The importance of good brakes was brought home to me on Christmas day (after having a near thing with a Christams driver). Can I improve my brakes significantly for under £400 (hopefully nearer £150)? I have the last edition of the classic shape. Thanks to all helpful advice.

 

I've just swapped back to the original 4 pot calipers on my MY99 RB5 after having the Prodrive 330mm brake upgrade for a while....(Cos I couldn't afford to put new discs on it if I wore the originals out!!)

I had Pagid discs and pads all round - 8 groove discs and blue pads on the front.... these set me back around £300, including fitting, and I have to say they are every bit as effective as the big prodrive kit - in fact, the inital bite of the brakes is much more positive..........and I have yet to experience any fade.

I was worried that I wouldn't have the braking power I had before, but I am extremely happy with the new setup!

 

Brooks, you've got 16in wheels and 4-pot calipers? Try Godspeed 2-piece discs/pads upgrade. Or the Pagids as mentioned above (ScoobySport).

Richard.

 

any number of options dependant on exactly what use you put your car to all based around the original caliper set-up............
"grpN" discs or Pagid "grooved" together with an uprated pad material like rs4.2.1./rs4.2 from Pagid or Ferodo ds2500 (depending on the condition of your discs you could probably get away with a pad upgrade for the time being even)
feel free to mail me for specific advice and deals.........
all the best, alyn - as performance

 

I guess I should have been more specific about how I would like the brakes to improve.
I would like the bite to be harder. I have rarely had a problem with fade.
I dont use the car for track days, it tends to get used for motorways so the brakes dont get used too much.
But I want them to be strong when they are used.
I am not sure if the brakes are 2 or 4 pot - but they are the std brakes of the last issue of the classic shape MY2000?
The car has done 25k miles so I guess I could just try the pads, as you guys have suggested, at first to see what sort of improvement this gives.
Thanks of for all the advice offered so far and happy New Year to all.

 

A 2000 classic shape will have the 4 pots on - changing the pads will have a great effect on braking effectiveness...... more so if the discs are cjanged at the same time though........

 

Fat Blerk,

I was going to ask you if you had sold your Prodrive brakes but it sounds from your post that they are not worth the money(?). Do you mean that the std 4-pot calipers with Pagid disk (what size is it - 298?) and Pagid pads is as effective as the Prodrive gear (£300 and £1000+)???

I've been considering Prodrive as a viable option amongst others like APs, Movits, TSL/Hi-Spec, etc. I wonder if I should take Prodrives off my list...

Please post your comments here or e-mail me off line.

Many thanks for your help!

 

The prodrive kit is great.....the calipers especially are a work of art.

The performance of the kit is good - especially when you give it lots of grief, and wasn't half so likely to trigger the ABS as the standard 4-pots seem to.......

Having said that, I dont think the discs and pads you get with it are anywhere near as good as they could be. Unfortunately, I haven't got the cash to shop around for the hyper expensive discs that are the only ones available to fit, so......... before I found myself with no discs left I swapped back to the cheaper kit.

In brief - the kit is great, but I think third party discs and pads would be better with the calipers.......BUT for the money, I think theres better brakes out there.....

 

I've had the pagid ones from Scoobysport mentioned above on my WRX for two years and there very good for standard 2 pot brakes. Am about to get another lot fitted to my STI V-ltd 555 asap as using the standard ones from anything above 60 more than once a minute is a waste of time.

T.

 

Subarussian,

Banshee Motorsports are advertising a Monster 6-pot 335mm kit in the Scoobynet Shop.

This sounds like the Hi-Spec Monster 6 kit which is almost exactly like the TSL kit but at only £999, is £300 cheaper.

It might be worth contacting them to find out what's supplied in the kit. To compare, the TSL kit gives you:-

Monster 6-pot calipers
335mm disc (32mm thick)
alloy bells
Goodridge braided hoses
Ferodo DS2500 pads
Mounting brackets for new calipers
DOT 5.1 Brake fluid

Accroding to the ad, Banshee gives you:-

335 mm Discs (32mm thick, either cross drilled or grooved) x2
Aluminium Mounting Bells x2 (can be anodised Gold or polished silver)
Monster 6 pot Billet Aluminium Calipers x2
Mounting Brackets x2
Hardware Kit x1

If you they don't supply pads, braided hoses or fluid, it still won't cost anywhere near the £300 difference.

Stefan