward to see how the ducting actually attaches to the bracket and to the front of the car. Are you planning on making special ABS replacement "inlets" to replace the stock fog light/vent piece as part of a kit?

I noticed a pic on the blog with the fog/vent bezel removed. Do you have pic from the front? I was curious to see if there is actually a straight shot into the fender area or is the vent "fake"?

I see that the "Sprint" kit does not use the vented bracket. I think I understand that Essex has created the two kits with separate goals in mind but I was wondering if it would be possible to get a Sprint ducted version? Basically maintain the light weight setup of the Sprint kit but extend its capabilities with the use of ducting. Or does that just add complication to the product line with "too much" overlap in capabilities?

Thanks! Yes, the bracket is absolutely strong enough. Our engineers use FEA analysis when designing parts. They can evaluate the loads and stresses on the parts, and identify any weaknesses. You can see a demo on the SolidWorks website. It's a bit simplified, but it shows the basic idea.

We are looking at producing complete brake duct kits. They may not be ready at the launch of the Competition Brake Systems. The timeline just isn't completely clear yet, but we are evaluating some solutions.
The big problem on the driver side is the wiper washer reservoir. It is right behind the fender liner, and doesn't leave much room to work. Below is a shot from the front with the fender liner removed. The 'vent' is just some ribbed plastic, and not actually a vent. The whole piece is very easy to remove, and the light just clips in with a simple connector.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9276/brakeduct.jpg

Initially, the Sprint Kit will not have an integrated air duct provision on the bracket. That feature adds considerable complexity and cost to the part. One of our goals with that system is to make it as accessible as possible, keeping the price point near our low $2k target range. If down the road we are seeing large demand for a bracket with an air duct provision on the Sprint system, it would be simple to design and produce them as an optional upgrade part for those who wanted it.

We're not terribly concerned about product overlap. That way of thinking stems more from trying to upsell the customer, or getting them to buy something they don't really need. That's not what we're about. We are very open-minded, and we're trying to produce what our customers actually want and need. That's why we are creating such a broad array of brake products for these cars in the first place.

Thanks for the input.:thumbsup:

What wheels? Shoot me an email and I'll send you the templates if you'd like. Thanks.

these wheels
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...8&postcount=24

I got your PDF matrix, but I recall you warning the dimensions may change as you hadnt confirmed the final bracket sizes ?
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...2/DSC_3075.JPG

Nice! Those are some light, sweet wheels! :drool:

As of this morning, we've now put both the Sprint and Endurance systems on our car. We've confirmed that the offsets on our initial designs are all correct and do not need adjustments. The calipers and pads are oriented properly on the discs, etc. Therefore the fitment templates we initially created will not be changing.

When you download the templates, I'd recommend you cut them out and glue them to a piece of cardboard or a manila file folder. That will make them more rigid and easier/more accurate to stick inside the wheel and check fitment. Below is a pic of how the template should be placed inside the wheel. You should be looking to have roughly 2mm of clearance around the template. Also keep in mind that stick on wheel weights inside the barrel of your wheel could ding the caliper, so be mindful of that when checking fitment (that probably won't be an issue on these cars unless you're running 16's, but I figured I'd mention it anyway).

If you do check fitment on a set of wheels, I'd appreciate a picture and all of the details on the wheel you check (make, model, exact size, offset, etc.). I'm going to start a database of confirmed wheel fitments, to make it easier for our future customers. If there isn't a pic, it didn't happen. ;)Thanks!

Click on the links below to download the pdf wheel fitment template:

Essex ENDURANCE Competition Brake System Wheel Fitment Template

Essex SPRINT Competition Brake System Wheel Fitment Template

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/166...tmentcheck.jpg

Thanks for taking the time to put so much thought into this kit.

Suppose I'd better start saving. Since I got the version of the car with the smaller non ventilated rear rotors my brakes will likely be worse than average and pads will be even tougher to find so this seems like something good to aim for medium term.

Which reminds me - what pads will fit this kit? Guessing they'll not be OEM equivalent size.

:)

These clear work kiwamis in 18 x8.5 +47 just checked!!

Wheel fitment templates have been added to my post above.

See post number 38 in this thread for pad discussion. I'll try to snap some comparative pics of the OEM pads vs. the pads the AP calipers use.

Great...thank you!

Jeff - thanks so much for the info. I've really come to love your blogs. You can never have too much info I say!

I agree, makes perfect sense to set the sprint kit up as a great "entry level" high performance kit that allows some expandability in the future, i.e. ducted brackets as an option, full floating rotors as an option, etc. I like not be "locked into" a choice and its nice knowing there is some dynamic headroom as my needs and coin purse allow.

Is it within your company's capabilities to have new fender liners made up that include a clean fitment passthrough for the ducting? I guess while you are at it, why not make a shorter, small capacity washer bottle that gives you the clearance needed to get a straight shot to the caliper!

We need someone in the ABS plastic business here! Anyone out there want to do a combo project with Jeff? :)

Keet it coming!