Custom 4 piston Ap brake kit

[PaintPro21]

I have my reservations about willwood calipers but lee is a stand up guy to deal with and is awesome for going out there to make really nice custom parts for us e30 people, who we all know aren't the biggest/easiest market out there.

[Massive Lee]

BTW If somebody is building a kit around 14" rotors , then there is no reason to go to StopTech or AP Racing calipers. Wilwood now makes the W6A (6 pots) and W4A (4 pots). They are huuuuge, have big pads and are not too costly.



One the left - W6A - Uses big pads (40% more surface than Superlite pads but 17mm thickness).
Center - Race SL6R - Uses thick 21mm pads
Right - SL6R-14" - Uses thinner 17mm pads

[Mike B.]

Yes upgrading the pads helps, but the problem is the size of the rotor; they just don't have enough heat sink capacity to shed the elevated temperatures consistently.

Bingo! We have a winner.

Even with brake ducts, heat is an issue if you are generating any speed in the straights.

[Massive Lee]

I'd rather have the big brakes and know they will never fade, than to worry if I have enough brake for that next blind corner coming out of the mountains...

When you rush in at 100 MPH toward a corner, it's not the time to wonder if you have enough brakes, or not. Not to mention that between sessions, most drivers have better things to do than bleed their brakes...

Anyway, when I designed the first kits, several years ago, I never thought they would sell more than a couple of sets per year. Here's a picture of the two first kits I made. Hats were very simple and turned by hand. No CNC then. One kit was for 11.75" x 0.81" rotors, while the other was for 12.2" x 1.25" discs. Those were the first kits and perhaps 5 generations of improvements have been done since then. The original kits are still being tracked by their owner.

[Madhatter]

I dont think you get any better quality than what you will find in lee's kit.







Wilwoods are fine and the superlites are a good bit of kit with the cars, but if it isnt you and you want to pay through the nose, you can use a rotor/caliper of you own chosing.

[bwh13]

I'm still trying to figure out why some people are so opposed to upgrading brakes on these cars. Granted the brakes are fine for most people, but anytime you start pushing the cars over 80-90 mph the stock 10" brakes are going to start to fade after a few serious slowdowns. Yes upgrading the pads helps, but the problem is the size of the rotor; they just don't have enough heat sink capacity to shed the elevated temperatures consistently. Just by going to a larger rotor and keeping the stock calipers would result in a good advantage over the stock rotors.

I guess it all comes down to priorities; I'd rather have the big brakes and know they will never fade, than to worry if I have enough brake for that next blind corner coming out of the mountains...

[///meric]

Also i am going to be using lug mount calipers in the rear.

[///meric]

Not that kit. This is a one-off set for an e30 M3 and done by IronHead on s14.net

He ended up spending a lot of time and $$$ engineering his kit. BTW the picture depicts the first version of his kit. The second one had different hats with floating rotors. Ironhead did experience some cracked AP rotors (at the mounting points) but came to a quick resolution with AP for replacements.

his second design is what im copying. idk about the rear tho yet.

[Massive Lee]

Not that kit. This is a one-off set for an e30 M3 using CP5200 calipers and done by IronHead on s14.net

He ended up spending a lot of time and $$$ engineering his kit. BTW the picture depicts the first version of his kit. The second one had different hats with floating rotors. Ironhead did experience some cracked AP rotors (at the mounting points) but came to a quick resolution with AP for replacements.

[SchnellerVert]

Is ths the kit Lee?

[Massive Lee]

Just for everyone to know.

Such a kit, with AP Racing calipers, already exists and a few copies have been sold by Terry Gosse at KVR and used on e30s from Toronto's Trillium chapter members. It is a great kit, but expect to pay a premium price for it. CP5200 calipers are very $$$. Rotors are still only 290mm x 28mm and cost also $$$.

It all depends on how much $$$ you guys want to spend. There are $150, $600 and $6000 calipers. Which one do you really need?

[thebmwM]

Thread archaeologist

[Axxe]

Big brakes are overrated on an e30 unless you have over 500 whp and track daily.. just upgrade your pads & rotors then let your driving ability take you the rest of the way!
-Brandon

This thread is from two years ago..........

[4ce30]

Big brakes are overrated on an e30 unless you have over 500 whp and track daily.. just upgrade your pads & rotors then let your driving ability take you the rest of the way!
-Brandon

[nefarious7907]

brakes are probably one of easiest things to work on, and I have seen at least two dozen escalades with brembo big brake kits on them in my area but I cant recal seeing an escalade/ ext at the track ... ever