Greg Amy

11/07/00 - The Brake Improvement Research Association (BIRA) has announced to its membership the availability of its new "Plus Option" for all released designs.

BIRA has contracted with Coleman Machine Inc of Menominee MI to provide to BIRA members its Coleman multi-piece directional vane rotors as optional equipment to BIRA's System 1 and System 2 designs. These Coleman rotors are designed to be dimensional duplicates of the factory Audi rotors that BIRA uses in its designs.

BIRA System 1 uses the Audi A8 312x25mm rotor, while System 2 uses the 2000-S4 321x30mm rotor. These Coleman rotor designs will be direct replacements for the factory rotors, and can also be used independently from the BIRA designs. BIRA will be pursuing with Coleman an agreement to maintain BIRA's proprietary hat and rotor designs confidential, and make them available only to the BIRA membership.

BIRA's Plus Option is in response to member input for heavy-duty and track use rotors. Although BIRA has not found the stock rotors to be lacking in these applications, it is generally understood that the factory rotors were designed for street use and that the directionally-vaned Coleman rotors would be more capable for the heavy-duty demands of track lapping days. Further, the Coleman rotors offer the additional advantage of unsprung weight reduction as they are half the weight of Audi factory rotors (generally, 9 pounds for the Coleman rotors versus 18 pounds for the factory rotors).

On top of that, they certainly do look sharp!

BIRA's Plus Option is expected to cost members approximately $700 for a pair of directional-vane rotors, center hats, all hardware to bolt it together, including the optional mounting, balancing, and heat-treating. This cost represents approximately $450 more than the cost of the standard factory rotors.

BIRA will continue to offer all of its designs with the use of factory replacement rotors as standard equipment.

For more information on these and other BIRA offerings, please review the web site at http://www.bira.org<ul><li><a href="http://www.bira.org">Brake Improvement Research Association</a></li></ul>

Warren Wang

I figure about $100 per rotor, and $100 per aluminum hat, which is $400, plus a few nuts and bolts, or bolts and safety wire, depending on the hat design. Does this include brackets or something else?

Colemans are heat treated from the factory, so that should be included in the $100 per rotor cost. Even for a custom spec, they shouldn't run more than about $120 per.

Curious,
Warren

®ob

MUCH more than 120$ each. About 400$ each I believe (if I recall correctly).

Warren Wang

In quantity (like 20+)?

®ob

Nope

Larrytt

each BIRA member has to purchase them individually, which is the reason I am guessing that the price is so high.

I know when I need a replacement Coleman rotor for my 330mmx28mm brakes the rotor without the hat will be just under $200/side.

it is the aluminum hats that are costing the money here. I do agree with you that the price seems kinda steep, but that is what they are

I don't understand why Coleman can't sell the rotors with Audi hats to anyone, why it must ONLY be a BIRA member! Nothing propieatary about an Audi bolt pattern/offset that Coleman could not have figured out on their own! The BIRA bracket is another story, that is proprietary.

eh, what do I care, I am happy with my AP Racing setup

spaßmacher

Call me skeptical but Brake Improvement Research? Coleman's are already being run on Audis, so you're recreating the wheel?
I believe Vortrag has been selling those Coleman rotors for a few years now with hats that have already been designed and proven. There's a lot about all of that in the archives and I know they sell those with Brembo/Porsche calipers too because I've seen the kits on cars at track events.
I also believe that you can get the Colemans for the A/P kit which just came out.
It's not a new concept, so I wonder why it's better to buy from BIRA? It's all the same when you add it all up.

spaßmacher

Proprietary? C'mon. There's already plenty of brackets out there to put various calipers on these cars. The bracket isn't something that can't be done by any skilled machinist in a good tuning shop.

John/TSR

...cost alot. Coleman's standard inventory of circle track hats are around $100, but if you've got to special order one (or 20), they're a lot more expensive. That's why I've got Wilwood hats on the '65 Mustang - the offset is .020 too much, but the pads don't know it and a Coleman custom hat is twice what the Wilwood is (which is already $$$). The Bira stuff shouldn't be a problem to reverse engineer - they're probably just using one of Coleman's standard lightweight rotors (maybe not such a smart idea...) and a hat of appropriate offset. Brake designers put mass into the braking system for a reason. I'm not convinced that I'm smarter than them. I'd stick with heavy rotors, thank you. Send Coleman a drawing and they'll make anything. NSOTA.

You have plans to sneak down to Summit Point for the night enduro next weekend ? I think I'm bringing the SRF down for the sprints....unless something else starts running really soon....

footwork

BIRA wants to provide inexpensive performance brake kits to Audi owners. It isn't a for profit company - but a group of people who designed brackets, etc. in order to mount the porsche calipers. They formed the organization to provide a forum for their members and limit liability - everyone who 'buys' a bira 'bracket' knows they are using an experimental system and accepts those risks.

You are completely right about the brackets and hats - It isn't rocket science - Its automotive engineering, and the time and effort anyone puts into a project like this deserves respect, escpecially when they don't make any profit from it.

I, for one, would be pretty pissed off if a company such as coleman duplicated one of my designs for someone else, made a profit off of it, and exposed me to liability in the process.

Groups like BIRA bring the buying power of a company to individuals like us. Yes, the Coleman rotor price seems expensive - but you should see how inexpensive the porsche calipers are. You would be furious to have paid 2200$ for Big Reds....

BTW - I am a BIRA member. Duh!