Big brake upgrade
 

Hi, after some advise looking to upgrade the front brakes on my 04 WRX not sure between the K-Sport option or the Brembo option from Godspeed. I am open to other alternatives as well. Also any advise on pads the car will be used on the street most of the time maybe 2-3 track days a year.

Thanks

Out of those I would go straight for the 356mm K-sport, brembos have a tendancy to overheat on track whereas the K-sport will dissapate heat better.

I've upgraded my 4 pots on my type r with the godspeed 335mm kit 2 piece disc with ds2500 pads on the front and rear discs with kevlar pads. All C Hook Discs.

The difference is night and day, prior the 4 pots were rubbish, now your nearly going through the windscreen, better than my brothers evo's brembos.

I haven't managed to cook them yet, but I've only ever used them with fast road use, no track days.

I went down this route as I wanted to keep the oem 4 pots on the type r.

I ran this kit 10 years ago (holy moly!!) and with the DS2500’s it worked pretty well and saw a few track days. Then I changed to ebc bluestuff pads and did not have a good experience. Before the EBC pad experience it was about the best the oe 4 pots ever were tbh. I then changed to K-Sports which were better suited to track work. When it comes to brakes go for the absolute best you can afford, IMHO

We would like to hear more about your pad experience and see how we can rectify things?

Hi, well this was back in the day when the bluestuff pad first appeared and were all the rage on here and many other forums. Short story the set up had been working well but the ds2500's were low, I switched to the bluestuff, followed the bed in procedure etc, out on track at combe and my foot went to floor as I braked on avon rise at 130mph and I went into quarry sideways on the right hand side of the circuit :eek:

A inpection when we got back to the pits showed the pads had gone white with heat and the discs were cracked through.

If you want to rectify the situation it cost me £1000 for the k-sport upgrade I did at the time, along with some new trousers :thumb:

What size wheels are you running? The 356mm kit will only go under 18s

Can't fault k sports personally I've used them for years, even a set of APs

With any brake set up the weakest link is always the pads IMO

I'm pretty confident with the brake set you're running a proper pad and fluid like Carbotec or RC6 etc would probably see excellent results.

​A friend is running the standard brakes and RS19 pads on the front and rear of his track e92 M3 the calipers are basically a big 1 pot caliper from the front of normal 5 series cars, he's very quick on track and has had zero issues

I've just replaced my front 304mm ksports/Carbotec with brembo calipers and the RC6 pads as I wanted the bigger disc and also a slightly easier disc and pad option in the future

I have got 18” wheels.

Thanks for the advice I think I am going to go with the 356mm k sport brakes with the ds2500’s.

I'd avoid the ds2500, theyre ok pads but...

Both times I've had them 330mm ksport on an Evo and before that the same Evo with its standard brembos

Suffered huge brake judder from them, they seem to leave a lot of deposits on the discs

A lot of people complain on the feel of them but tbh I didnt mind the feel of them :confused:

In my group of track day mates we've had huge success with

Carbotech on scoobs, Clio, MR2 turbo
Pagid on the M3 Ebc blue focus stEbc orange on the Clio

I'm hoping to try the CL RC6 this year in the standard brembos, supposed to be a bit bad for your wheel paint.

I'd also like to try the race pads EBC offer I think RP1 and RPX


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Brake pads is a “how long have you got” kind of subject and experiences differ between people. I have never had an issue with DS2500’s and found them a good pad for fast road and the odd track day or session. I have moved on since then and ran carbotechs, pagid rst3 and currently ferodo DSUNO. The latter are all excellent but as track/race pads theyre not really ideal if you are using the car mainly on the road.

