Wilwood Brakes

[d didit]

Hi S4 owners,

I have been reading much regarding brake upgrades. Large brake kits are something that is hard to research, but once done, an easy upgrade. From my knowledge, I have seen kits that use Wilwood hats and calipers that cost up to $3500.00. I don't know how in the world they got this price. Maybe because it is made by Lotuspbc. From some friends of mine, these prices may be over inflated given he was trying to get steering hub adapters installed for almost $1000.00, crazy!

Currently, my 2003 Monte Carlo SS is having 14" 6-piston brakes prototyped at Wilwwod. It will be at the 2003 SEMA show at Toyo tires display. For any and all interests, I can develop the kit for our car at a much more reasonable price. Before I do this however, I will need some info as to who could commit and what year they have, differences between years. This will also alleviate the headache of expensive OEM rotors.

I have had Wilwwods on 3 of my past cars and they are great, light, powerful, and easy on the wallet. If I do a kit for the S4, we will have a better kit than OEM.

Please help me on this since I was about to buy new OEM rotors and it looks like many want other options.

Dindo
ddidit

[JK1]

Dindo,

I'd be interested.

Jim
95s4s

[windsorlotus]

I am proud owner of a 90SE and have recently installed the Willwood 4 piston caliper bolt on
pkg with 1/2" larger rotors from LBC. This is a beautiful brake upgrade and has given me the confidence I was looking for to match the acceleration. The calipers weigh 7 pounds less than the OEM's . Braided lines were included in the pkg and it cost me $1100 for the fronts. I thought it a reasonable price. Highly recommended.

SGB 90SE

[thwagmostar]

Where did you purchase this set? I also have an SE and am in the market for a brake upgrade. This is a MUCH better price than I expected!

[karlfranz]

Hi Dindo,

I have suggested this before, but I'll mention it here again:

Many of us with 95MY or newer cars already have Brembo brakes on our Esprits. These include a fairly nice 4-piston calipers up front and single piston calipers in the rear. The standard rotor diameters are 296mm front, and 300mm rear. The thing is that these calipers can be used with much larger rotors. So what I suggest is for someone to develop a kit which includes the following:

- Four (4) 330mm curved vane discs; your choice of slotted, cross-drilled, or both.

- Four (4) matching aluminum hats (bells) for the discs

- Four (4) Adapter brackets that will move the existing calipers outward to clear the new larger discs.

- Optionally, stainless steel braided brake lines.

This would be far more economical than having to buy a kit that includes new calipers when the ones we have are already adequate.

The first person/company to come up with this kit at a reasonable price will get my money and probably many others.

[mikelr]

Count me in! These factory TMC brakes on my early model year S4 just plain suck!
I had looked at the available upgades out there and swallowed hard when I had saw the prices. I had just last year upgraded the brakes on my 87' Formula Firebird, with a set of 13" rotors with 4-pot calipers from Baer Racing Brakes, the rears were converted from drum to 12" vented disk with single pot caliper. This was considered their "Track" setup. The cost was $2200, which at the time I thought was a lot of money, but now in comparison to the Esprit brake upgrade pricing seems like a bargain.
Dollars and cents aside, better brakes are probably one of the best investments that you can make for your ride.

>> Edited by mikelr on Wednesday 8th October 03:33

[karmavore]

I hope someone listens to you, Karl. That sounds like a very efficient plan.

Luke.

[britten_mark]

karlfranz said:

- Four (4) Adapter brackets that will move the existing calipers outward to clear the new larger discs.

Karl-Franz
I assume you have done your homework on this; would the standard 17" wheels be OK or would this mod demand 18"ers??
Cheers
Mark

[karlfranz]

britten_mark said:

Karl-Franz I assume you have done your homework on this; would the standard 17" wheels be OK or would this mod demand 18"ers?? Cheers Mark

Sorry Mark,

My homework was comprised of the fact that my car has 18in wheels front and rear. In fact, that is was prompted me to want larger rotors to begin with. I know it's mostly a cosmetic thing, but the stock rotors look too puny inside my large wheels. I had a friend look at the Brembo specs for the front 4-piston calipers and he found out that these can be used with up to 330mm discs. The rear calipers we already knew could use the larger discs because the 00MY and newer Esprits (with the AP front calipers) already use 330mm discs with the same Brembo single piston caliper.

BTW: The propblem with using the AP calipers is that they are "thicker": meaning that they stick further outboard than the Brembos. This is the reason that all the Lotus styled wheels have the spokes near the outer rim half, so the calipers can clear the spokes.

[feffman]

Hi all:

I have Wilwood brakes on my 1994 S4. I have the 6-piston fronts and 4-piston rears with braided steel lines. The front rotors have 32 curved vane venting on a 1.25" wide rotor. The rear rotors hav 24 straight vanes and are 0.89". These things work wonderful on street and on the track.

Call Claudius (www.LotusPBC.com) at [phone] to speak with him about the Wilwoods for yoru Esprit.

Mark Pfeffer