Sure they do!

 

Right! How much is the Brembo? I notice Brembo is quite quick to prostitute their name to many OE brakes with significant upcharge. A kind of like Bose, HK, or B&O for automotive audio.

You can't say which brand is better. You have to examine each specific model with their merits and shortcomings. I sure not walking around in a Wilwood T-shirt.

Blinding swear by any brand is branding fashion victim and it shows.

 

The title of this thread contains the word "options" for a very specific reason. The subsequent discussions here and on Motoring Alliance reflect without any doubt that we are a varied group of individuals that have different opinions and thoughts. If somebody likes something because a particular name is on it, no big deal as this is a MINI forum. How many out there were aware that the piston area on the Gen2 Brembo was basically (my cals reflect 3.54 for the Brembo and 3.53 for the R56S) the same as the R52S caliper???????? I would never had thought that and believe many are in the same boat.

The good thing is that you can say what you want here relative to car issues with a little common sense. You want to spend the money on a brand name or tell us it is the best, be my guest. If you want to squeeze the shi_t out of a Buffalo Head Nickel and put something else on, be my quest.

I do not drive a MINI or have modded my MINI as I want to please anybody, other than myself.

 

Brembo makes the best brakes period. You have to pay to play with the best.

Professional Race teams use them, Porsche which has the best brakes in the automotive world uses them and the list goes on and on.

It’s not blindly backing Brembo as the facts are the facts.

 

I am just siting my option and providing the best option. If that does not fit into someone’s budget then my opinion means nothing.

No feelings hurt on my end and I did not intend to hurt anyone’s feelings either.

 

We are all grownups here so cannot hurt my feelings unless you start calling my car names . . . . . .

 

And yes IMO the Brembo is the best brake system out there.

 

Yes I think the Gen3s are 330s.

But, on the Gen2 side of things, as the S caliper's piston is very similar in size to the Brembo JCW package, by upgrading to the larger 316 JCW rotor with a bracket to compensate for the additional 22mm, you end up with better stopping force. This Gen2 bracket would be much easier to fabricate as the holes would be on the same axis.

A member here asked me to send him my drawing and other stuff as he said he could calculate out the bracket values. He might be able to do the same thing for the Gen2s.

This all of course goes back to the Gen1 where you could go with both the 316 rotors and either the single caliper R56S or the Wilwoods.

 

It appears the Stoptech 126.34160 is a slotted 330 mm rotor that runs approximately $116. I believe it is the same 4x100 bolt pattern but do not know whether the hub hole is the same size. If they are, then for around $500 you can get everything for a big brake set. I am thinking that a bracket using 3/8" plate steel would be strong enough and that stuff is pretty cheap.

Gen3 rotors and Wilwood piston values larger than the Gen2 Brembo should make a drastic change to the braking.

 

Here is a drawing with the 330 Gen3 JCW rotor. Appears it would work on my 17" wheel.

 

Only if you convert to a 5X112 lug pattern.

 

Well cancel the 330s.

 

I saw a car in the DT tent, R53 with 3rd gen MINI / BMW 1M Brembo’s at the Dragon. He has to run the larger 18 inch GP wheels at they were tight.

Can it be done? Yeah.

Would I do it? Nope, 18’s are too big and the weight of the wheel and caliber are not worth it to me.


For me I am going 2nd gen Brembo’s with solid rotors and g-lock pads and new SS lines.

 

You can get 17” wheels that will work with the 3rd Gen BBK. NM and a few others make wheels that will clear the Brembo calipers. Converting to five lug wheels would be the expensive part. That’s only an assumption on my part because I’ve never looked into it. I’m running NM RSe05 17X7.5 et40 and they work perfectly with the BBK, and save 8 pounds per wheel over stock.

 

actually you would be wrong........we had to fix the brembo's on the Porsche's running Grand Am all the time. They have inherent design flaws

 

The 316 mm rotor drawing,

 

I used to like brembos but the OEM versions suck, wont run them again, stuff like ceramic pistons and weird pad sizes that shoot the pad prices way up to the stratosphere

wilwoods on my track car now, lots of choices in the 7816 pad size, pads/rotors are consumables, when in doubt replace them, factor that into your decision

you are more than welcome to look at how my wilwood brackets work, I'm not a fan of the design needing shims but it is effective

 

What size rotor you have with the Wilwoods? In your opinion how do they compare with the JCW/R56s calipers? Assume you have the Wilwoods on your track car but what is on the other one?

And did you fab your own brackets?

 

I have the wilwood 11.75 dynapro set on the track car, with the brackets they came with. Best part about the wilwood is pad changes without removing the caliper it is soooo quick.

The street car has the factory r53 jcw stuff

I do not notice much difference on the track, the rotor size is so close and I ran the same pad material so the stopping power was the same. The wilwoods vent better so they do not run as hot, and do not crack as quick. I have never had fluid boil issues with either setup on the track.

 

What is the caliper number you have as the ones I have listed here are the least expensive with the 6.4" pads (7812), not the 8" you have with the 7816s.

 

Nothing wrong with Wilwood..!
MANY put their life on the line using them, and no one I've heard of has had catastrophical failure.

As with a few other brands out there also. Nothing that exciting about Brembo except maybe because the name has been around a while, on both sides of the pond.

A note on aluminum calipers, vs. the OEM iron calipers and bracketry... The tires, shocks and springs have a lot less hard work to do to keep the lighter weight parts under control.

Sort of looking into this myself. Started watching this thread just yesterday.
Thanks for all the work Whine not...

Mike

 

Disc brake ain't rocket science. In fact it is simpler than drum brakes.

is left hand grabbing tighter than right hand?


Wilwood is a tiny company in Camarillo, CA


You won't see F1 or NASCAR have them, but you see them at all local tracks. I think they are very popular with American race cars.

 

The Brembo pad is allot bigger at around 14 sq. inches with the R56 around 8 sq. inches and the Wilwood 4-pot at around 6.4 sq. inches.

IMO the key to these "options" are what do you intend to do with your car? With that big pad that utilizes the entire rotor, the Brembo should dissipate heat the best. For the "bite" would think the Wilwood with the smallest pad but the largest piston area, would be the best but as the pad is not as deep, and with the pad being the smallest would think it would fade the quickest.

Remember that when the friction between the pad and the rotor exceeds that of the tire to the road, all the debates are mute.

 

pnw wrote - "You won't see F1 or NASCAR have them, but you see them at all local tracks. I think they are very popular with American race cars"

Hmm, really. Well, beside the fact that they neither make...NASCAR or F1 brakes, I'd say that's a pretty obvious fact that even the blind would notice..!

And yes, they are somewhat heavy into the lower class roundy-round and SCCA road race cars fairly heavy, at least on the West Coast. I've seen a LOT of Auto-x, Solo 1 and II cars with the Wilwood stickers on them.
I know that they stop at least 95% of the 330+mph Top Fuel and Funny Cars (along with most of the rest of Drag Racing fraternity) in the USA AND abroad. And that with their smaller calipers.

NOT meaning to start an argument here. It just really shouldn't take an F1 caliper to stop a 2800 car at 30 to 110mph, even OEM parts..!

Mike

 

In years past I remember seeing the Wilwood calipers on Winston Cup cars on the shorter tracks.