Hi all,

I am considering upgrading my stock Cooper S to a set of JCW brakes. It seems that the entire kit would only cost a bit (~30-40%) more than the dealer would charge me to do my regular brake pads/rotors, so I am thinking that might be a decent choice.

Can anyone comment on this? Should I instead forget it and go with a set of slotted rotors and better pads and save money? Are the JCW brakes a significant improvement over stock - considering stock = JCW brakes of the R50?

Thanks!

-jB

 

Meh if thats your thing go for it.

 

haha. it's not a question of it being my thing or not - is it a worthwhile upgrade or not is the question, as opposed to getting better pads and rotors. are the JCW brakes structurally different from the MCS brakes? i.e. more pistons, bigger contact surface, etc.?

if the only difference is colour and a slightly improved braking performance (which can be achieved by simply better pads and rotors) then it's clearly a waste of time. but if it's like a mini-BBK, then it might be worth it, no?

 

Maybe it's because I haven't tracked the car yet, but I went from the standard Cooper brakes to the JCW Brembos. There's definitely better stopping power in the Brembo's, but I don't think it's a couple grand worth.

 

only worth it if you are going to track your car

 

Which JCW brakes?

From the factory JCW? or just the drilled JCW rotors?

 

Factory JCW brakes have much larger brake rotors and instead of a floating piston style at the front, they have four piston fixed calipers at the front, and larger diameter rear rotors and upgraded pads to suit. They are a very worthwhile upgrade, but obviously it depends on what your priorities are.

However, I will say this, if you can spare the money, you definitely won't regret it.Get some upgraded Carbotech pads, and some better fluid while you're at it. And stainless steel braided brake lines if you intend on tracking. Cheap upgrade while you've got everything disconnected.

 

what about the Texas Speedworks Kit? Much larger rotors and calipers from what I recall. Cheaper too.

 

Are BIGGER brakes, rotors and calipers really necessary for street use ?

Remember BIGGER brakes, means a significant increase in unwanted weight!

Also your brakes are only ever as good as the available grip, provided by your tyre!

In my opinion, you would be best to just purchase yourself a suitable pad from Carbotech or similar supplier of quality pad, and a stock size disc, cryogenically frozen, with 12 or more grooves, not cross drilled, as this leads to stress cracks and eventual failure, a set of hard lines and a suitable fluid upgrade.

This will give you all the braking you will ever need for such a light small car!

 

This is only true when braking cold. If you do any sort of performance driving, the braking system starts to behave poorly, hence the reason for upgraded pads, lines and fluid. Bigger brakes take longer to heat up, and dissipate heat faster. Fixed calipers are also better than floating piston calipers....they just are And they look damn good. True that unsprung weight goes up.

That being said, you can easily get a fantastic setup with stock Cooper S brakes. Pads, lines and fluid are plenty.

 

I think you missed his drift. The brakes can never be better than the grip your tires have.

 

Dude do it! If I had the money I would get them just for the looks. Those badboys look so NICE on the Minis its not even funny. I love the JCW BBK

 

Absafreakinglutely...

The JCW brakes are EXCELLENT. Though I run ceramic pads on the street (so when I go to the track, I can simply swap out track pads) I honestly feel the stock JCW brake pads are better.

You literally can stop on a dime with the stock JCW pads.

My .02 worth... and that's coming from someone that has had two S's, an S with JCW Stage I brakes and now a JCW with factory JCW brakes.

Mark

 

I would save the dough and get some nice Rotors and Better Brake Pads. You will see a marked improvemnet on an already awesome brake setup. Just my $.02.

 

No i understood that part, but he was implying that unless you have really sticky tires, then big brakes are redundant, which is only true in street situations, I was simply saying that they play a big part in aggressive driving situations.

The brakes are not only ever as good as the grip your tires offer, what if your pads and fluid get very hot, and start to fade. Then your tires are no longer the weakest link. I've certainly been in this situation before, as I'm sure many others have as well

 

 

I couldn't justify spending $2k for a brake kit - if I tracked the car it'd be a different story. But, I probably would have bought a JCW instead of my S if I was going to track the car

 

I am going to be tracking the car - next year. I usually track my 335, but I wanted to try the Mini, see how it behaves. But I think my tires might be the limitation there.

etalj/Mark -- so you're referring to the *stock* JCW brakes, right? That's interesting - I wouldn't have figured they were THAT much of a difference with the stock S, which are "technically" JCW brakes - but hmm.

I am looking at spending about $1k for the kit. A brake kit from the dealer, which would be a stock replacement for mine, would be around $600 for all corners + labour; so it's really about a 50% price increase. I'm thinking maybe it's not that bad, which is why I was looking for opinions.

So I suppose the overall question is: given $1,000 (+/-, not including labour) - would you spend it on a JCW brake kit, or would you instead get different rotors/pads/fluid and just stop there?

Thanks everyone for the thoughts, and sorry for replying late, after so many comments have been posted

 

$1k for a JCW brake kit?!? Is that for all 4 corners? Hell, for that price I say do it

 

Exactly my thinking! Hell, brembo's for my eclipse for just fronts or rears are approx. $1200+ alone.

 

your still missing the point, so you spend $1K on your JCW brake kit, you've achieved nothing, in regards to uprating brake performance!

You've still got stock rotors and pads, that offer nothing more than the stock Cooper S, regarding heat dissipation!

So you've now to look at purchasing grooved performance discs and a pad to suit your track set up, for your JCW brake kit, you will now have spent approaching $2K to get your JCW brake kit to perform as well as a good set of pads and discs fitted to your stock Cooper S set up, which would cost approx $700!

I track my S and use stock S calipers, stock sized S discs, cryogenically frozen with 48 1/4 moon shaped grooves per front discs, and carbotech XP10 front and XP8 rears, stainless hard lines and Castrol SRF fluid, and can brake harder and deeper than most, a friend has a JCW, and comes knowhere near my braking points, when on track!

 

The Cooper S brakes are the same as the R53 JCW brakes, ~290mm rotors with floating piston calipers at the front and stock rear brakes with upgraded pads.

The R56 Factory JCW brakes are really big 4-pot brembos

 

Interesting, so there're two schools of thought at play here. Get the JCW kit cause it's better, and stay stock but get better rotors/pads. I suppose the BEST solution is to get the JCW kit _and_ better rotors/pads, but that's far outside the budget

I wonder if the JCW kit will clear the stock 16" wheels, btw? My winter tires are hardly performance tires.

 

I've got $2,400 in my Wilwoods and they are worth every penny.

 

Simple answer, NO.