AP Racing by Essex Brakes for the 2022 GR86

[JRitt]

Hello,

I wanted to update everyone on where we are on AP Racing brake system development for the Gen.2 cars.

We were hopeful that our AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kits for the Gen.1 BRZ/FR-S/GT86 would bolt directly onto the new Gen.2 cars. That is unfortunately NOT the case. We have confirmed that the bottom portion of the caliper bracket from our Gen.1 Sprint Kit prevents it from seating properly on the Gen.2 spindle. The humps on the bottom of our bracket prevent the mounting holes from lining up (see pic below). As such, we are back to the drawing board. We have a new 2022 BRZ on loan from a generous customer arriving next Monday 12/13/21. We will be taking complete front and rear measurements from the car, and will very shortly know what exactly what type of brake upgrades we can provide.

We definitely intend to produce a new version of our tremendously popular Sprint Kit for the new chassis, which shaved 20 unsprung pounds off the nose of the Gen.1 while offering a wide array of other benefits (huge fade resistance, tons of pad options, low long-term running costs, etc.). We are also considering a complete front and rear Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit, leveraging the latest AP Racing caliper technology.

Please let us know if there is anything else brake-related that you'd like to see.

Finally, if you are interested in receiving the latest updates on our progress, please visit our homepage, scroll to the bottom, and sign up for our email newsletter. That will ensure that you're kept in the loop: https://www.essexparts.com/

On recent brake kit releases we have been offering reservations, which has worked out really well and put our brake kits in the hands of those who want them the most as quickly as possible. I expect we'll do the same with our new BRZ/GR86 products.

Thanks for your continued support, and for making the 86 chassis one of the most popular in the history of our AP Racing by Essex Brake Kit program.



One more image that AP Racing recently shared with us that I thought was pretty darn cool. AP Racing has had one of their brake or clutch products on every car that has won a Formula 1 race since 1967!

[Spuds]

Are you expecting the BRZ and GR86 spindles to be different? I remember hearing that the BRZ has aluminum steering knuckles while the GR86 has steel, likely changing the shape?

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Are you expecting the BRZ and GR86 spindles to be different? I remember hearing that the BRZ has aluminum steering knuckles while the GR86 has steel, likely changing the shape?

We unfortunately won't know until we see both cars. Next week will be the BRZ, and we'll get a GR86 here as soon as humanly possible. Thanks!

[timurrrr]

Pretty sure the GR86 uses the exact same knuckles as the 1st gen, and the old kits are still compatible.

[zeroomega]

Is it possible to just purchase the mounting bracket once the new BRZ kit is out. I already own the 1st gen endurance kit and I would like to carry it over to the 2nd car.

[ayau]

Originally Posted by zeroomega

Is it possible to just purchase the mounting bracket once the new BRZ kit is out. I already own the 1st gen endurance kit and I would like to carry it over to the 2nd car.

lol i asked the same question in another thread. short answer: no.

essex will take that into consideration but it's safer to juts assume no.

good reason to buy a gr86 i guess, assuming the knuckles are the same as gen1.

[zeroomega]

Originally Posted by ayau

lol i asked the same question in another thread. short answer: no.

essex will take that into consideration but it's safer to juts assume no.

good reason to buy a gr86 i guess, assuming the knuckles are the same as gen1.

Ah, I found that thread. I do plan to get the GR86 instead of BRZ though, mostly due to handling balance reasons. Hope the brake is a direct bolt on.

Also I feel it is a bit difficult to buy replacements parts from Essex AP racing directly. I contacted them for some replacements mounting bolts due to rust concerns and the process is so slow that I ended up purchasing the replacements parts from CounterSpaceGarage instead. I am glad they were able to source the parts for me.

[timurrrr]

Just for the record, here's the thread for 2022 BRZ: https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147892

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by ayau

lol i asked the same question in another thread. short answer: no.

essex will take that into consideration but it's safer to juts assume no.

good reason to buy a gr86 i guess, assuming the knuckles are the same as gen1.

