I have started investigating brake upgrade options and want everyone (who knows) to weigh in... it looks like my options are JCW, Tarox, Wilwood, Brembo and Stoptech, did I miss any? I noticed that some people in GoMini have gone with Porsche brake installation....

What are the opinions on the different systems?
If I want to keep the stock 17" wheels (for now), what are my best options?

Edit: Tho I am not doing track days now, i plan to in the near future... and yes $$ is an object in my decision, but I want best bang for the $ so i am willing to pay more for the quality.

 

I second that!

 

JCW: just barely upgraded from stockers, not much improvement
Tarox: EXTREMELY expensive
Stoptech: good price, and stops well
Brembo: obiviously expensive
Wilwood: i think it maybe best bang for the buck

you are missing the TCE 13' wilwood kit, which tce built themselves, also, the B3 kit, and the detroit tuned kit are also there

ask yourself why you want a brake kit? if you are not doing track days consistently, upgraded pads, fluid, and rotors, with perhaps stainless bushings would do just as well on the street... ive ran ds2500 for about a year now, and even on the track they manage to stop me very well, just not well enough for me when i push it hard

if you are only getting bbk for the street... i'd suggest save your money and get wilwood street kit... with the srp rotors... looks great, stops great, otherwise, stoptech would be a good choice.. i'd stay away from jcw unless you want a warranty

im sure someone else will say how wrong i am, but this is only me talking

 

I am curious too, but my main reason is in all honesty "looks only". My wheels expose the brakes and rotors and they look too dull for me. I'd love something more fly and tech looking. Thoughts?
H

 

i can only offer what i do know, and as far as im concerned, i think wilwood offers the biggest selection to match all owners...

for those who plan to track the car... stoptech, brembo all will do great job, they can get expensive though, i think tce's 13' wilwood kit would be the best.. especially the one with the 1.10 thick rotors...

if you are not then i guess get a budget together.. obiviously street or track i'd want brembo, but because it is so dam expensive... i'd get probably the 12.16 street wilwood kit with srp rotors.. the rotors look very nicely drilled/slotted, and you get good stopping power

and im not a wilwood sales person.. just from my stand point, they do offer the best bang for the buck....

 

I have brembos and they require some monster spacers with most of the stock wheels, and still barely work.. The calipers are beasts.

The are expensive, but are bulletproof. The rotor and hat replacement alone, during a brake service is 1000 bucks just for parts.

Wilwood makes a stellar kit for the money.

Keep in mind, drilled rotors cannot typically be "turned" during servicing. Replacement only....

 

http://www.detroittuned.com/products...Section=brakes


we also make this kit. soon to be on the shelf all the time.:smile:

 

i got the .81 inch wide 13 inch TCE kit. it it great. i track my car and can't say enough about how great they are.

i too am on a budget so i had to do it in steps. first i got a set of street wheels that would fit over the BBK. it looked goofey for a few moths with so much space there but i'm on a budget and can't write a check for 3 grand in a day. my next step was the TCE kit. i put it on myself so i saved a chunk there. no idea how much that would cost to install. maybe some one can tell us. next step was another set of wheels and tires for the track. all together, it took almost 6 months but i didn't break the bank in the mean time.

if your not gonna track your car, save your money. the BBK will serve no porpose but voiding that part of your warranty.

i also wanted to keep the stock wheels. i got talked out of it. they are so heavy and have no room for a real BBK. you don't want to have to buy another BBK when you figure out the one behind your stock wheels can't cut it.

 

I also back the TCE Wilwood kits and believe that they are truly the very best bang for the buck in BBKs. I use the 13" x .81" with aftermarket wheels. S-Lights will not work unless a 10mm spacer is used. No need to go with the 1+" thick rotors unless you are truly professionally racing HARD. Even then I see little benefit. TCE kits are among the lightest out there if not THE lightest. Again a good reason to stick with the .81".

Not to mention that TCE makes a larger rotor for the rears also...

I'm on my second set of these brakes myself and push them quite hard on the track. Todd, of TCE, is also very available when you need him.

 

I have AP. In my research this company has a lt of racing experience and is popular among F1. Brakes work....pads expensive

 

Doing some research on the Wilwood polymatrix pads it would seem that the Poly E pad material would be a better overall pad than the poly Q material. For some reason the higher end TCE kits include the Q material pads. The graphs of both make it seem like the E material is much more consistant than Q which is very "Spikey" and starts to fade out past 800º. The E material is fairly flat and the graph ends at 1000º. Anyone have a suggestion for a better pad other than these two? Also, if I were to order the TCE kit, can I substitute in a different set of pads? I like what I've heard about the Hawk HPS pads. I definatly don't want something that sounds like a dying animal every time I come to a stop, but I want a setup that will stop the car quickly, and preferably without killing my rotors in the process (added benefit of the pads would be for them to last more than 6-10k miles ). Thanks for any feedback!

 

Bump...

Trying to get peoples impressions on the pads included with the TCE kits. Any other aftermarket pad suggestions would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

 

sorry to be so slack but.... that's the way i work. the pads that came with are very similar to the stock set up. granted they don't fade after 20 hard stops. todd also sent me track pads for the track. they in a word are snachey. one or two stops to put some heat in the pads and they want to throw the paint off the car.

when i first got the the BBK was expecting some ultra miracle stopping. they are better than stock but, stock is fine for driveing around. the BBk isn't anything supernatural on the road. here is the good part. on the track...uhhhh

with the track pads, man oh man. silly stopping power. the brakes are no longer an issue in any sense of the word. we will always find ways to find the weaknesses of our cars. with this super human stopping power i've found the next issue is rubber. i wrecked my track tires the first weekend i got the brakes.

i wish all of you the best. if you don't track your car, don't bother with a BBK. maybe some hot pads.

late,

 

For many months now all or nearly all TCE kits (MINI and othewise) have included Hawk HPS pads, not the Q pads. I quit supplying Q pads very early this year due to many compaints of pad transfer issues. This did not sit well with my supplier but I refuse to be the one supplying my customers a part I cannot feel good about. The Q pads were a great hit when they were released back a couple of years ago. I'm convinced that the formula for this pad has been altered from the first release.

The Hawk HPS compound was a well known and proven pad which immediately put to bed the complaints I had received with my products. In the recent months Wilwood has released the new BP10 compound (wonder why??) and I have now put this pad back into my kits. *I need to change the web page. So far I have had very favorable response to this pad and tested it here on an other platform.

The E pad is supplied on all the Wilwood 'race' kits. The Q pad on the street kits. I do not know if these compounds will be changed in the future or not.

E is a fine 'light duty' track day pad. It can be used on the street but has quite a bit of noise to it. Q is fine for street only and non high heat enviroment use. B compound is a far better choice for track day use.

For the TCE 13" kits we offer far more pad options at this time due to the use of the larger FSL caliper. The DP caliper has a few less pad options at this time. (5 vs 10 compounds)