Which front brakes?

[kand300]

I have recently bought my Chimeara and need to replace the front discs/pads. As I am doing this I thought I would upgrade the brakes to larger discs, calipers (I am running 17" alloys). I have done many searches on here but I am still confused with what is the easiest/cheapest/best solution! Hispec, Wilwood, AP, Ford, etc. If I go down the route of using Ford parts, which cars am I looking for when buying 4 pot calipers & 283 to 300mm approx discs.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[poorpeet]

Cheapest & poss easiest is to use std ford bits.
Front calipers from a Granada/Scorpio Cosworth. Mine cost £30 from the breakers or new around £90 each.
283mm discs from the 2WD Sierra Cosworth/RS500. £50 the pair from the local motor factors.
Add pads, Fluid & poss braided lines & thats it.
It all fits on without any major mods. you need to drill out the caliper mounting holes from 10mm to 12mm & fit a couple washers between the carrier & mounting to get the caliper central but thats it.

Pete

[spyschim]

i am just about to upgrade all mine , speak to tim at act he can do a complete kit everything you need inc calapers hoses etc (big brake kit) very nice and helpfull guy

[Ballistic Banana]

Have a word with HansDaal
These are under my 16's

---

From my PH car Blog http://www.pistonheads.com/members/showServiceHist...



Decided to go for the FRONT BIG Brake upgrade with TVR Tuscan AP 4 pot calipers offered by PH'er Hansdaal as he doesnt do these kits as much as he used to so thought I wouldnt miss the oppertunity.My good friend Johno rants about these big time and boy do they stop you on the spot,hence later braking into them bends
Hans even delivered them to my door personally from Holland , top guy.

The Kit consist of:

• NEW discs, Dilled and Grooved 300 x 28 with mounting bells
• caliper mounting brackets
• hardware to bolt everything on.
• AP/TVR 4 pot calipers

---

And I tell you what they are fan bloody tastic...one of teh items along with suspension i wished i had done earlier on in ownereship

BB

[jellison]

Ballistic Banana said:

Have a word with HansDaal
These are under my 16's

---

From my PH car Blog http://www.pistonheads.com/members/showServiceHist...



Decided to go for the FRONT BIG Brake upgrade with TVR Tuscan AP 4 pot calipers offered by PH'er Hansdaal as he doesnt do these kits as much as he used to so thought I wouldnt miss the oppertunity.My good friend Johno rants about these big time and boy do they stop you on the spot,hence later braking into them bends
Hans even delivered them to my door personally from Holland , top guy.

The Kit consist of:

• NEW discs, Dilled and Grooved 300 x 28 with mounting bells
• caliper mounting brackets
• hardware to bolt everything on.
• AP/TVR 4 pot calipers

---

And I tell you what they are fan bloody tastic...one of teh items along with suspension i wished i had done earlier on in ownereship

BB

My Car would be a Death Trap without these babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kand300]

Ballistic Banana your brake upgrade looks great. Was it straight forward to fit? I have emailed Hansdaal.

[Ballistic Banana]

Very straight forward.

Old calipers off and old discs, New discs on. Attached new Caliper bracket on and attach the calipers.
You will need new Brake lines with banjos on to fit properly too. My old lines did fit straight in without them and although i thought everything was ok they did leak very slowely.
Hans should be able to sort you out with them to.

BB

[spend]

Cant recall anyone being disappointed with the AP's, and they are very TVR (more so than the cak Ford stuff ). If you cure the suspensions' 'tarmac snorting habit' you can also upgrade the rears with better pads & disks (particularly so if you have the earlier miniscule rear brake setup) IMHO.

Mine are excellent

Dave

[jellison]

Not sure they are not over kill unless you have had the std low power (260ish bhp std) 500 lump fettled a good deal though. 285 AP Disc conversion for a few 100 quid and spacers for the std calipers are fine for these things - what I did on my last one (a good step).

[spend]

jellison said:

Not sure they are not over kill unless you have had the std low power (260ish bhp std) 500 lump fettled a good deal though. 285 AP Disc conversion for a few 100 quid and spacers for the std calipers are fine for these things - what I did on my last one (a good step).

