big brake options for 4 lug rear

[flyboyx]

ok, so i have a full set of mz3 5lug hubs/ brakes. the problem is that before i bought the parts car, i went out and purchased a nice set of 4 lug kopi alpinas and the ireland engineering 320mm 4 lug setup for the front. also i have a nice set of bilstiens for e30 that i want to use.







anyway, i would like to add a set of big brakes to the rear as well. since i already have all of the parts above, i want to stick with the 4 lug setup.

the options that occur to me at this point are:

ireland engineering sells a big brake kit for the rears but the cost is north of a grand.

what of the possiblity of using the rear mz3 brackets and calipers? they will bolt up to the e30 swing arm. there might also be a compatibliity issue with the abs system on the rear. has anyone ever taken rotors to a machine shop to have a 4x100 pattern drilled into the 5x120 rotors? i know that the offset is a little different with the mz3 rear end and i may need spacers under the rotor so it will clear the swing arm.

anyway, if anyone has other options please let me know.

[cheades]

Paging Lee at Massive..... He has rear kits that include the e-brake ring.

[Dissembler]

Is the caliper inadequate or do you just want a bigger rotor? Bigger rotors, like you said are going to have to be something probably through Lee and spend a grand, but what if you built a bracket to hold the MZ3 caliper so that way you have a lot more pad options at the very least?

[flyboyx]

Is the caliper inadequate or do you just want a bigger rotor? Bigger rotors, like you said are going to have to be something probably through Lee and spend a grand, but what if you built a bracket to hold the MZ3 caliper so that way you have a lot more pad options at the very least?

well, hell, the car is only going to be used on the street, i actually i just want to add bigger rotors to make it stop a little better. perhaps a little more in line with a current production model. thats why it is hard to justify spending a grand. somewhere around half that would be better.

i spent some time on the lee's massive site but it could use some serious updating with more descriptions and photos. looks like the fronts use wilwood calipers as far as i can tell. since they have 4 pistons, it appears that the e30 application will require wheel spacers on the front to clear the rims. since there is no info to the contrary, i would assume that is probably what they use on the rear as well.

the ireland engineering set that i have for the front will fit without spacers since they use a two piston caliper(picured above) from what little info that i know about both companies, it would seem to me that for basicly the same price, the irelands would be a better option for me if i had to go with new.

as far as the mz3 rear setup is concerned, the advantage is that i already have the parts. i have not yet had the chance to see if the rotors will line up with the e30 hub(other than the bolt pattern) i have my doubts because the offset of the mz3 is different. i plan to play around with that this weekend.

in the end, my preference would be to sell all of the 5 lug parts and get a lighter aftermarket setup, but i wouldn't be opposed to using the mz3 parts if i can make them fit without a lot of stoopid fabrication.

[RobE30]

In one of the the PBMW mags last year sometime there was a white e30 swapped w/ an m30 and the guy had z1 rear brakes w/ e30 m3 calipers. For the front he did the corrado swap. Both front and rear were 280mm. Food for thought

[atomic]

In one of the the PBMW mags last year sometime there was a white e30 swapped w/ an m30 and the guy had z1 rear brakes w/ e30 m3 calipers. Food for thought

That is food for thought, but since those parts are NLA and damn hard to find you might get no where soon if that is the route you want to go...


;)

[RobE30]

Didn't know they were NLA... guess that would make the setup hard to pull off. Oh well