That's not exactly what I said. It's more likely than not that we will offer the brackets separately. It's something I need to discuss internally. Here's what I wrote in the other thread, which I felt was leaning pretty far towards yes, rather than no.



We typically don't offer individual brake kit components separately for a variety reasons, as detailed in this blog post: Can I Buy AP Racing by Essex Brake Components Separately?

That said, this is a unique situation that could justify an exception, and we need to discuss it internally. Maybe we could set something up by which owners turn in their old Gen.1 brackets to us before we ship out the new ones, thus removing them from circulation?

What we can't have is a thousand sets of Essex-designed Gen.1 caliper brackets flooding into the classified section of these forums and eBay. People will be attaching all sorts of questionable calipers to them on Gen.1 cars and then calling us asking why their brakes won't work properly (yes, sounds ridiculous, but that's what literally happens). Someone will also figure out how to mate our brackets to an XYZ caliper on a Ford Fiesta, and then our service team will waste the next four years answering questions about what other parts they need to complete 'their kit'. We need to avoid that.

I can't promise anything other than we will do our best to come up with an equitable solution for our loyal customers. I'm confident we'll be able to figure something out. Thanks for the suggestion Kado!

[kask2_6.0]

Originally Posted by JRitt

Maybe we could set something up by which owners turn in their old Gen.1 brackets to us before we ship out the new ones, thus removing them from circulation?

I would be onboard with something like this. It would give us Gen 1 owners that don't plan on getting a new car the option to upgrade to the aluminum knuckles.

[JRitt]

We've made some great progress this week! We confirmed that we do need a new caliper bracket in order for our Sprint Kit designed for the Gen.1 cars to fit the '22 BRZ. That design is completed and we're trying to see where we can slot it into our manufacturing schedule.

Some may consider this even more exciting...we were able to fit one of our front and rear Radi-CAL Competition Kits on the car! Our front CP9660 option even clears the OEM 18" wheels without a spacer (our front CP9668 kit will require a spacer). Our rear kit also clears the OEM wheel without a spacer and a couple mm to spare. It also retains full parking brake functionality.

If you'd like to see the details on the Radi-CAL kits, they can be found in the links below. We may need to do a new brake line, and a few other small tweaks to this system, so please nobody order these with the intent of putting them on your '22 BRZ!


Many of the bigger, far more powerful cars highlighted on our Essex Blog are running this same setup and winning national championships. Our Radi-CAL Kit will withstand anything a built BRZ/86 can throw at it. You could run a 24 hour race with an LS engine swap, huge twin turbos, etc., and it wouldn't phase our system at all.

You know what's really cool though? We are still going to shave considerable unsprung weight vs. the OEM brakes. Despite the huge increase in thermal capacity, our front Radi-CAL 355mm kit weighs about 6-8 lbs. less than the OEM front brakes, and our rear kit will weigh in the neighborhood of 3-4 lbs. less.


Front Radi-CAL Kits


Front AP Racing by Essex CP9660/355mm Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit


Front AP Racing by Essex CP9668/355mm Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit


The only difference between the two kits above is the caliper. You can read about the two caliper options here:


Sibling Rivalry: Which AP Racing Radi-CAL is Right for me, the CP9660 or CP9668?

The CP9668 option uses a 25mm thick pad...a full inch thick. On one of these cars, you would possibly never need to change your brake pads ever again!





Matching Rear Kit


Rear AP Racing by Essex CP/340mm Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit


On to the pics...

[timurrrr]

Originally Posted by JRitt

Front Radi-CAL Kits

Front AP Racing by Essex CP9660/355mm Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit

Front AP Racing by Essex CP9660/355mm Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kit

Typo?

[JRitt]

Originally Posted by timurrrr

Typo?

Indeed. Thanks for the catch!

[teppey]

Are these for road or race?