WTF has power got to do with brakes?

Dave

[Don1]

Ballistic Banana said:

BB

This is what I have, along with Tamora rear disks.... My lady owns a 991tt. She squeaked when I did a full on stop in the Chim yesterday - they are that good. I can out-brake the porker, in a very large way...

[jellison]

spend said:

jellison said:

Not sure they are not over kill unless you have had the std low power (260ish bhp std) 500 lump fettled a good deal though. 285 AP Disc conversion for a few 100 quid and spacers for the std calipers are fine for these things - what I did on my last one (a good step).

WTF has power got to do with brakes?

Dave

Your kidding right.............

The toy brakes that are on it are Crap but much more in keeping with the crap std power.

If you have NUTz power you get to any given corner ALOT Faster and need a lot more / bigger stoppers!

Unless you have money to burn or a Really moddied engine 285's with Std spaced out calipers are a good improvement for a mildly moddied / std car. I know the std stuff is Utter Junk.

[spend]

with your tangents. IMHO it just as valid to do brake upgrades as Power upgrades, which you do is up to the individual, either should enable you to get from A to B faster. Your insinuation that big brake upgrades were only beneficial if you have an engine upgrade sounded like complete bollox to me, performance can be improved in either area independently. Brakes sound expensive, but bhp costs an awful lot more in the end.

Dave

[jellison]

spend said:

with your tangents. IMHO it just as valid to do brake upgrades as Power upgrades, which you do is up to the individual, either should enable you to get from A to B faster. Your insinuation that big brake upgrades were only beneficial if you have an engine upgrade sounded like complete bollox to me, performance can be improved in either area independently. Brakes sound expensive, but bhp costs an awful lot more in the end.

Dave

That is not exactly what I am saying - just saying that this kit is very much the high end of what to do to your brake. Yes the std stuff is crap - but and this surprises me, some people think the std crap is fine and they perport to be fast drivers.

I found 285 AP disc and spaced std calipers fine on a std 500 level of go. And even fitted these before my daft conversion as I think the std stuff is so sh&t.

Just saying ther are lots of alternatives in between - depends how far you want to go.

Someone on TVRmonster forum make me laugh in that there think the std sh&t is fine on all the TVR Power Superchargered engined cars from 4.0 up to 5.0!!!!!!!!! Nuts.

Just saying 285's are likley fine as a very reasonable cost on a 4.0 or 4.5 or even 5.0 but these things are largely pointless on the smaller engined cars as the std or a 285 set up is well up to the job.

[spend]

I would certainly disagree with some of your statements Jon. Even if your car is only firing on 4 cylinders, a brake upgrade will benefit your performance. Big brakes (4 pot AP's) will give you as a big a performance upgrade as £1000's spent on the engine. IMHO the only thing you need to tweak for big brakes is the suspension ~ no need to touch the engine at all.

There used to be a collective sanity on this site that brakes & suspension were pre-requisites to power upgrades, but this seems to be sadly out of favour in these days of RR madness Many wise sages used to propound that the best way to go quicker was driver training, handling & braking, the slippery slope of power was left to the end...

Dave

[jellison]

You should go on TVR monster forum and express your views on brakes.

Std 260mm disc should be fine for 4.0 or 4.5. Unless you have a 5.0 these are just for Bling IMHO - the car is adequetly braked.

[Don1]

Ha! I always prefer my cars to be over-braked. It's a personal preference - nothing else.

[crackedfinger]

spend said:

I would certainly disagree with some of your statements Jon. Even if your car is only firing on 4 cylinders, a brake upgrade will benefit your performance. Big brakes (4 pot AP's) will give you as a big a performance upgrade as £1000's spent on the engine. IMHO the only thing you need to tweak for big brakes is the suspension ~ no need to touch the engine at all.

There used to be a collective sanity on this site that brakes & suspension were pre-requisites to power upgrades, but this seems to be sadly out of favour in these days of RR madness Many wise sages used to propound that the best way to go quicker was driver training, handling & braking, the slippery slope of power was left to the end...

Dave

I couldnt agree with this more.