With regard to noise...Pads sometimes chatter a bit on the J Hook slots. We even see that on our brake dyno and burnishing machine. We therefore offer our Sprint Kit with the no-cost option of plain-faced discs, which eliminates that noise.
As for a 'comparison' thread, I agree that there's not a whole lot of viable comparo data here yet. That's okay though, and I do look forward to seeing some hard numbers. I would expect to see some differences, because our Essex Competition Kits and the RR Racing kits are very different products. Our kits have a singular objective, to go faster for longer. They are specifically designed to be extraordinarily lightweight, durable, and fade-resistant for optimal track performance. They address the FT86's brake deficiencies in the most simplistic manner, and provide the greatest improvements in the area where they are needed most (the front of the car). All other considerations are secondary. They aren't the prettiest, and definitely not the cheapest, but they are brutally effective.
Back to the bias comment from the OP...It is important to note that our kits bolt on without any other modifications and
are intentionally designed to have minimal impact on the factory brake bias. As such, they integrate seamlessly, and have proven to be a winning solution in sprint racing, endurance racing, rallying, hill climb, time trial, HPDE, and autoX all over the world...all while running the OEM rear brakes.
*Update 4/19/16*
We finally had the chance to run the calculations for the front RR Racing/Wilwood BBK's. The figures below are the % of front brake with the rear OEM brakes left alone. Our Essex Sprint Kit actually has less front brake than stock, shifting a little bias rearward (the exact opposite of what was claimed in this post). Our Endurance Kit has a little more front bias than stock, but still less than all of the RR Racing kits. The RR Sport Performance Kit would probably be a bit too front biased for most of our customers. Heat would be increased in the front brakes, and the fronts would likely lock up while the rears were still rolling.
We haven't had a chance to do the calculations on their rear kits yet, but hopefully soon. As you can see though, any talk of our Essex/AP kits being more front biased are untrue. The opposite is in fact true. Thanks.
% of front brake:
Stock 67.1
Essex Sprint 66.3
Essex Endurance 68.5
RR Sport Performance 72.9
RR Stage 1 69.4
RR Stage 2 69.4
RR Stage 3 69.6
RR Stage 4 69.6
If you go back through our threads, you'll see that we looked closely at creating a rear competition brake kit for this car about three years ago. We determined that the value of such a kit was minimal for our typical customer given the capability of the OEM rear brakes. We'd much rather see our customers sink their money into the front, where the demands are greatest (most people tracking these cars will go through 3 sets of front pads and discs before needing replacements for the rear).
All of that said, we don't inherently have anything against rear brake kits. We sell competition rear brake kits for other platforms such as the Corvette, various M3's, etc...even using the same CP8350 caliper body (see pic below). Some platforms benefit from them far more than others. The FT86 just isn't one of them.
We also sell the AP Racing Factory rear BBK's for the FT86. If you want to look cool, nothing beats a huge four-wheel brake kit. You won't get any argument from us there. There's certainly nothing poseur about these kits either. They are serious hardware. For some customers they are the ultimate solution. For serious track enthusiasts however, we tend to steer them away from those kits. They just don't offer as much bang-for-the-buck.
