crew219

<img src="http://www.autotech.com/images/products/brakeconv_r32mk5frt.jpg">

Enjoy . . .

Dave<ul><li><a href="http://www.autotech.com/prod_brakes_frtbrakeconv.htm#mk5">http://www.autotech.com/prod_brakes_frtbrakeconv.htm#mk5</a</li></ul>

Steve_Ag Arrow

cool setup but kinda expensive I think.

crew219

Hence my post.

April

The monster set-up for $2900 is overkill for street driving.

crew219

Is there any reason why you'd choose the OEM setup over a lower priced aftermarket BBK such as the one that RPI equipped offers?

$1300 for a solid, non directional rotor with a single piston floating caliper doesn't seem like a very good deal to me.

$1600 for a floating, directional rotor with alum hat and a four piston fixed caliper seems to be much more attractive in priceerformance IMO.

Dave<ul><li><a href="http://www.rpiequipped.com/gallery/A3-BrakeKit/">http://www.rpiequipped.com/gallery/A3-BrakeKit/</a</li></ul>

April

certainly sounds like it's made up of the right stuff, only to see them fail for a variety of reasons when you beat on them all weekend. Stress cracks in rotors (more common in closs drilled), calipers leaking, insufficient fluid capacity in the master cylinder, etc.

In the case of the Alfas, after much trial and error we use Porsche 944 turbo calipers, custom hats (non-floating), brackets, and upgraded Toyota Supra spec rotors (slotted and cyro treated). The rear brakes are upgraded to Euro racing spec Alfa stuff. Outstops almost anything on the track and lasts for years with brake pads the only thing that wears out.

Racing Wilwood brake calipers do not use dust seals (unless they have changed in the last year), and so they may not be as durable for street use - especially where snow, salt, and wet grit are a consideration.

I like the idea of lighter brakes, but not at the expense of rebuidling calipers and replacing rotors every couple of years whether I track the car or not.

Just the usual trade-offs when upgrading brakes :-)

qfrog Ti20

and its only 312mm... I think I'd rather buy 4 piston aluminum monoblock calipers than 2 piston floating calipers. Those probably work very well, but if I'm gonna spend the $ I'd stick to the porsche calipers for which I can get an array of pads from street to full blown race spec immediately.

crew219

1 piston, not two

crew219

Is it really worth $1300 for the performance it gives?

Still a single piston floating caliper.

Larger rotor size is offset by greater rotating mass

Overall weight of the system is going to be even heavier than the OE 312s which will affect everything.

Only real benefit I see is some increased heat capacity due to the size of the rotor, but even then . . . it still uses inefficient non-directional vaning.

For my $$$ I'd rather just do a fluid &amp; pad upgrade for around $300 and then maybe explore a true BBK later on.

Dave

qfrog Ti20

tho my opinion remains the same.

The HP2 and G60 calipers are upgrades for some cars, but thats when you are paying $150-200 for a pair of used calipers.

I have the 312mm A8 rotors and TT carriers on my avant, its a great inexpensive daily driving upgrade, but for tracking some nice pretty aluminum calipers are where its at.

For the weight of the 2T A3 I'd expect boxster calipers over stock rotors and good pads should be enough for stock to chipped levels of power. Big turbo 2T would probalby leave me wanting more brake rotor... VR6 turbo and I know I'd probably want more rotor to absorb/dissapate the heat of sequential instances heavy braking for long durations 30-60 mins.

Huge heavy rotors cost you HP at the wheels, just like heavy wheels do. So really only add brakes that are as large as you can utilize, otherwise you are making the car slower even when you arent on the brake pedal.