AP Racing by Essex Brakes for the 2022 GR86

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by teppey

Are these for road or race?

These are our Competition Kits, which are technically designed for off-road use. That said, many people use them in a wide variety of environments. If you browse through our blog you'll see tons of people using them in many different ways. There are five year, long-term mixed use reviews included here:



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

[zeroomega]

Looks like new GR86 17inch OEM wheels clears old gen's AP Racing Endurance Kit without issues.

Pictures are test fitting GR86 wheels on my 2013 Scion FR-S.

[JRitt]

We have added most of our new BRZ listings to our website. We now have SEVEN brake kit options for the Gen.2!

You can see them all here:
https://www.essexparts.com/my-vehicl...Subaru/BRZ/All

We're still working on adding the new version of our Sprint Kit. The newly designed caliper bracket prototype is being manufactured currently, and we should have our test fit completed within the next couple weeks.

All the other brake kits are available to order now. We are backlogged a little bit from our holiday promotions, but we should be able to ship any new brake kit order within the next 2-3 weeks or so.

Thanks for your patience gents!

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by zeroomega

Looks like new GR86 17inch OEM wheels clears old gen's AP Racing Endurance Kit without issues.

Pictures are test fitting GR86 wheels on my 2013 Scion FR-S.

Thanks so much for posting that! I will get these wheels added to our confirmed wheel fitments for the Gen. 1 cars.

[timurrrr]

Originally Posted by JRitt

We're still working on adding the new version of our Sprint Kit.

Have you had a chance to check the GR86 iron knuckles?
I'm still not convinced that "new" kits are needed for GR86.

[zeroomega]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

Have you had a chance to check the GR86 iron knuckles?
I'm still not convinced that "new" kits are needed for GR86.

New mounting bracket for the 2nd gen seems to drop the cooling duct inlet to the rotor. The endurance kit for 1st gen has those to make it easier to add cooling ducts.

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

Have you had a chance to check the GR86 iron knuckles?
I'm still not convinced that "new" kits are needed for GR86.

We have not had a chance to check the GR86 yet. If anyone can bring their GR86 to our Charlotte, NC HQ, we can do so and offer you a hefty discount for your time/trouble. Thank you very much.

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by zeroomega

New mounting bracket for the 2nd gen seems to drop the cooling duct inlet to the rotor. The endurance kit for 1st gen has those to make it easier to add cooling ducts.

That is correct. We are no longer offering the integrated duct piece. Out of the 150 or so brake kit applications we've created, our original BRZ Endurance Kit was the only application for which we had such a bracket. We found that most of our customers didn't want or need it, so we eliminated it for the Gen.2 cars. We also have more experience with road cars over the past 9 years since we introduced our Gen.1 kits, much of which suggests that brake ducts frequently do more harm than good. As such, we typically suggest skipping ducts all together unless you're running a purpose-built racecar. You can read more about that in this blog article I wrote:


Do I need brake ducts on my track car?

[driveside79]

Just got my 2022 GR86, love it! I do a few track weekends a year, all "DE" type with 20-25 minute sessions. Plan to keep the car largely unmodified except maybe coilovers. Radi-Cal clearly seems like overkill for me - should I get the Sprint or Endurance kit? I'm all for the "get only what you need and no more" mantra, but wondering how to choose between these two kits. Thanks!

[timurrrr]

Originally Posted by driveside79

Just got my 2022 GR86, love it! I do a few track weekends a year, all "DE" type with 20-25 minute sessions. Plan to keep the car largely unmodified except maybe coilovers. Radi-Cal clearly seems like overkill for me - should I get the Sprint or Endurance kit? I'm all for the "get only what you need and no more" mantra, but wondering how to choose between these two kits. Thanks!

The brake system is actually one of the things where having a little headroom can be beneficial. IMO it's better to have oversized brakes and run milder pads, than to frequently be at the limit of what the brakes can handle, and work around that with very aggressive pads.

Radi-Cal does seem like an overkill for stock-ish power, but the Endurance kit will probably save a lot of money and time/headache compared to the base brakes (or Sprint kit) by not reaching high peak temperatures, and keeping temperature more stable overall.

[Dylans47]

Hi JRitt, I remember reading somewhere on this forum that Essex/AP Racing would be updating the Sprint/Endurance kit architecture, for lack of a better word, for the 2022 GR86/BRZ?

I don't just mean altering the mounting bracket to fit the BRZ. I mean an overhaul per say of the Sprint/Endurance kit, as those kits are over 10 years old now. Any info?

[fredzy]

Originally Posted by JRitt

These are our Competition Kits, which are technically designed for off-road use. That said, many people use them in a wide variety of environments. If you browse through our blog you'll see tons of people using them in many different ways. There are five year, long-term mixed use reviews included here:



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

I'll put my one question out front here - I had a lot of questions but eventually found answers to them. I'll include that in my post below as info for whoever.

Q: How do I find brake pads for the Sprint kit calipers outside your website?

Before anyone attacks: I plan to go for the DS2500 to start. I hope to do 2 or 3 HPDE per year, but I don't have much headroom for another hobby. Tracking my car in the real world faces really stiff competition: Assetto Corsa, hah. So if I end up never really tracking the car and find the DS2500 pads to be too aggressive for my daily use tastes (I believe they are the mildest Essex offers) I would try something more akin to an OEM compound.

Thanks for pointing the stories on your blog out, some of them helped alleviated concerns I had about street/daily use of the Sprint kit. I'm pretty sure I'll go for these brakes - a set of grey AP calipers with J-hook discs is dream-car stuff for me. These will make a little bit of practical sense too if I can manage to get to the track more than once or twice per year like I said.

Again, the DS2500 seems a reasonable pad choice based on the information on your site and I'll try that. The only concern is if they compromise both street and track - something that could only be determined for me by trying them. I considered running something definitely good for street and then use a dedicated track pad for track days. I had some concerns about this that I couldn't find answers for on Essex site. I assumed some special considerations needed to be made when switching back and forth between street and track brake pads, like a full re-bed any time they are switched. I was right, but I think it's a little risky. Particularly for someone used to nice smooth, quiet OEM style daily driving brakes. I believe wonky things can easily happen with pad material deposition on the rotors, so I will avoid this.

[timurrrr]

Originally Posted by fredzy

I assumed some special considerations needed to be made when switching back and forth between street and track brake pads, like a full re-bed any time they are switched. I was right, but I think it's a little risky. Particularly for someone used to nice smooth, quiet OEM style daily driving brakes. I believe wonky things can easily happen with pad material deposition on the rotors, so I will avoid this.

One possible solution is to have an extra set of rotors and swap rotors together with pads. This way you only need to bed each rotor once. This involves some extra upfront cost, but saves a lot of time in the long run. Not all calipers make it easy to swap rotors, but AP Racing makes it relatively easy.

[fredzy]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

One possible solution is to have an extra set of rotors and swap rotors together with pads. This way you only need to bed each rotor once. This involves some extra upfront cost, but saves a lot of time in the long run. Not all calipers make it easy to swap rotors, but AP Racing makes it relatively easy.

I figured that would be prohibitively expensive, but since you mentioned I took a look at what a spare set of rings would cost.. and it's not too bad. If I stick with it, would be a reasonable option.