Best budget brake calipers

[Copperbottom]

I'm after some honest opinions here, which of the budget brands are best? (Hi Spec,Wilwood,Comp brake etc)I run 13" rims on my mk1 Escort race car so can fit 265mm discs inside (just),I'd love a set of AP Racing brakes but at a cost of nearly £1k they're out of my price range! So what do you all recommend?
Also how important is pad area compared to piston and disc sizes?

[markjtaylor]

I bought Hi Spec calipers for a V8 engined Healey I had. the product was great. However, I am being carefull here, there ability to supply the necessary conversion bits that they said would not be a problem was another story. The 4 week maximum time scale became 3 months. There product, I repeat was superb and good value. Any conversion stuff, different matter. This comment is based only on my individual personal experience.

[Belatti]

The way I see it, calipers matters most in light cars were you need light and at the same time "non flexible" -or lets say rigid- calipers.

In a club touring car you can put any caliper but try to make sure the pistons has a clear way, the calibrated springs do their job for minimal residual braking and that the brake pump are mounted in such a way the piston works traction-compresion so that the brake pump is not flexing.

Use good brake hoses (not the "rubber" ones) and if you have got 2 brake pumps (front and rear) try to size the calipers pistons in such a way that fluid flow is the same because if not you´ll be braking only 2 wheels for the first metres of braking distance.

Just my 2 cents

[Al Weyman]

I have had good results with Wilwoods and they will export from the US so you may save even more, if not Rally Design are a pretty sound company just they dont stock some of the big stuff I use on my car so I had to go direct. They do an 14" disc, 6 pot caliper conversion for the Camaro I would really like for my later car. I have their big Grand National 6 pots on my older car and you can lock the wheels up if you are not careful and the big pads seem to last forever!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Copperbottom

I'm after some honest opinions here, which of the budget brands are best? (Hi Spec,Wilwood,Comp brake etc)I run 13" rims on my mk1 Escort race car so can fit 265mm discs inside (just),I'd love a set of AP Racing brakes but at a cost of nearly £1k they're out of my price range! So what do you all recommend?
Also how important is pad area compared to piston and disc sizes?

I ran Willwood Supalite 4(?) pots for quite a while and as a road set up they are fine. For my car though on track I found them to be very iffy. They would never pull straight and indeed would lock on one wheel (I blew a tyre at Donington on one occasion due to this). In discussion with other drivers I found out that under pressure they expanded. I invested in an AP set up (I run 13" wheels too) and have had no problems. I may still have the Willwoods if you'd like to buy them though. An Escort is lighter than my Capri.

[Al Weyman]

Did you have the little bracing bar with them Peter? I can lock up tyres on my older car with the 6 pots but I dont feel its to do with the calipers just too damned powerful for those Dunlops they insist we run on.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Did you have the little bracing bar with them Peter? I can lock up tyres on my older car with the 6 pots but I dont feel its to do with the calipers just too damned powerful for those Dunlops they insist we run on.

If you need a bracing bar then you have a problem and yes.

[Copperbottom]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

I ran Willwood Supalite 4(?) pots for quite a while and as a road set up they are fine. For my car though on track I found them to be very iffy. They would never pull straight and indeed would lock on one wheel (I blew a tyre at Donington on one occasion due to this). In discussion with other drivers I found out that under pressure they expanded. I invested in an AP set up (I run 13" wheels too) and have had no problems. I may still have the Willwoods if you'd like to buy them though. An Escort is lighter than my Capri.

This is the sort of info that I'm after,I've heard the same things about wilwoods. I use princess 4 pots on 260mm discs at the moment and they are 100% reliable although do sometimes suffer from pad knock back, they're just very heavy compared to the alloy ones that are on the market.

Anybody know about comp brake products?

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

I ran Willwood Supalite 4(?) pots for quite a while and as a road set up they are fine. For my car though on track I found them to be very iffy.

We ran Wilwoods on our first Mk2 Rally Car - they were so good we didn't fit them to the new car. That says it all really. We're running Comp Brake now and they're much better than the Wilwoods (we're running on 13's too). AP's are apparently better again - but they cost a lot more.

[Tim Falce]

I have Hi Spec brakes on my car. I have Monster 4 pots on the front and I did have ultralites on the rear. I have dumped the ultralites and gone back to the Jaguar callipers.
In hindsight I would save up the extra money and go for AP Racing ones.

Jeff at Hi Spec is very knowledgeable and extremely helpful if you can pin him down. The downfall with Hi Spec is you will wait a long time for anything you order that isn't on the shelf and as he makes most of his stuff it wont be on the shelf.

What's the matter with the brakes you have?

[Andy Law]

I too use Hi-spec, really good brakes but a terrible company to deal with.
Shame as its a British company and i always buy British if i can but would'nt deal with Hi-spec again, even though i was impressed with the brakes.

