Wilwood Big Brake Kit Installed

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Shankenstein

The calipers taco? I thought it was the rotors going floppy tortilla. My mistake, wrong mexican metaphor.

For a build-up of an S13/S14 kit, check out this link:
LINK to

If a random engineer can model the von mises stress (FEA) in Catia, I would assume that Wilwood could too... plus some thermal analysis. They have the software and the engineering talent.

That project is what got me looking in the first place at a floating system. I like the size and weight of the Wilwood system. The idea of coning our rotors and sending heat to the hubs is not cool though.

Maybe it's overkill, but I haven't found my perfect setup yet (as far as size and technology). Plenty of great designs though tho.

Floating is preferred with high temps, but I haven't reached that level of brake temps on my car yet. I'm running caliper temp strips and rotor paint this weekend so I'll see what that data says (using an Essex Sprint kit). The floating Endurance setup was my initial target but Jeff talked me out of it. I check the hats, rotors/etc for cracks around the hat's all the time and nothing yet (I don't expect to honestly but I check everything brake related between sessions anyways).

Wilwood use to be king of the short track stuff but guys replaced parts often. They may be using stronger alloys now, not sure. The ex-Brembo guys I know no longer work in the industry.

Any of these brakes probably hold up fine for your average FT86er

[Shankenstein]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Floating is preferred with high temps, but I haven't reached that level of brake temps on my car yet. I'm running caliper temp strips and rotor paint this weekend so I'll see what that data says (using an Essex Sprint kit). The floating Endurance setup was my initial target but Jeff talked me out of it. I check the hats, rotors/etc for cracks around the hat's all the time and nothing yet (I don't expect to honestly but I check everything brake related between sessions anyways).

Wilwood use to be king of the short track stuff but guys replaced parts often. They may be using stronger alloys now, not sure. The ex-Brembo guys I know no longer work in the industry.

Any of these brakes probably hold up fine for your average FT86er

I'm looking forward to your data!

I've got a friend who is in NASCAR, and their team only uses AP and Brembo products. Obviously, that's a brake-intensive application that requires tons of ducting and dedicated hardware. His view is similar to yours. Wilwood make a fine product, it's just 1 step off the big dogs.

I consider KSport and Stoptech in a similar bin. Not sure where Baer ranks just yet.

[AZFA20]

I own both Baer and Wilwood (not on my FR-S) brake systems and have done tons of installs of both on other platforms. I personally have nothing bad to say about either brand really other than Wilwood is a little more labor intensive in most application where you have to assemble just about everything since they are such a modular based product. On the flipside the modular setups are also a blessing. My personal preference between the two is Baer especially with their new stuff. I have tracked both but most of my track time has been on the Baer systems (NASA road courses here in AZ). The only real failure I have ever had was a brake pad failure made by another company whom I will not mention as I am certain it was just a freak instance. Only things I have had to do to either brand over the years is pads and rotors...... mostly lots of pads haha.

In regard to the OP I think the Wilwoods look fantastic and I am certain you will not be disappointed. BBKs FTW! My final choice for a BBK for the FR-S did not come easily but my choice has been made and I decided to once again support local to me Baer. There are soooo many great choices with this platform and how fast the aftermarket has responded is remarkable....

[Dave-ROR]

Details on the Baer stuff? I didn't even know they were making a kit for this car, or are you piecing it together?

My BBK choice was pretty easy. I wanted the lightest possible setup that fit the smallest possible wheel that had enough capacity and venting to work with hard track usage with cheapish consumable cost and strong/reliable components.

That was my only requirements. Looks, name, etc.. me no care. I have heard good stuff about Baer parts on other cars.

[Shankenstein]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Details on the Baer stuff? I didn't even know they were making a kit for this car, or are you piecing it together?

My BBK choice was pretty easy. I wanted the lightest possible setup that fit the smallest possible wheel that had enough capacity and venting to work with hard track usage with cheapish consumable cost and strong/reliable components.

That was my only requirements. Looks, name, etc.. me no care. I have heard good stuff about Baer parts on other cars.

14" rotor from their Extreme Plus series. 2nd piston is pretty large. External crossover pipe. Solid crossmember (no quick changes). Drilled and slotted. Tons of cooling, "disc over drum" rear. As far as I can tell, the rotors don't float.

Pics from Mustang setups:

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by Shankenstein

14" rotor from their Extreme Plus series. 2nd piston is pretty large. External crossover pipe. Solid crossmember (no quick changes). Drilled and slotted. Tons of cooling, "disc over drum" rear. As far as I can tell, the rotors don't float.

Ahhh.. yeah.. not what I would be going for anyways

The 302 LS I redid brakes on is running about 9K of gear.. Ford Racing, Brembo and TRW stuff.. rotors/hats/calipers/lines/ABS Module, prototype TRW master cylinder and brake booster.. retarded.. works well though

[msile]

This is my fourth set of Wilwoods. The two previous ones were on track cars which visited Sebring, Homestead, Moroso and Road Atlanta quite often. Sebring is quite hard on brakes. Never had any issues except wear and tear. Each set went a year and a half with no issues until I sold the car.

