Suspension Brakes 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: R56 Caliper Upgrade with Modifications

Very nice, is there a rotor, caliper and pad fitment for a 2009 MCS with the factory JCW (Brembo) brakes?

By the way, are the dimple depths an indicator of reaching the min. rotor thickness?

 

Very nice, those rotors are sweeeeeet!!

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What is the cost of all the hardware to complete this upgrade? Is the whole package available as a kit?

 

Gulp..... $700.00 for two rotors?

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what is the advantage of the r56 and PRC setup compared to say a wilwood front setup?

The cost is almost the same.

-Jonathan

 

Keith, have you had a chance to try your new brake modification yet? Your thoughts?

 

i do like the color scheme. Your points are good, i wasn't trying to knock the setup just understand.

i assume those awesome pads will work with a regular solid rotor as well?

it always did bug me how the pad never goes to the edges.

i agree with metalman most importantly how does it stop.

-Jonathan

 

My biggest interest is also how well does it stop.

 

And so when you do wear to the bottom of the dimples, how much is the friction surface alone,(i.e. without the hat) ? The entry fee for these rotors is certainly an investment, but hopefully they are easier to live with down the road.

 

From the Wilwood camp, because it was asked.....

Both appear to be two piece hats and rotors. (nice work btw) And that's a plus. The Wilwood rotors will be lighter as the minor diameter is larger thus the 'ring' is narrower.

Caliper weight will be much heavier on the R56 being iron over the aluminum bodies Wilwoods. Even including the radial mount brackets the oe caliper will come in perhaps close to double the weight. The aluminum body will cycle heat and not become 'heat soaked' as the oe iron one will either- great rotor package but the caliper will exhibit the same problems as before on track day use. Being a single piston floating design over the fixed mount set up the response will be no better than stock and feel still somewhat 'spongy as its mechanical demands are more.

Function wise, unless the new rotor is larger diameter than stock the only gains in brake torque will be from the pad of choice. Leverage being based upon the diameter obviously. The new 320 JCW size is a tad larger than the 12.2 Wilwood but that pad size negates some of the gains- With such a 'tall' pad (read minor to major radius or nose to heel) the effective radius is lower. This is common on many street cars as it is more stable and lasts longer. On the Wilwood pad more of the outer radius is used vs the entire face of the rotor thus raising the effective radius. Pad size or square inches won't have any impact on torque other than how long the pad lasts.

The overall package is in fact very nice and well presented. But other than the conversion to two piece hat/rotor there are no gains in braking torque over the stock JCW parts of the same size. What will be nice is that the rotors should be more durable for the track being an improved casting design.

And $700 sounds about right actually.....very nice product in the end. I'm glad someone finally did one up to tell ya the truth. Now combine that with my DP6 caliper kit and you'll have one fine looking deal there!

 

Keith; I'm not sure I completely understand the benefits of the "floating" mounting method between the hat and the rotor. Is it a floating rotor? And is this method unique to your product?

 

Floating discs...

allow for more motion as the disc changes dimension under heating. This method of floating the caliper is the first I've seen, but there are lots of ways to skin this cat...

Anyway, it's a good looking set up, for sure.

Matt

 

Thanks Matt.
So if the rotors don't float, and under use, start to heat up, the thermal dynamics cause the rotor circumference to grow in length, these stresses have to be relieved, so they show up as a warping of the rotor, and pulsing of the brake pedal results? I know, horrible run on sentence.

 

By not floating or being either fixed mount bolted or one piece there is no inherent flaw to the design just that it forces the entire structure to grow slightly. And when you have an alum hat bolted to the iron rotor they grow at different rates. The floating design is nice for very high temps so that it can grow freely without being restrained by the drive buttons and hat. They are also more tolerant of run out and hub flex as the caliper can 'track' with the rotor despite the hat being perhaps not truly parallel to the rotor surface.

Definitely a nice way to go and many of the aftermarket world BBKs are so supplied. The negative side is mainly cost where the machining of the rotor, the hat and the necessary drive button is far more costly. I added a "full floating option" to the 13" kits now and it raised the price by $249 for example. The only other down side is that some folks complain later of more noise due to the buttons wearing out and when cold the rotor is heard to be 'rattling' on the hat. Obviously that goes away as it gets hot.

 

What does "as-cast construction" mean? A term I've not heard from any of my suppliers.

The machining would appear to be necessary to cut the casting down from a larger stock- just at the 11.75 is produced from the 12.2 casting, that's why you don't see the markings on the 12.2 Wilwood part (only the balancing goove somewhere not seen in the picture) but do so on a 11.75.


Still a cool part, just not understanding what you're saying here.