dandan

Can anyone confirm the thread size for the rear calipers please?

9 points

To be honest I don't know I want to get a couple of stickers made and the company I approached about it said: "to make it cost effective for you i.e. not hours of time for me creating a cut pattern, I would need either a much larger, sharper, high resolution copy of the graphic, or something with an outline ( vector ) already created i.e. AI or eps file. Not sure if you will understand what that means, but it doesn't mean just saving the copy uou have as an AI file. It needs to be a file that has been purposefully created with a vector." Does that make sense to you?

Aha - thanks for the quick reply! It's too big to attach but I could email it to you if you pm me an address?

Is anyone here able to create an EPS file from a jpeg/bitmap image I have? Thanks Dan

Yep sorry about that! Perhaps I should split it into two tables and make everything bigger, especially as a couple of people have got in touch about adding details for other kits. I could also remove the two custom kits (the full Alcon setup and Paul's AMG Brembo setup) as they're not easily available to everyone - that would knock out two columns. That's the plan but it's on hold at the moment as I've got one arm in a sling - typical! I have everything I need except the rear pads (hopefully arriving this week) and rear caliper brackets.

I tried a few colours for the table to try to get it clear and crisp but it wasn't easy. As it's so bloody big it loses clarity when it's shrunk and converted to a pic. I'll try some other colours and see what the general opinion is. The Alcons are truly excellent calipers and the float hardware is robust and silent but unforunately there's only a front kit available off the shelf. Anything for the rear would have to be custom made.

No sweat mate - be good if you could check your Stillen kit for us. The pdf they sent me says the bell is iron and the bracket is 1018...."for maximum strength" Edit: Could yours be an early kit perhaps? This is an AP0550 kit.

Alcon Monoblock - Custom for front and rear (but a front kit is available) Alcon Floating Hardware - Front Only AMG Brembo - Custom for front and rear AMG Floating Hardware - Front and Rear AP Race Garage Whifbitz (Pics and info for table coming soon hopefully)

AP Road Kit AP Non Floating Bolted Hardware - Front and Rear Stoptech ST40 Stoptech Floating Hardware - Front Only (Rear float/bolt hardware TBC)

And here are a few posts which help show what the floating hardware looks like for some of these kits. With any luck people can look at the pictures and the table and see where the "float" actually happens, which bits are likely to wear etc etc. Brembo Monoblock Brembo Floating Hardware - Front and Rear KAD 378mm Kit KAD (AP) Floating Hardware - Front Only

OK well let's try these. All previous caveats apply regarding variables kept the same such as force applied to pedal, pad friction material, temperature etc. No allowance is made for caliper stiffness, wear rates of floating mechanisms, noise from floating mechanisms, corrosion, serviceability, availability of replacement parts etc. These things do play a role but in order to make any fair comparison (and especially to calculate the front to rear brake bias) they have to be ignored. As far as I am aware nobody markets a kit that has to use a different pad compound front to rear in order to get the correct bias and the figures certainly seem to support this. I didn't really want to comment on anything other than the mechanicals of these kits as anything else (perhaps with the exception of caliper stiffness and its importance for brake feel) could be seen as opinionated and not fair on traders etc. This is a non opinion based comparison of the mechanical design of these kits. Please let me know if you think I have made any mistakes and I will be more than happy to change them. Thank you to the people that helped with weights, measurements etc - Jevansio, Lee P, Luxluc, M5W TT, Ricky49, Paul Mac and probably a few more. I am waiting on some info from Mr Whiffin for the "Garage Whifbitz AP Race" kit and also the "Garage Whifbitz Road" AP rear kit. As with the Stoptech info from Luxluc - once I have it, I will add it to these comparisons. Hopefully someone somewhere will find this interesting or useful! Basic comparison: Bias in graphical format: Available brake torque in graphical format:

Good man - thanks. That sounds like a total ball ache with the MOT, hope you get it all sorted.

