Hi all

I'm looking into upgrading the brakes now i'm putting a more powerful engine in.

I currently have M16 callipers and green stuff pads, and with the 1300, the car stops, but i want more stopping power, as it just doesn't feel bitey enough

Does anyone have any suggestions? If i change the pads am i likely to see any improvement, or am i needing to go to powerlite brake kit? and if so has anyone got and pictures of them fitted?

many thanks

kitt on Knightrider had air brakes, and here's them being made, perhaps you could make a set?

If you want to improve braking power for a given pedal pressure you can:
Increase the area of the caliper pistons (e.g change them), OR
Increase the effective diameter of the disks
OR
Put in a smaller diameter master cylinder.
OR
Put in high friction brake pads.
OR
Add a servo if you have a source of vacuum.
I dont know which of these it will be possible to fit with your uprights/pedal box/wheels.

If you want the brakes to bite quicker (I assume that means with less pedal travel) then you want:
smaller caliper piston area
OR
larger master cylinder
OR
Servo assist the brakes.
The first two of these wil increase the pedal pressure required for a given stopping force.

You may get some improvement in bite by changing the brake flexis depending on how good your current ones are.

I assume the brake fluid is in good nick and everything has been properly bled!

Regards
Hugh

Master cylinder ---- you need a master cylinder from a non-servoed tin top.

0.7" Bore tandem cyliner as used by both westfield and Caterham will reduce the pedal pressure required to stop the car by 33% compared to Sierra or Cortina cylinder.

Swapping to Wilwoods won't improve performance but it will alter the feel of your brakes.

I'v done some back to back track testing when changing from M16's to powerlites and found the wilwoods to be much sharper which meant i would lock up far earlier until eventually getting used to the feel and being more sensitive on the brake pedal. However, they offer no stopping advantage, the M16's being more than capable in this respect. Many 7 type race cars use them including the whole of the BARC Westfield series and many of the 750mc Kits with no probs at all.

The EBC's are the ones I've had the most success with but this has always been on the track, I used the Poly A's in the powerlites which were Ok but you may find that road driving doesn't get them up to temp enough so you have a dead feel. A pad change would be the way forward, try something like mintex 1144's. You can also get the mintex now to fit the powerlite too.

Having said that, the wilwoods do offer a 3.5kg a side weight saving over the M16's which is a fair amount of unsprung weight and imo this is where the real benefit is.

Take a look at CMB 0060 calipers on the
Compbrake website. I think they are better than the Wilwood ones you are considering.
http://www.compbrake.co.uk

HTH

Mal

On the subject of mater cylinders... does anyone know of one which uses the same number of outlets as the Sierra one and has a bore size more suited to our uses? Having built the car I'm getting very lazy when it comes to upgrading stuff!