308 Brembo INSTALLED :)

Brilliant, just brilliant.
Kudos to Verell and Eric, and to Steve for pushing through on this inspired project! Interesting if your brake balance is any different - too soon to tell.
Looking forward to hearing progress!
best
rt

 

congrats Steve. Nice project. Are you going to add a proportioning valve for selectable front/rear brake bias? How about a few pics of the car with the wheels on it as it sits on the ground sporting those big brakes?

 

Steve,

Having seen your new brakes, I can't wait for mine to show up...those look just awesome! Congrats man!

Cheers,
Travis

 

Steve
Can you post the specs (wt, rotor diameter, piston sizes...)? Also, how much is front track changed?

 

Hi Steven,
I just got back in town, glad to see you have the system mounted up.

Your pedal will for sure feel longer, the piston area increase over stock is 930 sq cm, which is about 20% more than stock.
This will translate into about, but not exactly 20% more pedal travel.

This is a feel issue only, as the brake system is about 30% more powerful in terms of brake torque. So you will have much better braking reserve and ability, albeit with a longer pedal.

The Brembo set shifts the static brake balance to the front by 9%, (69.7%f, 30.3%r)over the stock balance split. This is not ideal, but it is not dangerous. If you put in a very high performance rear pad, (ferodo ds2500 or 3000, Pagid 4-2-1, SBS Pro Track, or similar) you can put the balance closer to a 5% front balance increase, which is far more acceptable.

I see that you have done a runout check of the rotor on the car. This is a smart step to take in the system mounting. I am curious to know what amount of runout you found, and if you compared it to the OE rotor.

Talk to ya soon, enjoy the system!

Eric

 

Steven, GREAT MOD! WOW!! be nice to see how it improves as you tweak it and break the system in!

 

Hi,

I noticed you had a dial indicator on the rotor measuring for runout. Out of curiousity, what was the runout?

Thanks

 

We didn't think to measure the runout of the old rotors.

Wish we had, as we'd have discovered early in the day that the RH front wheel bearing was shot. By the time we discovered it the local parts store had closed. So 1.5 hours taken up by a round trip to Nashua,NH where NAPA was out of sets 2 & 6! AutoZone a couple of miles up the road had them tho. Then another half-hour to press out the old bearings, clean the hub up, pack & install the new bearings, etc.

Btw, Sure wasn't a 3-4 hour job.we started the project about 9:00 AM, broke about 35 or 40 min for lunch, skipped supper & Steven drove off about 10:30 or 11:00 PM. Even w/o the trip for the wheel bearings it would have been a long day. Still, the results were worth it! We had a lot of fun doing the project.

Runout Bottom line:
Runout on.LH wheel was ~0.0013" (spec is 0.003).
Runout on RH wheel w/new bearings was ~0.0007".

Alignment:
BTW, for both rotors clearance between the outside ends of the pad slot and the rotor was a very consistent 0.052". By calibrated eyeball, the inside clearance was greater, but not by much, maybe ~0.007 or so..

We did not need to shim the Brembo caliper mounts, as the difference between inner & outer pad slot clearances was noticably less than the thickness of the original caliper shim washers, and because the shims would have further increased the inner clearance.

The machining & finish of the BREMBO calipers & rotors was absolutely beautiful! Only flaw was that the clearance holes machined into the rotor hub for installing the rotor retainong bolts with the wheel alignment assist pins was so small that you couldn't get a socket into it. We ended up using a pair of pliars to hand tighten the pins.

(slightly off-topic)
Maybe someday I'll be able to afford them for my car. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about a much lower cost front brake upgrade using mostly off-the shelf parts:

I grabbed a spare 4-piston 2nd gen Rx7 caliper from my parts pile & tried it on the stock rotor. The rotor width was spot on as I knew it would be from the rotoor specs. Sure doesn't look like it'll take much to machine an adapter out of 1" AL stock. The Rx7 calipers are known for their stopping power. The SCCA racers don't bother upgrading the 2nd gen Rx7 brake system as they haven't found anything that works better!
When I get a chance I'm going to take a look at the Rx7 rear calipers as they have significantly larger pad area than the stock rears.

Oh, yes, by hand heft comparison, the Rx7 caliper weighs significantly less than the original caliper, & somewhat less than the Brembo caliper (probably because it's MUCH larger, therefore more Al.)

 

Steve - Congrats - The new brakes look awesome!

Gotta love F-Chat - Friends like Verell is what makes ownership so fun!

Mad Hatter - Can't wait to see yours on the TR - I'm jealous.

 

Seems I've read somewhere (Carroll Smith?) that these should not be used in the front lines. By the way, Smith hates them anyway (hysteresis).

They do look good through the wheels.
Philip

 

Steve:
The brakes look wonderful! Just a question about the slots in the last picture; it looks like the FR wheel has the rotor slotting opposite to wheel rotation. Is this typical? I usually see the rotors pinwheel in the same direction as wheel rotation.
Look forward to hearing how they perform once you get some time to dial in the balance!

 

Great thread, I've always been interested in putting Brembo's on my 308 especially for the track days. I was always under the impression that installing a big brake kit like Brembo's only eliminated braking fade you can experience on the track but not actually improve stopping distance.

Glad to hear its working great for you.

 

It's been nearly 4 months waiting, but the first Brembo big break pkg may be ready next week for my 328. Brembo's R&D (Thanks to Chris) will be test fitting them this week in Costa Mesa. Will keep those interested as to any development. I'm tentatively promised they will ship next week provided no further changes need to happen. This should make those interested very happy!

 

I put the complete Brembo kit on my 84 308 in the spring of 03. I have tracked it about 8 times since and I LOVE it! I use the Carbotech Panther XP pads and ATE Blue fluid. This is way more then enough brakes for a street car that runs a lot of track events. Everyone that drives my car at the events (yes, I let other people drive it) really are impressed. It was very expensive but worth it to me. Every penny.

 

Yeah, I'm one of the guys that has driven Dr. Tommy's car and liked it so much, I ordered a Brembo front kit for mine! I'm waiting for arrival and installation...

 

i am next. Stock 308 brakes suck with applications over 400hp.


Great post guys, thanks for the info.


Paul

 

For your information,

It is impossible to measure run out on a 2 piece floating disc assembly on the car, as the all assembly has 15/000 float.

The Brembo rotor is mounted to the hub with special hardware to allow the disc to float...

Victor Barreira
www.polepositionusa.com

 

Finally did the brakes and the saner sway bars front and rear. Many thanks to Mike Charness for the info.
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