Sean
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| posted on 25/3/04 at 08:45 PM |
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4 pot calipers on Spitfire front end???
Okay, I know this has been asked before, but could anyone please clarify the situation. So I have my 4 pot calipers. Then what? Rimmer bros tell me
that the GT6 discs wont fit on Spitfire uprights. Mmmm!! So where do I go from here? There is presumably more to the whole thing. Any advise would be
of help
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britishtrident
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| posted on 25/3/04 at 09:52 PM |
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The difference between your Spitfire suspension and the GT6 Vitesse is quite small the Spitfire and later Heralds used an upright that was cast
in one piece complete with steering arm. The GT6/Vitesse and early Herald have steering arms and caliper brackets that bolt on to the upright. The
GT6 & Vitesse also use a bigger dia stub axle than all the 4 cylinder cars.
The while the GT6 bolt on type is very easy to adapt to different brakes and steering arms (which is why it was used on many single seater racing
cars), the Heralds type is very much less adaptable.
Other cars used Triumph front ends --- Lotus for example used the small Spitfire brakes on most 1960s models the 7, Elan and Europa only the +2S had
GT6 brakes, Early 500 series Elites, Eclats and Espirits also used Triumph suspension parts (later they used Opel or Toyota parts).
Be aware that GT6 calipers have a different mounting bolt pitch from Spitfires and it is also different from Fords, and also that the vertical links
are very prone to corrosion of the threads where the bottom trunnion screws on.
One solution if you think you really need big brakes is to fit GT6 parts try "Spitbitz" http://www.spitbitz.co.uk.
Be aware that GT6 calipers have a different mounting bolt pitch from Spitfires and it is also different from Fords.
But do you really need 4 pot calipers and big discs -- with a light car is very easy to end up with too much brakes at one end, another way to
improve the brakes would be to fit small vented discs and retain Girling P14 style calipers but spaced out to clear the discs. Vented discs from a
Rover 216/416 or Honda Accord a type which fit over the hub could be adpated.
[Edited on 25/3/04 by britishtrident]
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