I'm getting my locost back on the road this year and replacing the 4AGE with an ST170 engine. While it's in bits I thought it would be
worthwhile to do a full brake upgrade and was wondering what levels of success people had had before.
The car currently is a live rear axle with drum brakes, (straight of a mk2 escort) and the fronts are the Cortina updrights with Cortina brakes. Very
much the original locost spec!
One option is the expensive one and buy a set of wilwood/hispec front brakes, and then a 'normal' rear disc conversion from one of the many
escort builders.
However, being an engineer I'm pretty sure that I could do something myself for significantly cheaper and have the same results.
What 4 pot caliper and vented disc have people had success with? Has anyone tried using Subaru Impreza/legacy 4 pot calipers and making a mounting
plate to the upright?
Has anyone tried using the Peugeot 406 coupe calipers?
I already run separate master cylinders and a bias bar so am happy to swap master cylinders for larger volume units.
I was thinking of using ford focus rear discs and calipers and making a bracket to suit and welding it to the axle. Has anyone tried this combo
before?
If you use some mintex 1144 pads up front with the std set up and if your not on 9in drum swop to them or maybe a rear disc conversion the brakes should be upto the job then at least your not adding more unstrung weight .
Caprisport (on ebay) do a couple of conversion for the Cortina/escort/capri front upright using the Fiat Coupe Brembo four pots but I think these need 15" wheels (305mm disk is used for the smallest IIRC). I think these brembos are the same as the Alfa ones. You may also need to machine the hub to get the front fitting disk to go on, depending on the disc. Rear drums are OK on a light car, if you use a disc rear then you will need biased box, rear line limiter or inertia lock to make sure you do not lock the rears first (weight transfer to the front on breaking etc.).
quote:
Originally posted by ian locostzx9rc2
If you use some mintex 1144 pads up front with the std set up and if your not on 9in drum swop to them or maybe a rear disc conversion the brakes should be upto the job then at least your not adding more unstrung weight .