nate

Alcon B-Type kit with Pagid
orange pads and 13" slotted
Coleman rotors .................... $3,650

Installation ...................... $200

Bruised kidneys and liver from
stopping way, way too fast ...... priceless




I had three things installed yesterday:

Neuspeed 19mm anti-sway bar, Schroth 4 point
harness, and the Alcon B-Type brake kit.


First, the sway bar: You really can notice a
big difference in how the car handles after the
bar is in. It's definately well worth the $200
or so that the bar costs and the hour of labor
to install it. Much more flat feeling in the
back, and really feels very nice.


Next, the harness. I got this for the track,
and wore it a little around town last night to
get a feel for it. I like it. It bolts to
the rear-seat seatbelt mounts in the back, and
I used some carabiners I picked up at REI to
clip it to the seat mounts in the front. I
didn't want to have it permanently mounted to
the seat up front since I won't wear it all
the time. The harness was about $150, and it
seems well worth the money if you're going to
be going out to the track much.


Finally, the brakes. Oh, my, the brakes.
After just about two months of waiting, there
was a note on my door that UPS had tried to
deliver them. I had them hold the box at the
distribution center so I could pick it up,
and finally got a look at them on monday morning.
Wow. Huge, four piston calipers, shiney steel
braided brake lines, very large Pagid orange
compound pads, big 'ol 13x1.25" slotted
Coleman rotors, and Motul 600 brake fluid.

Neal at Champagne Motors did the installation
and everything was almost ready to go by
the time I showed up at 5:00 last night. He
wanted to go out for another drive in it to
check the pedal feel since they bled them, so
we headed out. A little wet, not really raining
much but a constant drizzle... oh well.

Holy crap this thing stops well. Even in the
rain with my less-than-rain-worthy Yokohama
A032R tires. ABS kicked in a bit when I tried
a hard stop from 80mph, but it was wet. Still,
I had a big, ****-eating grin on my face now.

So, I left Champagne to go to REI to pick up
those carabiners for the harness. By now, it
had stopped drizzling and the roads were
starting to dry out... wheee! Got to REI and
picked up the parts, clipped the harness in
and adjusted it while sitting in the parking
lot (BTW, that REI Flagship store in Denver
is insanely large and very, very nice).

Drove off and took I-25 south. Pulled off
at an exit doing about 90mph, nobody in front
of me, nobody behind. Hit the brakes... hard.
The car just stops. I'm straining against
the harness pretty damn hard, and the speed is
just dropping off extremely fast. The only bad
thing is that the nose dive I used to see with
the stock brakes and suspension (I have the
MTM spring kit installed) is back, but I expected
that given the amount of brake that's on the
front end of the car now.

Spent the rest of the evening till about 8:30
running up and down I-25 taking exits and doing
the break-in cycle for the pads. I'm making a
run up to Ft. Collins on saturday (about a 70
mile drive north from Denver) and will try and
test them at about 120mph if I can find a clear
strech of road.


So, anyway, the brakes are simply amazing. I
didn't have time to really romp on them for
a long time to see if I'll detect any fade, but
I really don't expect to. They are really
insane.


see ya,

-nate

loanshark

ewww...a ****-eating grin? What is that!!! hehe

Uzanak

Love to see your brakes Nate!
Maybe you can give me a ride?

Ken

nate

Do the DTC S4 people want to get together for lunch sometime?

I'm moving to Boston in about 2.5 weeks for a new job.

-nate

winder

.. untill i touched a HOT rotor.. (the pain in my fingers quelled the nausia!!) a COLD beer helped some.
anyway.... these brakes looked AWESOME... i can only imagine how well they work!!!
Nate: told-ya the rear bar makes a BIG diff in handling!! glad you like it.
the stock brakes DO S U C K!!! 4 dinky little pads that are smaller (surface area) than the pads i use to stop my 390lbs race bike. let's see the S4 weighs....?
gotta get new "stoppers" 4 Blu.
cYa,
w

winder

moving perm? we GOTTA do another LUNCH!!!!

nate

Going to be out there for between 1 and 4 years to help Visible Markets (http://www.visiblemarkets.com) get their fixed income bond trading system up and running on the web.

Lots of stock and good money, but it's not in Denver, which sucks. I'll definately be back in colorado after this deal is done, though. This is really where I belong, but it's too good an opportunity to pass up.

-nate