An astute observation to the reasoning behind the newer caliper. And I doubt there are many MINIs who encounter as much dust and dirt as I do on the race car....same calpers for five seasons of use and counting.

 

I have recently installed an upgraded front and rear brake system on my 2003 Cooper S. The system was designed by Todd Cook at TCE here in the Phoenix area. I've driven the car with the new system for a couple of weeks now in order to see if it works as I hoped it would.

I'm an SCCA Club Racer and Todd was my race engineer. We did well together so I didn't have any reluctance to ask him about designing an upgraded system for my car. I wanted more track like performance than the cars stock system provided. Specifically, a more responsive system, a little bit better stopping capability, better cooling and much more consistent performance under heavy use. I also wanted a lighter system. Good looks weren't critical but I asked for the drilled rotors, zinc coated. When all was said and done I wanted to be sure the system was also entirely compatible with daily driver type use.

That's why I went to Todd and TCE. I needed a system that would accomplish all of these things in a balanced way. I needed an engineered system that didn't cost a ton of money. I did not need a bunch of fancy bolt on stuff that put my head through the windscreen every time I went to the brake pedal.

I'm posting this today because I've had a chance to test the system under a lot of different driving conditions. I'm impressed - VERY impressed. Everything is comfortable in day to day use but when the driving gets spirited the car works like my race car. It's hot here but even with the heat the brakes don't fade. Stopping is a function of how you push the pedal. Push hard and it happens right now. Push a little easier and you can do relatively high speed cornering all day long.

My car is silver. When you see it with the drilled silver disks it looks pretty serious.

I'm not being paid to say these things and I wouldn't say anything unless I'd tested the system and really liked it.

My thinking was that if a proven race engineer - someone I trusted - couldn't figure out a brake system like I wanted - nobody could. It's also a cheaper system than anything else I considered. For me - it couldn't be better.

 

Bruce,
We had a chance last week to try the S-Lites (17") with the new kit, and, unfortunately, you'll need some spacers .

 

Fred,
I got my car back this past weekend with a ported/polished head and Schrick cam to complement ( ) the Wilwood-based big brake kit. Here's a pic of the brakes from the front; click on the thumbnail for a better view. HTH...

 

Spacers are not a problem with me as long they are not too thick. What size do you think the spacer will be?

 

Bruce,

I'm not sure, but you could e-mail or pm Sherwin at Brake Zone [post #119 in this thread]. Just mention you inquired about this on NAM. Good luck...

 

does anyone have a full kit with rear calipers yet?

i really hate changing pads on the stock calipers.... takes too long in the morning when there's sooo much other things to prep/check...

 

Check out my posts [55, 64, 68] in this thread for a very fine Wilwood-based kit. The set-up for the rear kit should be available soon. Contact Sherwin at Brake Zone for details [post 119].

 

seems to me there's alot of people pushing wilwood kits. besides price, what's the advantages over the other kits?

i've seen, brembos, ap, wilwood and their variants, kad, tarox, etc... has anyone done any extensive testing on these brake kits? ie:
- heat capacity and cooling
- fitment
- pad availibity
- wieght comparisons
- piston volume comparisons (ie: bias analysis)
etc etc etc etc....

i know there are some looking for performance and some are looking for bling, and they all practically do the same thing... but from a performance perspective, i like to get some nitty gritty details...

 

I am happy to announce that after seven months of developement and testing with some of our local road racers, I am now marketing a kit which is available in the NAM store. I have used Wilwoods many times in the past on personal cars. The Wilwood's are very good and I almost used them in my new kits except my little "Mini only" niche didn't excite them. I was lucky enough to find Outlaw who was very excited to help us mod our cars. Todd the owner helped design the kit and spent many hours helping to match up the right caliper, piston area, and pad choices. Like Wilwood the pad choices are wide and resonably priced. Willwood and Outlaw use the same pads. Outlaw is based in the South East and sells monstly to NASCAR and ASA oval track teams. We have had great results on the track with PFC #97. Hawk SP Plus have been great on the street. Most of my customers so far have been very serious racers who want consitant performance and low matainance costs. I also want to thank those of you who bought in early and where patient while we worked out some of the kinks.

 

I'd been talking to RLmini for quite some time now, and I'm pleased to say I now have the B3 17" kit on MM2. This kit had the discreet yet powerful look I wanted with the brake bias and pad availability I needed. If you haven't already seen my review, check out the B3 thread in Vendor Annoucements

Thanks to RLmini, and Todd at TCE, and everyone else that contributed to this thread for their big help explaining the options and the technicalities of BBK's!

Motor-On!
Ryan