Cortina brake / suspension upgrade options?

[v8pete]

Hi knowledgeable ones! - can anyone recommend some sensibly priced brake and possibly suspension upgrades ( - I'm thinking mainly of adjustible height coil-over kits if available) designed for the MkIV Cortina components. Basically I'm looking to get my JBA Falcon out on the road again next year - all the brake parts will probably need replacing as they've now ben in service on the car since 1989 and it's been standing the last seven years! What I'd like to achieve is to get a sensible set of brake upgrade components (eg. Willwood calipers etc. ?) whilst not spending hugh amounts of money. I'm presuming that there are better upgrades out there these days that the old Princess 4-pot type of upgrade! I'll also need to renew the M/C and the rear brakes - I'm guessing that my options for the Cortina drums are probably rather limited to just fitting new wheel cylinders? Are there any decent suspension packages out there which will enable me to fit ajdustable height coil-overs at the front and possibly also do away with the Ford pressed-steel arms?

Thanks for your input!
Pete.

[Mr2Mike]

For Willwood calipers and uprated disks go to Rally Design. They are surprisingly inexpensive, especialy if you go to one of the kit car shows where they often give a good discount on a complete upgrade kit.

There are no direct replacement wishbones that I know of.

[RushV8]

Hi V8pete,

Cortina MK 4 / 5 front suspension, and Cossy Sierra IRS based setup at the trear was used on Dax Rush (inc V8s) until just before SVA came in, when Dax made kit fully Ford Sierra based suspension (front and rear). I have 2.8i capri / RS2000 vented discs , and a pair of Bremsport 4 pot billet aluminium calipers on my 4.6ltr Rush and they work a treat (got the calipers for ~ £75 each from Trans Auto Sport (TAS) in Preston.

Can't think of anyone offering tubular wishbone replacements for standard pressed items, but Robin Hood did have both Standard Cortina and tubular cortina based suspension on their various Seven models, so you could try their owners club website for suggestions.

As for rear brakes, you are limited in options, so new brake cylinders and a good set of pads such as EBC Fast Road brake shoes should help to give decent rear braking.

Good luck with the mods

Mark

[v8pete]

Thanks guys - very useful indeed! I'll let you all know how I get on

Cheers,
Pete.

[kevsmev]

Hi Pete,
Try having a word with Steve Heath. (PH=shpub) He does height adjustable coilover units for the front of the TVR Tasmin which uses cortina wishbones. Maybe worth a try.
Kev

[dern]

Another option on the brakes is to get a caliper spacer kit from rally design which will let you use capri vented discs rather than the cortina solid ones but the set up will obviously gain weight.

I had willwood big brakes on the v8 westfield which warped and I put the standard cortina brakes back on for a while with some good pads while I had the discs skimmed (that worked out cheaper than getting new ones). On a car as light as this I suffered no fade at all with 1144 pads and the standard solid discs on a track day so in my experience the willwood brakes offered no additional performance over the standard stuff but they were a bit lighter. However, the pads and the discs were a lot more expensive whereas I guess you know that the standard cortina stuff costs pennies.

If you decide to stay with cortina stuff or maybe fit capri discs with the caliper spacer kit you could get some of the weight off by fitting some alloy cortina hubs which are also available from rally design I think.

Edited by dern on Sunday 11th November 19:48