Hi guys,

So the good old Subaru 4 pots..

Given that I want to stick to 16" wheels, my options in terms of brake upgrades are thin on the ground (I have 2 pots upfront and sliders on the back atm so not hard to improve upon!), basically it's either Subaru 4 pots or something custom like Brembo GT calipers from Seat Leon and two piece discs, however the cost of the latter is going to make it prohibitive.

The car is a 97 classic with approx. 260bhp, it's pretty much a daily driver but also plan to do the odd trackday in it, maybe one or two a year, however these will be more to the relaxed end of the scale rather than ***** out.

So as the good old four pots are seriously tried and tested (I know some rate them and some don't), I wanted to get peoples opinions on the very best set up possible. From what I've found whilst researching this is the list I've drawn up.

Godspeed refurbed front calipers with stainless pistons
Subaru 2 pot rear calipers
Uprated discs and pads all round from Godspeed or AS Performance
Hel braided lines all round
5.1 brake fluid
Brake stopper

Would be great to hear whether I'm missing anything or what others opinions are when it comes to discs/pads/fluid/stoppers etc :-)

 

On my blobeye I have the 4 pots front 2 pots rear.

I'm running good quality OEM blank discs with CL RC5+ pads in the front and OEM pads in the rear with ATE Superblue fluid.

Before this I rebuilt the front calipers with 8x stainless pistons and new seals.

I've not taken it on track yet but the stopping power is pretty awesome, I love the RC5+ pads, work great from cold and with a little heat they're amazing.

 

As well as the bit's noted above you may want to think of the tyres, suspension set up and chassis mods. Working together they will make a hell of a difference.

 

Cheers for the feedback Scotty, that sounds encouraging given that a blob is likely a little heavier that the classic, also interesting to hear your running OEM discs with good results.

Trooper yep don't worry each area is getting thorough attention! Just focusing on the brakes atm to get a feel for what I'm going to need.

 

I have some standard 4-pots for sale. Rebuilt by subaru 10k miles ago with genuine discs and pads. Plenty of life left in them. Pm me if your interested.

Oh i have a receipt from subaru for the work carried out too i can send you a copy of

 

Hi fudgey, sounds interesting, how comes they were rebuilt by Subaru? Can't of been cheap! It might be a bit too early for me atm but let me know what you want for them.

 

I dont know why, a previous owner had them done. car was on 72k miles (now 82k) when they were done. and no, not cheap lol.

 

Add to your list: think about having the brake bias valve removed. It makes the rears do more work, car stops flatter and more sure.

 

OK thanks, will remember that!

What's the general view on brake stoppers? Also to change to two pot rears, what other parts are needed? I realise I need brackets to mount the calipers and obvs 290mm discs and pads, but is it a direct fit otherwise? want to avoid messing about with the handbrake etc if I can.

 

My old classic was running 325bhp & 320lbft & all I had were Goodridge hoses all round with std 4 pots with grooved discs up front & I fitted grooved vented rear discs & sliders from a later model on the rear which seemed to cope perfectly well even when driving fairly hard.

 

I'd just fit re-con 4pots with stainless steel pistons, godspeed discs and pads, stainless hoses and decent fluid. That will give you a bloody good set up.

 

I think these discs maybe close to the "ultimate" when using 4 Pots and 16" wheels: 293mm 2-Piece slotted Performance Friction discs

 

OK cool, although I'm on two pots front/sliders back at the min, I do have Black Diamond discs and pads all round, so the option of uprating the fronts only as mentioned may be enough. However I'm not a big fan of the sliding rear calipers so would like to ditch these at some point.

It certainly seems that I can achieve the level of performance I'm after and some from the 4 pots though so that's all good!

 

Just to update this thread, I changed the gearbox oil on the car today. After that I took it out for a spin as you do...

Anyway long story short during the drive I noticed the car starting to pull to the right on the brakes, as if I was losing braking power on the front left, it got worse and worse and I was really having to pump the pedal to get some stopping power.

So I pulled over to look at what was going on, front right disc looks normal, left front disc is covered in **** from the pad and there are lumps / chunks of pad around the disc bell and over the alloy.... I've not had time to strip the pads out yet but I think its fairly obvious whats happened, the pads have / are breaking up. After a Google, I'm not the first person that this has happened to either. So I wouldn't recommend CL RC5+ pads!!

I fitted the pads at the start of November last year with brand new discs so they've done barely any miles and have been on a few months, all purely road use too!

Going to try and get my money back.

 

£25 Pagids from Euro Car Parts work well for everyday use, Scott.

 

Did you use the correct bedding in procedure?

 

They were correctly bedded in yes. They've been great up until today....

 

Never use anything but DS2500's these days, never had a single issue with them

 

Yeah, I'm ordering those as replacements!!