I am very keen but won't be able to commit until my new brakes are sorted and WI is mapped. Jay - why do you say it's pointless with the J spec cams - do you mean "pointless" as in "no chance of winning"? I ask because I run J spec cams and would like to enter just to see what the car will do even though there be a lot of cars faster than me

They sure are and I very nearly went with the same setup but (and I'm sure Paul will agree) the aftermarket disc availability is not amazing with the AMG stuff as the swept region is very deep and specific to these AMG motors. That put me off a little bit plus I didn't really want to just copy Paul's approach

Thanks mate. I added your kit to the comparison table I've done - hope that's alright with you? The materials and weights were the only bits of missing info, hence the questions. I was in the process of making rear caliper brackets for my setup but I've just had a shoulder operation and am out of action for a few weeks.....fabrication is on hold! I didn't go with the AMG stuff in the end, I bought a full set of Alcon monoblocks I'm going with fully floating Alcon 365mm front discs and stock 324mm rear discs.

Paul, A few questions for you mate.... What is your caliper bracket material? Do you know what the caliper piston material is? Any idea of weight of the complete front or rear setup? How about the weight of a rear caliper (no pads or brackets)?

Thank you Steve, I'll give it a go....looks like it might be a bit long winded though as my table is pretty big That would be great Luc - I'm sure everyone would love to know how the Stoptech kit compares.Give me a shout when you're free to do a few measurements....the most awkward one is measuring the piston sizes (anywhere from 28-42mm in 2mm steps) but according to this info it can be done without taking the caliper off http://www.zeckhausen.com/How_to_Measure_Pistons.htm

Thank you for the posts and info fellas - much appreciated. I'm right to assume they must be 5x114.3mm PCD to fit a 350Z aren't I? I haven't seen them anywhere else yet either. They are 8.5" front and rear so no good for decent power but I'm looking for a set to run some proper winter tyres on for another Supe. I think a 235/40 up front and a 255/40 squeezed on the back should be alright and offer some improved cold weather grip over the 275 summer Toyos.

Apparently these are ET30. I'm not at all familiar with the 350Z so forgive the real dumb question. Is this 30mm offset in the same direction as our Supras or could this be 60mm different to an ET30 Supra wheel....ie is it possible that one is ET+30 and the other is ET-30 or are they not that different.

How do I create a table guys? Should I just paste one in as an image - would that be easiest? So far I have the following common "Kits" completed: Brembo 14" monoblock with 13.58" rear AP 356mm road kit with AP/Stillen 330mm rear AP 356mm road kit with UK rear KAD 17" front kit with UK rear KAD 18" 356mm kit (six pot rear caliper) KAD 19" 378mm kit (six pot rear caliper) I am waiting for some rear caliper info from Paul Whiffin to allow me to finish these two and add them straight in: Garage Whifbitz 362mm front and 343mm rear race kit Garage Whifbitz 343mm rear road kit (to compliment AP's 356mm front road kit) I am also waiting for some feedback from jme on his KSport 356mm front and rear kit and then I can add that. And I could also include two specials as I have the info for these although they aren't real kits: AMG Brembo 8pot 360mm front and 4 pot rear 330mm kit (Paul Mac's) Alcon 6 pot 365mm front monoblock and Alcon 4 pot rear 324mm monoblock (Mine) Does anyone have a Stoptech kit and want to help out by supplying some info? [table=head;sort=1]No.|Manufacturer|Rating|Size|etc 1|Brembo|5|etc |etc 2|Alcon|5|etc |etc [/table] .

I have some spare facelift clocks somewhere in the garage. Do you damage them at all? Edit: I see Scott's got one.....all good then.

When you say -15 or -20.....would you say the Supra is -50 or +50?

Thanks for the advice - I had a feeling the Z offsets were very low so I am a bit wary. I've stumbled across these for sale and am just waiting on width and offset info from the guy selling them......thought I'd see if I could find out some more info while I was waiting