A friend also runs his E30M3 (with E46 running gear) in the red group and has been doing so for years. He is also on Wilwoods (granted it may be a different model)., No issues.

So in my personal experience, no issues at all. As somebody else said, for street use, it should be fine.

[AZFA20]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Details on the Baer stuff? I didn't even know they were making a kit for this car, or are you piecing it together?

My BBK choice was pretty easy. I wanted the lightest possible setup that fit the smallest possible wheel that had enough capacity and venting to work with hard track usage with cheapish consumable cost and strong/reliable components.

That was my only requirements. Looks, name, etc.. me no care. I have heard good stuff about Baer parts on other cars.

I don't want to get too far off topic with regard to the Baer stuff but the response you received via pic from another member is not entirely accurate in regard to the FR-S kit. I will post pics and such soon though in a new thread. Baer does have a complete kit so no piecing together required. The calipers are the 6P (6 piston) internal crossovers in the front and the rears use the S4 (4 piston). The quick change calipers are nice but to be honest I am just as fast at yanking 2 bolts as I ever was with the quick release calipers so I think you would find that to be a negligible in the end unless you were a full blown endurance racer or something. The 6R caliper does offer quick release and it is no joke probably the fastest I have seen but I wasn't willing to pay the premium for a feature I can do without. Kind of a neat design. Anyway You will see some details soon.

[GTB/ZR-1]

They look great & I'm sure they'll perform well for you. Congrats.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by AZFA20

I don't want to get too far off topic with regard to the Baer stuff but the response you received via pic from another member is not entirely accurate in regard to the FR-S kit. I will post pics and such soon though in a new thread. Baer does have a complete kit so no piecing together required. The calipers are the 6P (6 piston) internal crossovers in the front and the rears use the S4 (4 piston). The quick change calipers are nice but to be honest I am just as fast at yanking 2 bolts as I ever was with the quick release calipers so I think you would find that to be a negligible in the end unless you were a full blown endurance racer or something. The 6R caliper does offer quick release and it is no joke probably the fastest I have seen but I wasn't willing to pay the premium for a feature I can do without. Kind of a neat design. Anyway You will see some details soon.

Thanks for the info.

I like Brembo's quick change setup (no tools). Changing brake pads on the 302LS takes a few seconds per side

[asia_minor]

very nice

[Supermassive]

I think the big thing we should be considering when it comes to the calipers possibly flexing is what cars we're these suspect calipers running on, which calipers were they, and what we're the driver's doing to cause it. I have to be honest that i did actually take that little bit of info about Wilwoods calipers flexing into consideration. After looking around online all I could find was heaps of praise and very few if any complaints regarding the quality of Wilwoods, so i bit the bullet and bought them. I managed to get these at almost cost as well so it was pretty much the best bargain I could have gotten.

The brakes are almost overkill for this car, the 12.88" rotors aren't huge but larger than stock and lighter. The calipers are excuse the pun, super light, surprisingly so. The only thing I could have wanted that doesn't come with this kit is anti knock back springs...that's it. With stainless, staggered size pistons, without dust seals these are truly competitive pieces. The fit and precision of the fit is actually quite amazing, I was wary at first because they send you a ton of shims but once I installed the brakes using just one shim per mount as per instructions, everything lined up perfectly with perfect centering on the rotor, and the pads were flush with the edge of the rotor.

I am now seriously considering the rear rotors because the results are amazing. Pedal feel is 100% better, the brakes feel like they apply pressure very linearly and the only other thing I think I may do is a Wilwood master cylinder as well, just to see if that can make the brakes perfect. I am running the pads that came with the BBK and they feel good but I will definitely be swapping to a more aggressive pad to improve initial bite, right now I think the un-braced master cylinder and street pads are giving a softer initial bite which is good for around town but leaves a bit to be desired for really aggressive driving.

Anyways, i love my Wilwoods and that's what really matters, of course I haven't had the opportunity to try anything else so my opinion is skewed I definitely want to try an Essex AP kit just because I want to see if they are worth the extra $1000 for the endurance kit over what I paid.

[msile]

+1

The weight of this car in relation to the size of the brakes is pretty good in my opinion. Compare this to my ISF which is my track car. 3700 pounds with huge Brembo brakes. The heat generated is considerable. I go through rotors every three or four track events and pads every three events (mostly Sebring). I would like to hear from folks who have BBKs and track extensively.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by msile

+1

The weight of this car in relation to the size of the brakes is pretty good in my opinion. Compare this to my ISF which is my track car. 3700 pounds with huge Brembo brakes. The heat generated is considerable. I go through rotors every three or four track events and pads every three events (mostly Sebring). I would like to hear from folks who have BBKs and track extensively.

You doing Sebring soon? I'll be there this weekend and march 24th.