Ever since driving
Steve's car at Curborough (Low Flying, ) I have wanted to
upgrade to big brakes. So in performing my Zetec engine
swap I had a good excuse. Not only would the car weight
a little more (although actually it ended up only a couple
of kg's heavier), but more importantly, I'd be arriving
at the bends going just a bit quicker. I would need some
good stopping power to match my extra going power. Couple
that with the fact that I've never really been very happy
with the standard brakes, finding them lacking in feel and
initial bite. There, justified - that was easy.
The next part was deciding on who's brakes to use. With
the engine project coming towards it's end my bank balance
was looking a little under the weather so I pretty much
had to rule out the Caterham offering of AP's with the vented
discs. The other normal option is a kit offered by James
Whiting which use Alcon calipers but retain the standard
discs. When I drove Steve's and Jason's car back to back
I had preferred the feel of the AP set-up, it had a very
nice firm pedal and loads of stopping power. From this I
decided I really wanted to go the vented disc route as this
increases the swept area of the pad. However, the Alcon
kit is a very good price, and I knew Jason had done many
hard miles with no problems on his.
I can't quite remember how I found out about them, but I
came across Hi-Spec Motorsport who were advertising a straightforward
kit to fit a Caterham. I comprised of machined 4-pot Ali
calipers, pads, ventilated discs and hoses + fittings to
suit. The price was better than both the AP and Alcon kits
and all looked very good. It is fair to say after ordering
their kit, I and another 7 owner who was ordering the same
kit, had a few problems. The kit offered didn't fit with
the caliper being too wide and the disc being too large
so that the wheel clashed. This was discovered before any
parts got to me, and after some messing about it was agreed
that they would supply revised discs and their racing caliper
which is slimmer as it does away with the big boot seals.
This didn't concern me as I am meticulous about keeping
my car clean. Once the kit arrived, everything bolted straight
into place and making the hoses was straightforward. The
biggest problem with fitting them was bleeding all the air
out. They were assembled with some kind of special grease
which dissolved in the brake fluid and turned it red. I
wanted to remove this, but it did mean several sessions,
but it was easy to see when the fresh fluid was coming through.
In use they are fantastic. When I first got the car on the
road they were a little too good and I found it too easy
to lock a front wheel. This completely went when I changed
to my rather old Yoko A510's for some Yoko 032R's when I
changed to the Ford axle. I did learn to control the better,
but they would catch me out if I had to brake suddenly.
I have come to the conclusion that the tires were just a
little too hard, both age and compound, to offer enough
road grip. The only other problem was that they suffered
from a very annoying squeal which was really rather loud.
I tried copper grease on the back of the pads and then borrowed
some different pads but to no avail. I eventually cured
this by making some plates that fitted between the pad and
the pistons. These were made out of some stainless steel
sheet and replicated the outline of the back of the pad
with a bit that fitted over the center bolt to hold them
in place. With some copper grease applied I have not had
the problem since.
The ventilated discs do come with a weight penalty but this
is offset by the much lighter calipers. Having changed to
Ali front hubs means I now have a hug assembly lighter than
standard but with much improved brakes. The feel with the
032R's is really great and I've only managed to lock up
a wheel once all year and that was when I was trying to
impresses a colleague from work on my old test run route.
The Final Specification: |
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Hi-Spec Racing 4 Calipers |
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253mm Diameter, 22mm Thick Ventilated
& Groved Discs |
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Green Stuff DP2003 |
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Brackets to suit Caterham uprights |
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350mm Braided Hose & Fittings - loose
to allow me to measure and make up. |
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Brakes In Place
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Disc View
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Caliper View
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