Hello Everyone,

I am undecided so I figured I would get some opinion from NAM members. I have decided to get the Wilwood big brake kit and will be getting either 12.2" or 13" rotors. But that's not the decision problem I'm having. I can't decide if I want red calipers or black calipers.

Red calipers are NICE because they would be big red calipers! However, black would match everything else on my Mini. I can't decide...HELP!

Here are some specs of my car: It's a R56 MCS that's Laser Blue with black and carbon fiber accent colors. The roof is black, the front grill will be black and so will the headlight and tail light rings. The door handle, gas cap, side vents, and roof spoiler will all be carbon fiber. The hood scoop, boot handle, and mirror caps are carbon fiber. I have 18" OZ Ultraleggeras in black.

So what does everyone think? Traditional, BIG bright red calipers that scream out - "look at me!" or cool BIG black calipers that match the other accent colors on the car?

Oh...I'm also probably going to have drilled and slotted rotors.

I would really appreciate any/all opinions!

Thanks,
Celia

 

With those black wheels, you gotta go RED with the calipers. Make them stand out ! Make people go, "whoaaaaaaa check out those sporty red calipers on that hot MINI" !!!

 

Why not go craaaaaaazy and have them painted blue to match the rest of the car?

(Or is there some kind of law that says brake calipers must be painted red, or the Brake Police will pull you over and cut your brake lines?)

 

It's pretty hard to find caliper paint that would match Laser Blue. If you get blue and it's a few shades off... yuck !!

 

Go with the RED for contrast!!!!!!! With the BLACK rims the black calipers will get lost and no one will see them ! Are you going to be racing or are you going for the big brake looks !! If it is for the looks you gotta go with the RED !!!!!! And as always "KEEP MOTORING"!!!!!!

 

Go Red. I just ordered the paint kit from fastmini.net (Cheap man's brake upgrade)

 

survey says... RED!!!

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep it coming!

I had thought of doing blue. I'll be ordering the kit from TCE Performance and he does offer coating in other colors. However, the blue probably wouldn't match the Laser Blue. I'm guessing it'll probably be a little darker? We were going to talk to TCE about it some more tomorrow.


That's what I was thinking if I went with black. I don't want them to blend in and be lost in the black rims but my husband said that you don't necessarily have to have red calipers and the rotors will really stand out too. I'm personally still leaning towards the red.

I don't have any plans to race at all so this will be mostly for aesthetic reasons. I really LOVE the way the large calipers and drilled/slotted rotors look. But who knows...maybe a race here or there isn't so out of the question one day!

Thanks for all the input so far!

 

I really prefer the stealth look and would go for black calipers. They're for making your car stop, not for being noticed from a block away.

 

Your color choice are not really limited to red or black.
I've expedited a variety of colors for folks with different tastes.

http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o...t=DSC01303.jpg
http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o...mshoot_011.jpg
http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o...1582_1_2_1.jpg

Let your imagination run wild. I keep trying to get Stoopidgirl to do some in purple~! And I'm arm twisting a lime green Charger owner....

As for color matching, I find it best to send my customers an assortment of chips to pick from. I also urge folks to actually pick a shade that is different from the base color if there is an off color difference. Rather than trying to match it exact keep it different enough that it's clearly intentional.

If you really want to be different, do custom logos
http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o...nt=Psycho3.jpg

 

Thanks for the reply Todd!! Sean (my husband) who you spoke with today is actually going to give you a call again tomorrow to discuss a few other things.

As for the colors, we had considered blue because the wheels are black so the blue would stand out against the black but I like your idea of picking a shade that is totally different from the base color to make it really stand out - hence the red.

I know you can get them for us in all different colors but the color scheme of my car is (mostly) Laser Blue and Black so I'm not sure how other colors would look. I think the red would look very good but I'm not sure if another color would look better. I think maybe the only other colors besides red, black and blue that I would consider might be a really dark kind of purple. Almost bluish-purple? But I don't know, that might be too far off yet too close to the color of the car.

Does it cost the same to get the calipers in red as it does the other colors or is there an additional charge for the other colors?

Thanks!

