Rear brakes - Wilwood?

[lwt]

Now I have a nice set of Wilwoods on the front behind 16" wheels, I would like the rears to match. Has anyone out there fitted the Wilwood calipers with integral handbrake? If so, any advice on sizes, mountings etc? I should say that this is for road and is primarliy for looks as I am now happy with the overall balance, so I don't really want monster rear brakes that will make it all tail-happy again.

Ian.

[spend]

lwt said:

...I am now happy with the overall balance, so I don't really want monster rear brakes that will make it all tail-happy again.

As you have said I think most with monster front upgrades have found the 500 spec rears plenty good enough for the overall balance

Get a picture of your fronts, laminate it & stick on the rear calipers for visual aesthetics

Dave

[v8sag]

To my knowledge wilwood don't make a intergrated handbrake callipar,so you would have to run a small separate handbrake calliper.
There's a company in UK can't remember the name, race car parts or something that make a rear 300x21mm disc with wilwood dynalite callipar kit for the GT40 kit car,these run the Granada hub,so the discs will fit,(you'll have to redrill holes to 4 x108 pcd)you may have to either make a new bracket as I think the mounts on the Granada carrier are different?,however youll still have to run a secondary handbrake calliper.
I'd save your dosh and do a nice powder coat on your existing,I lived with these looking like pimples behind 18's.

[lwt]

Starting to sound like a major job with little return - maybe I'll go find someone who can laminate a photo after all!

Ian.

[victormeldrew]

Don't do it, upgrading the fronts brings the brakes into much better balance as you've found. Don't spoil the improved dynamics for cosmetic reasons!

[Graham]

another vote for just making sure they are clean and working propery. the only worth while upgrade on the back is decent disks and pads. the standard car is over braked at the back to start with....


putting bigger brakes on the front and leaving the backs standard transforms the car...

G

[BoyzToyz]

Graham said:

the only worth while upgrade on the back is decent disks and pads. the standard car is over braked at the back to start with....


putting bigger brakes on the front and leaving the backs standard transforms the car...

G

I agree with this - have just had Wilwood upgrades to the front and better pads on the rear. The difference is well worth the money. Had it done by Andy at APM amd it has been an excellent job. Owen

[Nuggs]

Out of interest lwt, what was the damage for your Wilwood upgrade at the front?

[lwt]

Most bits via Bell Hill Salvage and then a complete overhaul of all seals, pipes, bleeds, new rotors, new bolts and FOC trueing of bells on a lathe, probably around £400. Quite pleased with that.

I totally agree with comments about F/R balance being correct now, which is why I was interested in Wilwoods but without increasing the diameter (or, more correctly all the bits about piston area, pad area, moment arm etc).

A look at the RallyDesign website shows a Supelite rear caliper with integral handbrake (pat pending!!), so I can see that this idea is not going to die!

IAn.

[victormeldrew]

Fit Wilwoods and glue two of the pistons back?

You could fit a brake balance bar to reduce the line pressure to the rears.

[lwt]

AFIK, the rear version has deliberatly small pistons so the area is similar to the original. So long as I don't get carried away and put a huge rotor on, there should be little difference. My only concern then is how well the handbrake mechanism works, and is it good enough for the MoT?

IAn.

[victormeldrew]

It can't possibly work any worse than the standard one!