Brake Upgrade, Seriously Considering It, Here's the System, Will Need Others
 

Okay, my next (I say last, but then I'll need track wheels if I upgrade the brakes!) upgrade is front brakes.

If I'm going to try and keep up with Randy at Mid Ohio next summer, I'll need to have some brakes!!!!

Like most on this board, I'm on a budget. Weight is not the biggest issue, stopping power is.

Therefore, after looking around, www.bira.org has a nice system that's affordable. This is what it will consist of:

Calipers - Monobloc Porsche 996 four piston calipers, buy them new for about $325 each, that's $650 for the set.

Rotors - Porsche 993 twin turbo rotors (321x30 mm). These are multipiece rotors that have removable hats. New hats are required and have to be manufactured for the application.

The picture below shows the 993 rotors. The purple part (the hat) has to be removed, BIRA will make new ones with correct bolt pattern and offset and they are attached to the rotor.

One nice thing about this design is that replacement high performance rotors are relatively inexpensive.

Cost for new rotors: $135 each, that's another $270 (rotors do not include hats).

<img src="http://www.pccchicago.com/images/paul/Brakeupgraderotors.jpg">

That picture shows the Porsche "big red" twin turbo brake calipers, we'd be getting the four piston monobloc calipers. From my understanding, they are much cheaper. If you ever needed to rebuild the twin turbo calipers, it's more expensive than buying new monoblocs.

Pads: Get the Porsche pads for about $100.00

Now we will need to mount the calipers on the strut assembly. I believe the 00 and newer cars came with a slightly different design than the 97-99 because Audi went to the dual piston design. Therefore, if anybody wants to upgrade with an 00 or newer, we'll have two different designs for the brackets.

The brackets will look something like this:

<img src="http://www.pccchicago.com/images/paul/Brakeupgradebracket.jpg">

This is a picture of somebody who did a MOVIT brake upgrade using the 993 twin turbo calipers on an 00. The brake caliper then bolts into the bracket.

You can see the radial bolts going into the bracket in this install. Once again, the caliper below is the 993 four piston, not the four piston 996 monobloc caliper.

<img src="http://www.pccchicago.com/images/paul/Brakeupgradeinstalled.jpg">

So we will need to design the bracket (BIRA does this, they have most of the design data already), have it manufactured and buy the new "hats" for the rotors.

The brackets will cost $250-300 for a set if we buy a minimum of five. The hats are $450 for a set.

So the total cost is:

Calipers: $650
Rotors: $270
Pads: $100
Rotor Hats: $450
Caliper Bracket: $275

Total: $1,745

That's not a bad price for an awesome brake upgrade.

This is "System 6" at www.bira.org.

They've done a lot of these for S4's. It fits under 17" wheels, so you don't have to upgrade unless you have the 16" wheels on your car.

This is a three month project at least, anybody else interested? I will work with BIRA to get the measurements and enginering done for the new brackets, will buy the required parts to complete the engineering, but we will need to have people committed to buying the rotor hats and caliper brackets when it comes time. I would like to get at least five people.

Comments on system, pricing, etc? If we got it started by Thanksgiving, you would have your system in early March I imagine. Just in time for spring/summer events!

Here's a S4 upgrade with system 6:

<img src="http://www.pccchicago.com/images/paul/Brakeupgrades4.JPG">

Here's a UR S6 upgrade with system 6:

<img src="http://www.pccchicago.com/images/paul/Brakeupgradeur6.JPG"><ul><li><a href="http://www.bira.org">Go to BIRA's web site for more info</a></li></ul>

Thanks for doing the legwork on this one, Paul...
 

My only misgiving on this upgrade (other than have to cough up another $1700) is that it won't fit under the 16" stock A8 wheels I use for my winter tires. So I would either have to buy new winter wheels and tires ($$), or change the brakes back to stock for the winter which would be a (minor) pain. This looks like a great brake upgrade for the bucks. Randy- what do you think? Is there anything we would need to do to the rear brakes to maintain "balance"? I'm on the wall on this one- let's see how many others are interested.

I forgot I have 16" winter wheels too!
 

We'll have to see if they fit, they might. Once we get some interested parties, I will have to talk to Greg Amy of BIRA and figure out what is the best system (maybe it will be boxster calipers and S4 rotors? That might save some money too). But regardless, we'll figure it out.

Forgot I had 16" wheels!!!!

I get too darn excited sometimes!

pw

I did my Big Reds that fit on A6, B6 A4, and current S4 for under 1K. Suggest checking into Stassis
 

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/13568/bigredson02a4.jpg"></center><p>
for the S8 kit. I may actuallyby some stock S8 rotors and brackets to throw on my S4. The S8 system should be able to handle more heat 'cause it is 345mm and the caliper looks maybe bigger than my Big Reds. Also you can get Big Reds from Crescent City Porsche for $300 each. $.02. :)

Don't worry, nice excuse to get some decent 18" winters half a year later! ;-)
 

The wife will have forgotten the $1700 brake upgrade by then anyway.
:-)

What are the components?
 

You needed rotors (are they S4 rotors), calipers (are they the 993 or monobloc calipers?), pads and a transition bracket?

Could you break down the price?

Thanks!

pw

Do they have a web site? I know I've seen it before.

Great initiative, thanks!
 

Do you know if there are even bigger rotors that would fit with the same rotor hats?

What I have heard is that I have larger rotors stock than the US model, is that right? If that is the case, would I have different calipers as well? What is the size of the stock US rotor?

Stock rotors warp pretty easy, I even manged to warp the EBC rotors I have now. So something even bigger than 321x30mm would be nice.

But anyway, this set up would be a lot better than stock, and the price seems interesting. So I am definately in for hats and brackets!

Now, just hope I have the cash at the time, going for inspection service II with belt change and H&amp;R's in february...

Here you go. Paul Lambert is the guru. S8 set up used currently on Don Istook's Trans Am series S4
 

<ul><li><a href="http://www.stasisengineering.com/">http://www.stasisengineering.com/</a</li></ul>

I used S4/A6 2.7T rotors. The Big Reds were $300 each, brackets(custom built) were only
 

$100, SS lines were $60, Mintex pads for 993 TT were approx. $60, and the other hardware (sensors etc.) was about $80. :)