Best Big Brake Kit?
 

What's the best big brake kit, particularly one that is available for an FD? Also, where is the cheapest place to get it?

I really like the slotted, drilled look, but I hear the drilled rotors have some issues. Has anyone else heard this?

I'v looked at a few, but none of them seem to offer solutions for the rear brakes, just the front.

Stoptech has a well priced 13" 4 piston front brake kit for the FD. The '99 RZ (Japanese FD) had an upgraded 12.4" rear brake kit that most people run when upgrading brakes. MazdaSpeed and a few other vendors sell the rear kit. There is thread on the Stoptech brakes and apparantly the stock rear brakes provide a well balanced braking bias.

Remember you will need larger rims $$$$. I believe you need 18" rims to clear the 13" Stoptechs.

AP Racing front 13" brakes are very nice with a slim caliper design to fit under most 17" rims. I've been told by various sources that the FD needs the '99 RZ rear brake upgrade to balance out the AP front kit. I plan to run this on my car.

Then add a 929 Master cylinder with ABS (larger bore inside for less pedal travel and better feel).

Unless you road race the car you don't need the brake upgrade...... Stock stuff with good fluid and pads should suffice.

-Mark

Stop Techs fit under 17" wheels, just not the 16" stockers.

Just to add some helpful info on big brake kits. All the off the shelf big brake kits have roughly the same piston area.
AP5200= 49.5 sq.cm.

Sorry, Wrong key. Anyway
AP5200=49.5 sq. cm piston area
Wilwood 6 piston= 51 0r 52 , I forget
Big Reds 52 or 53 sq. cm.
Stock 3rd gen 4 piston= 40 sq.cm.
Stop Tech= 30 sq.cm.
All this means is that the 50+ sq.cm calipers will have a little longer pedal stroke but give a bit more squeeze on the rotor. The StopTech will have a little firmer pedal but require a little more "boot" to get the same squeeze as the stock caliper but will make up the torque difference in rotor diameter. My feeling is that the AP, Wilwood, Big Reds, Brembo Kits would benefi from the Larger 99 RZ rear rotor. Without testing and just guessing, I feel the Stoptech kit will work best with stock rear calipers. Now if you have AP kit or other kit with 50 to 53 sq.cm. piston area , I feel the rear kit I have developed would work very well. A-Spec has Photos and has the Distribution and production rights to this kit. Hopefully Sean will have the photos up soon.
1R1

i like my drilled rotors

And what does that have to do with this thread? Drilled stock size rotors have worse braking performance than stock. Still like your drilled rotors?

he is totally correct. less metal in rotors means less stopping power. there is a reason rotors are vented.

solid rotors needed to be cross drilled vented rotors dont.

nein, at least not for track use. Cross-drilled rotors will crack at the track, guaranteed. Since this thread is about big brake kits, which aren't necessary for the street, the discussion should focus on track use, IMO.

I'm sure his girlfriend still thinks they look spiffy. :D

There's always Endless:

http://www.autornd.com/usermade/R6kit.jpg

This is the Racing6 Kit used in JGTC.

Endless...does that mean there's no end when you brake? :D

Ok, no joke now. The Endless calipers, are they made in Japan? Or, are they rebadged from some other brand?

I don't know, those Endless calipers look an awful lot like AP calipers....:)

I don't know how much the Endless brake kits cost (their site is down right now), but guessing from the prices of their other stuff, it's likely more than the typical AP Racing setup. And far more than the Stoptech kit.

Right now, the Stoptech kit looks like it's one of the better setups available -- and it's one of the cheapest to boot. The only negative is that the Stoptech caliper is much larger than the AP caliper, so will work with far fewer wheels.

The 6pot is listed at $3685.00 per endless USA's website. Is it really worth $3685...........you be the judge of that =P

On a side note, does anyone know the spec's of their 4 pot brake system? what size rotor's? Im wondering, as I saw their 28 slotted rotor, and it looks really trick. My guess is that they vent gas more? but then, would it give up total rotor surface since there are more slots?

They are only made for the Evo VII and VIII. Does anyone know the stock rotor sizes of the Evo's? I know their brembo's, so they should be pretty big. Will they work on the Stoptech calipers?

Please help me out with some info if you can, thanks!!
Chris-

Has anybody checked out Pettit's big brake kit yet???

We've used StopTech kits on most of our project cars with awsome results. I'm currently running thier set up on my RX8 and I love them. The largest kit they make for the RX8, 355x32mm 4 POT. Slotted of course!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...2/f991571c.jpg

The larger kit will only fit on 18s cuz they're so huge but the smaller set up will work with 17s. I highly recomend StopTech.

Are these show cars or track cars?

StopTech has my vote for now. Being real big brake kit and lowest price plus we know for sure the company has done testing on our cars, why not???

this is probably a rookie question, but do the stoptech's have dust boots? i know many of the bigger and better brake kits are for track only, and require a rebuild after every other race, etc. Are these "really" streetable? Im not a track monster, i only go a few times a year, but when i do, the stock brakes really don't do as well as i'd like, and im looking for a great BBK, that still retains daily use-ability.

double post

Stop Techs have dust boots, and use an OE Porsche pad shape.

Yea, there are a few guys around me that have been using them for a while. PM "RTS3GEN". That's his car on Pettit's site with them installed. He loves them.

Great Mahjik. Thanks a lot!

What is the weight on the smaller stoptech kit? I looked at the AP kit because there was actually a weight reduction as compared to the stock breaks because of the Champ Car rotors. Does it weigh less than the stock brakes (front)? I wouldn't want to add unsprung weight which would nullify any performance gain.