[graham bahr]

i cant really comment on your application nick but i've used willwoods for years on my cars and never had an issue.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Copperbottom

Anybody know about comp brake products?

Comp Brake calipers are made by OUTLAW in the USA I believe. Their range and products are very similar, if not identical, to Wilwood. We have Bremspot calipers - which is what Comp Brake calipers were branded before Comp Brake emerged from the ashes of TAS. Apparently the same calipers are used on the rear of NASCAR cars... so can't be too bad.

However, Hi Spec are cheaper (at the moment) possibly due to the exchange rate?

[Al Weyman]

Pete the bar is just a threaded rod and cost pennies, like Graham I have had no problems and my mate had them on his Camaro with no problems I will carry on using their stuff may even order that monster kit from them, I will see how the IROC goes first with the new engine.

[Copperbottom]

All that I was offered by Comp Brake are some M16 copies,not quite what I'm looking for!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

Pete the bar is just a threaded rod and cost pennies, like Graham I have had no problems and my mate had them on his Camaro with no problems I will carry on using their stuff may even order that monster kit from them, I will see how the IROC goes first with the new engine.

Each to his own, I use AP and they don't lock up, I get even braking and no problems. You tell me your brakes lock up so there may well be a difference, perhaps in driving style? I'm possibly a lot slower than you.

[GORDON STREETER]

I used Princess calipers on my old Anglia and never had an issue with them.
The only problem was pad texture availability so the car I have now has AP alloy ones.
If you feel they work OK I wouldn't have thought the weight would make sod all difference.
I made my car as light as possible as the series I was in had no minimum weight restriction, but I had a few reliability problems ( like a front alloy hub breaking up ! )
and within reason at my level of racing small weight savings made no difference to lap times. Don't forget there are a lot of good calipers (alloy and steel ) kicking about in the breakers at the moment that can easily be adapted cheaply.
A lot of these aftermarket brake kits are just fashion accessories IMHO especially the "bling" kits I see on road cars

[Copperbottom]

Thanks G,tbh I'm not sure that I am that happy with what's on the car at the moment hence the original question,the main problem with calipers off of a road car is that they're made for large diameter wheels and discs so the pads don't contact the whole of the disc when using smaller discs than they were designed for which is why I asked about pad area v disc size in my original post,I'm sure that I could go faster IF I had better brakes so could brake later.I also get a small amount of pad knock off with the princess ones! Mind you I don't use the brakes very much anyway,(I haven't worn out the 1st set of pads yet!) I'm leaning towards spending more and getting some AP racing calipers,and not spending the money elsewhere on the car that I had planned to.

[zefarelly]

Best budget brake calipers . . . .

the ones designed for the car . . .

very well set up, maintained, with decent pads.

you could do a lot worse than spend your money optimising what you have.

[GORDON STREETER]

The AP ones that I use I had to grind a hell of a lot off of the calipers to get them to fit inside the 13 inch wheels anyway. My rear brakes are part Fiesta and Mk 3 Escort and I have to make pads to suit.

[Copperbottom]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

Best budget brake calipers . . . .

the ones designed for the car . . .

very well set up, maintained, with decent pads.

you could do a lot worse than spend your money optimising what you have.

That's what I have done already (bias box,comp pads,braided lines,slightly bigger front discs and discs on the rear) but I want Better brakes

[Copperbottom]

Originally Posted by GORDON STREETER

The AP ones that I use I had to grind a hell of a lot off of the calipers to get them to fit inside the 13 inch wheels anyway. My rear brakes are part Fiesta and Mk 3 Escort and I have to make pads to suit.

Hmm that's given me an idea,were your Aps off of a road car? I use Fiesta mk1 discs/calipers on the back of mine.

[Peter Mallett]

I use Sierra Cosworth brakes on the back of mine.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Copperbottom

Thanks G,tbh I'm not sure that I am that happy with what's on the car at the moment hence the original question,the main problem with calipers off of a road car is that they're made for large diameter wheels and discs so the pads don't contact the whole of the disc when using smaller discs than they were designed for which is why I asked about pad area v disc size in my original post,I'm sure that I could go faster IF I had better brakes so could brake later.I also get a small amount of pad knock off with the princess ones! Mind you I don't use the brakes very much anyway,(I haven't worn out the 1st set of pads yet!) I'm leaning towards spending more and getting some AP racing calipers,and not spending the money elsewhere on the car that I had planned to.

Unless you are running a 300 0r 400 bhp engine why not use ford brakes and discs and get them set up properly with decent pads and a decent set of discs.
If you are getting pad knock off it's more likely a warped disc or a stub axle flexing, I had this problem and had to fit later uprights with thicker stub axles as it this is a common problem with early jaguar front hubs and axles.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Copperbottom

Hmm that's given me an idea,were your Aps off of a road car?

No they are proper Escort tarmac jobs.