New front Brake kit??

[SwansSaab]

So Im still on about these lulz ... I have decided to go with a make called Phat Boy manufacturing out of Taiwan they seem to have a good rep the kit looks good and its at a good price.

So my question ... I was thinking of going for the 8 pot calipers with 360 disks .. they will fit under 18inch alloys but would I get more braking performance out of say the six pot or even four pot calipers as the pistons are bigger or should I def go for the 8 pot??


Heres the link .. http://stores.ebay.co.uk/PB-Performance-Brakes?_trksid=p4340.l2563

http://www.phatboybrakes.com/

[phoenix]

IME you very much get what you pay for with brakes (*with the exception of Hirsch)

If you want track levels of reliability and peformance for the track, then buy AP. I had thier 4 pot kit on my 9000 and it was simply stunning. Even on repeated abuse on track days, they never gave up.

If you want great road performance then honestly standard size Brembo discs and DS2500 pads are hard to beat. I used to have the Hirsch/Brembo 4 pot kit (330 or 328  x 32 discs) and to be honest I wasn't impressed- not compared to the AP kit I had on my 9000.

Ignoring heat issues for now, you potentially gain two advantages from a brake upgrade:

a) increased diameter means greater stopping force for the same pedal effort
b) greater pad area giving the same result

Larger calipers tend to get longer but not necessarily any wider, sometimes the opposite so in turn your pads tend to get longer but not much wider, so you're potenitally not gaining a huge amount in area.

My worry about the PB stuff is that you don't seem to be able to get plain discs. Grooved are very noisy and cross drilled particularly prone to cracking if not treated carefully. If you use DS2500 pads, you don't need either as they are non- gassing.

When considering the price of the kit, remember that to gain a weight advantage, you need to specify the floating rotor kit, otherwise you will have solid discs which, at the size, will mean that your total unsprung weight is likely to be more than stock brakes- not good news for chassis dynamics.

A 4 pot 330mm kit from AP can be had for around £1600, and you can use 17" wheels. The 8 pot equivalent kit from PB, including floating bells, race pads and powder coated calipers would be £1370 and you might get stung for import duty and VAT which would push it above the AP price. I shouldn't think you would see much if any braking improvement and of course you'd need minimum 18" wheels (I know you've got these already but just in case you wanted winters...)

Don't want to appear to be peeing on your chips too much, just offerng some practical advice from someone who's done it before

[SwansSaab]

Nah I appreciate the feedback ... tbh I will probably take the risk as to get the AP kit at same size is 2k compared to 1400 ... all of Brembo`s disks seem to be drilled??   The PB`s have a good write up and I will stick to the grooved disks only with the floating.

I hear ya on the Hirsh 4 pots they feel poor to be fair .. although I shouldnt be saying that as I will be trying to flog em 

[SwansSaab]

Ok folks a little update on this, so I emailed the company and they can supply plain disks so thats good and also they ship in a plain box as to not attract customs so fingers crossed on that front .. so some fears allayed for me.

Do I go slotted or plain disks?   the kit comes with race pads but Im unsure if they are non gassing or not, if i get plain disks and the pads gas what will happen, will I lose braking grip?? I suppose I could always buy the DS2500 if there was a major problem.

[SwansSaab]

Ordered my brakes .. cant wait now.    8 pot calipers with 360 mm disks