Well... I've always been a person more interested in handling dynamics than in outright power (especially in the Mini) and i'd like to move some of the weight from the front to the rear to make it handle with more neutrality. That does something to the brake bias, however.

My thought was to fit front sized-vented rotors on the rear and go with something larger on the front. Logically (to me anyway) that should handle more rear weight. I was poking around and the way the rear calipers and the front calipers fit is remarkably similar. Of course that brings in the issue of the parking brake. Any thoughts?

 

TCE/wilwood offers rear caliper kit with hand brake, but they aren't huge calipers like any aftermarket front kits. they also have bigger brake rotor kits available

and mini being a fwd, putting beefy brakes in the front make sense, and all the weight pretty much just shift to the front when u brake. having huge brakes on the rear on such a small car is really killing an ant with a bomb.

having good brake pads, rotors and tires can enhance not just the rear but all around handling characteristic.

 

Definitely talk to Todd at TCE. He and others have spent mucho time and money investigating systems. Use their knowlege, don't guess.

 

I am fully aware of all of the other systems out there. I have been researching this for quite some time. I would still be interested, however, in studying for myself how such a conversion would affect the dynamics of the car. I have several track days coming up and i'd like to keep track of the temperatures that I get with my JCW BBK up front and my stock rotors with uprated JCW pads in the rear.

I have read the responses to Todd's rear brake system. I have heard a lot of people (normally with a 13" kit up front along with the rear kit) talk about how unsettled the car is under hard braking. It sound to me like a symptom of too much forward bias. The back gets light and loses traction, causing it to transfer even more weight to the front so that it can destroy the tires without doing the stopping distances any good.

Furthermore, see the discussion regarding "BBKs and brake bias". There has been an ongoing discussion about how most front kits do not improve stopping distances and often cause the symtoms I described above. That makes me want to give this a try for myself to see what results I can acheive. I make an effort not to "guess."