 

Ahh. Yes I spoke with him on this but we didn't talk much about color. That one is really up to you to work on. I simply wanted to make clear that there are other options.

If you'd like "not red" then we can do two things- first I can speak with Wilwood on their custom colors they do in house. The now offer the basics of colors to pick from but it takes them 2-3wks to do them...ok sometimes quicker but that's the company line.

Or;
I do nearly all my work here locally with a PC shop who handles my colors. The only issue with me doing colors here is logo work. The basic Dynapro caliper has a milled in logo. That is lost in the process. On many such calipers we opt for the custom TCE/Wilwood logo.
http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o...rent=Test4.jpg
Cut vinyl but actually hold up quite well. The more costly method is the mill work shown above.

When we do work on the 13" kits it's much easier as the logo is raised. That means only a mill pass is required to refresh the image.
http://s122.photobucket.com/albums/o...=MINIinRed.jpg
Doing this one however is on the 13" kits only.

And yes the cost is the same regardless.


Yes it's all a bit confusing at times....others sell the same factory kits but I choose to go one step more and build to the customers order.

We could mill CELIA in them....

 

Someone on another forum just suggest ORANGE! And...I kinda like that idea! Orange is one of my favorite colors and had they offered the R56 in orange, there is a very good chance I would have gone with orange instead of the laser blue (although it would have been a VERY tough decision).

Todd - That would be DIFFERENT that's for sure LOL.

What does everything think of ORANGE calipers on the black wheels?

 

I would second the vote on not going red......red has been done and done and done. You see too many choads out there getting a can of red spray paint and painting their stock calipers red.

I like the idea of something different......orange might work, blue would be more subtle and a dark grey would be nice too.....it'd stand out more than the black but not be screaming. I prefer the subtle, clean look of high performance.

 

I think red would be ultra tacky on your blue MINI. I say go blue or black.

 

Red, yellow, and orange would all go well with LB, but you really need to pick that color up somewhere else on the car -- such as mirror covers.

I disagree with an earlier post saying that blue had to match the LB. I don't think that is true at all. Two different blues together can look great together. When the shade of blue is different it is best that the value (light/dark) also be different. If it has the same value, it could look bad -- depending on the actual color.

 

:snicker:



I agree. A nice titanium grey would look perfect on the light blue/black wheel combo.




OEM Alcon's:

 

Once you go black, oh, nevermind.

 

They *can*, but depending on the shades, they *can* also invoke puking.

 

Like I said at GSM (can't take credit for the original idea, tho) Orange, to match the reflectors.

 

So it seems like a bunch of people said red and then a bunch of people said "not red!" LOL.


I'm still really digging the orange idea. I do agree that there would need to be orange somewhere else on the car to kind of tie in with the orange calipers if that's what I went with. I was thinking the same idea with the reflectors since that's bright orange. I believe the ones in the back are red so I would need get a set of orange ones to replace the red. If I did that, then I would kill two birds with one stone - I would be spreading the orange a little and not have to worry about waiting for clear reflectors for the fenders.

BUT, would that be enough orange? And if not, where else could I have orange? I have carbon fiber mirror caps so I don't really want to mess with that. Also, keep in mind that I will have body colored painted fenders coming in soon to replace the black ones. Ooh...I can actually pull the set of orange reflectors off my black fenders and replace the red reflectors with them on the painted set! Cool!

Hmmm...........

 

Put me firmly in the 'not red' camp, though it's your car not mine, so it doesn't really matter what I think.

Orange does sound very sly. If you want a contrasting color that'd get my vote. And if you're spending all that money on big brakes mostly for looks then doing them stealthy would be pretty counterproductive.

So my vote is still blue, but orange would be just as good if not bettah.

 

Funny you should mention other parts....

If you're in the market for coilovers, Texas Speed Works is selling new AST coilovers that have orange springs and adjustment ***** (which would be visible from the strut towers) These would match your calipers

You can see photos on the 1st and 3rd pages in this thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t=ast+coilover

 

Red would look OK, but it is very common. Orange would be fresher.

Pardon my messing with your photo.


Get Aesthetic Creations to make a stripe for you.

 

I vote for red!