Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB

Hello Fellow 86ers. I wanted to post my review of the Racing Brake 13” F&R Combo.

To start off let me say that Alex has been great to deal with and if my review helps the development move forward towards more complete kits and better instructions than I am happy to have been a part of this. I won’t go into an incredible amount of detail but will try to post my comments of various aspect of the kit and highlight the important bits.
Also of great importance was the fact that the front kit was wrong to start with and I had to ship it back and wait for the corrected one to be shipped back. Let me tell you after tons of vendor experiences over the years this is where you find out if the vendor has any worth. Not being brutal just honest. When it all falls apart….and it did, the level of support and reassurance that comes tells the tale of woe or success. Racing Brake gets a strong mark on this because they did send return labels, correct the issue and send out a new kit within two weeks. Also I must give a huge shout out to McCoy Tire in Modesto, Ca who did the install and powered through the challenges and lack of thourough instructions like a champ.
OK, on to the nitty gritty:

Packaging: Top notch safe and sound. Nothing to pick on at all.
Score: A

Quality: Parts quality are top notch, calipers are indeed beautiful and finished as if they were dipped in plastic. The pads come pre-loaded and ready to mount which saves time and is a nice touch. The pads are the ET500 I believe they call them which are an aggressive street pad. They had to send noise shims because of the squeaking. The fronts still squeak a bit which is annoying. I will probably try another compound to see if this fixes the squeaks further. Evidently the rotors are very hard so it can be tricky finding pads that wear with the proper coefficient to work but not make racket.

The brackets are anodized black and machined very nicely. The rotors….ahhhhh the rotors. The front with the black finish are fantastic. The rears has the older silver finish – This knocks the grade down as the black finish is superior and won’t quickly rust whereas the silver comes off quickly and is already showing signs of corrosion in the nooks and crannies.
The lines were again very nice and had the corrected brackets to mount just like OEM, perhaps a tad long but otherwise perfect. As a side not I opted for Motul Fluid.

Score: B

Installation:

The install for the rears was very straightforward with obvious trimming of the shield at the edge needed to avoid any contact with the rotor. What is not stated on the web or in the very basic instructions is that you will need to trim the inner shield closest to the drum e-brake pads as once it is all bolted together there is not enough clearance and the wheel will not turn. Kind of a big deal to leave out of the manual, but I know Alex will get it sorted on future kits and make sure there is a note about this making it clear. Otherwise the rear is very straightforward and all bolts right up and aligns properly with nary a shim in sight, but will definitely need noise shims as it was embarrassingly loud. Once we received the front kit it too went on very cleanly and with no trimming was even simpler to install since the trimming takes time. The front lines and all went on smoothly once we oriented them correctly. The fronts with shims will be tight so you will need to bed them in quickly to allow a hairs clearance. Bleeding the system was straightforward but I am not convinced we will not need to do this again as I feel there still might be a bit of air in the system.

Score: B-

On the road:

The brakes feel strong with some slight squeaking at low speed stops. It is imperative to bed in correctly as they will feel terrible until you do. Once they start to bed in you get more pedal and confidence. I recommend bleeding again after you get some miles on them which I plan to do as well. I have a review of DSG Limited Edition Coilovers up next and will probably do this at the same time. As far as compounds go I feel the ET500 compound leaves a lot to be desired. I would compare it to previous experience with Porterfield and Hawk………just meh. For me the benchmark is Ferodo DS2500, they rarely squeaked and gave me lots of bite, confidence and headroom. I know Alex will work to help sort the pad choice out so I will update the review when I have more information on this.

Score: B

Overall:

The Racing Brake kit represents a true competitor in a field with lots of AP and Wilwood Kits. With the correct pads, installation and bleeding I know it will be a true Grade A product. The price is competitive and the rears use iron inserts so e-brake remains as oem. The finish of the black rotors and calipers is truly A+, the lines are very nice but the pad choice and squeaking need time to sort out. As well I am sure the new instructions will be more complete and detailed J
Overall a very solid product just needs some QA improvements and some slight tweaking to become top notch in all respects.

Score: B+

See below for some picks, most, if not all should be self-explanatory….thanks for reading!!!