Brake pad technology has really come on in recent years though and there are a lot of other options available now in the DS2500 fast road/occasional track use category, but I haven’t used them so I can’t comment from personal experience but am sure someone else can :)

I had Ksport 356 with DS2500, had problems with judder and massive amounts of pad deposits, then I let the car sit round a while with deposits on the disks and the disks ended up a pitted mess from the deposits, I had to get the disks skimmed. I think I had this problem as its not used daily and often sits for a couple of weeks and the pads didn't like that

Iv hone for performance Friction z rated this time round

Thanks for the follow up, this was a while ago then, things have changed since the 'old days'. Did you contact us at the time when this occurred and what was the response you got?

Mine used to clear up on the road if I went through a break in procedure again. But would start up juddering again mid way through a track day.

Was exactly the same with the brembo calipers and then the ksports, I bought the ksports to solve the problem and the problem followed, until I changed the pads to Carbotechs

Best way is to swap track pads in before the track day. My friend does this with his M3, swaps standard BMW pads out for the Pagids

Completely agree

Even usage on track can vary massively

​​​​​personally I'd be swapping pads out for track days if I mainly drove on the roads, so I definitely get the best of both worlds

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i would always go with Godspeed, Ian knows his stuff. maybe try PFC pads options?.

Yes my original post mentioned it was 10 years ago. No I didn’t contact you I threw the lot in the bin and got the k-sports and moved on.

Has anyone bought the AP racing brake kit from godspeed if so is that better than the K Sport set up.

Different league, with AP discs.

would not use godspeed for anything, his kit comes with his own discs 355mmx 30mm instead of 32mm ,he cut discs from some unknown source ,ask him about 362mm rotor and he is not intrested in as he can not make them cheap
i had ksport 356mm kit with ebc blue pads in the past-old type 1st version and rate them in 90% as good as apracing 362mm kit with apracing discs and ds2500 pads from graham goodie
I will go with graham g kit only issue You could have with 362mm kit You need 41cm space inside Your 18" wheels to fit them back on calipers
best pad i used was rs29
i had alcons race 365mm kit and that was best kit i ever used,only issue was a noise from discs/bells. You can try to find rc6 caliper -very light ,monoblock caliper with biggest pads plus alcon proR discs and bells and ask somebody to make You brackets - it will be best kit on the market for scoob
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...cc7a629412.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...4f8a2ded25.jpg

Just for your (wrong) information , the largest disc we make currently is 356mm , and that is the largest disc we can fit in our lathe , nothing to do with not being able to make them cheap !
We tell any customer who asks us for anything larger than 356mm this , so not sure why you decided to make up your own story !
Things are changing this year and we will be able to supply up to 380mm very soon , and then going up to 400mm.

I am on the Alcon race kit now too and have to say the braking is very, very good! Being a race caliper it’s not designed for daily road use as it has no seals etc but they do a road going version. Awesome brakes 😍

On track that’s not ideal. RC6s are give good bite and fade resistance but run hot and the STi Brembos cannot dissipate the heat. I lost my pedal with RC6s at Snetterton after boiling the (high temp) fluid. Back to the pits and the formerly bronze calipers had turned brown with heat and back at home took the calipers off to see the seals totally melted. That’s with one-piece discs - I believe Brembos work better if you use two-piece items.

Also managed to pretty much use up a set of RC6 in one trackday - Carbotech XP10 offers comparable performance with much better wear.

Talking about disc upgrades, i bought these from Godspeed when I first got my blobeye. The pads are still squealing at low speed 3000 miles in, they work fine but it’s just annoying stopping at lights, is this normal?


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...1c8359f66f.png

I'm not too worried as the pads came with the calipers as an extra, I'll probably be doing Cadwell first off also which isn't too harsh on the brakes, if I struggle there I'll be buying new pads straight away

I've always used XP10s and more than happy with them and will be getting them again or maybe the RP1 from EBC when the RC6 pads are done

Mine are on a stripped classic with brake ducts so hopefully I'll gain a little extra time on track there with the RC6's

I was wondering on the two piece discs also, I thought it was just a weight advantage over cooling, but if there's cooling advantages I'll get those next time as well.



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