HiSpec Brakes - Opinions Please

(previously wrongly posted under 'for sale' section

Just wanted to check if anyone has any info on the quality of work and products from this company. Based in Dartford

Anyone had theirs fitted from HiSpec?

Objective opinions please - wouldn't expect anything else naturally!

Many thanks

Paul:cool:

Do a web search. When I was looking the comments about their service were shocking!

With calipers, pads, discs and fluid you get EXACTLY what you pay for. No bargains, no short cuts. The stock UK calipers are excellent. A caliper needs to be RIDGID. It must NOT flex (allowing the pistons to push the caliper halves away from the disc when braking hard). It must dissipate heat from the pistons without them seizing. It must use a seal material that will not harden or crack despite ultra high fluid temps. It must be lightweight, it must keep the pads absolutely parallel to the disc surface. For clearance it is best if it is small given the pad area and thickness it carries with no excess material to catch the inside of a wheel. ideally a choice of piston and seal material should be available. It needs to be able to fit a good range of top quaility pad materials, so odd ball pad shapes only available from the maker of the caliper, or limited in availabilty in a choice of compounds is a SERIOUS disadvantage.

IMO Hi_Spec stuff doesn't come close to AP, Brembo or Alcon, these makes service all serious competion cars, and many top end road cars. Unforunately they are priced to match their superiority.

All in my own opinion of course.

Thanks Guys - but really wanted something from anyone who has them fitted - with some experience of use

Of course they dont cost as much as AP/Brembo's etc (thats why I'm looking at them) and I wish that stock UK would fit under the alloys!

Terry - where did you search on the net please - service or products a problem?

Cheers

Paul:cool:

I doubt anyone with a MKIV will have fitted them. The Supra needs top notch brakes, it is just a total waste of money to fit anything else as they will not be good enough. JMHO

Agree entirely for the need for top notch brakes - hence not happy with my Jap specs

Looking at a six pot calliper from them - and can only find comment from one disgruntled customer about getting his brakes on time! (and believe me - I'm in catering so wish I had a quid for every pain in the arse etc etc...)

The piston make and sizes marry those from larger companies / production quality is excellent / materials are same and high spec / and they look good / off the peg red/green stuffs fit - unfortunately (like everything else) really looking for hard fact of useage

Thanks anyway - will let you know if I decide to go with them

Cheers

Paul

I will be buying a set of front stock calipers along with apex slotted rotors soon.

Paul, How much are you paying for the front set of Hi-Spec brakes- calipers and rotors?

Only looking for callipers as have a set of cross drilled black diamonds UK size already

Have mailed you off-list

Cheers

Paul:cool:

Paul there was a guy when we were still UK Supras with a silver car using Wilwood Calipers & Hi-Spec discs all supplied & fitted by Hi-Spec. They caught fire at a Bentwaters trackday. They also destroyed the discs in a very short period of time. It wasn't the most impressive combo. I think his name was Graham. Anyone know??

Oh, and for chrissake don't bother with EBC red or green pads. Greens on the front of my supra were OK to use, but lasted less than 4000 miles, and a friend of mine used reds on his BMW and was equally impressed. I think you'd get much better results investing in UK discs and pads all round. I haven't heard very many good things about cross-drilled discs either . . .

Mmmm...well I cannot find one single negative on the net - searched for 2 hours though 3 search engines using every combination of Hispec / Brakes / and Lesbian Lovers (oops strike the last one)!! Sad or what!

Mind you they didn't have much on brakes in 'www.Teen Vixens' either LOL

Also found some excellent write up's from some Lotus drivers on their quality.

I am aware that cross drilled etc can be liable to cracking - but got such a good deal on these black diamonds that thought to take the chance. And they came with red stuff fronts and green rears and hoses!

But quite honestly guys I am not going track days and whilst not quite 'driving Miss daisy'- I just want to stop the car quicker than my jap specs. These are very well priced - the company seem like good old fashioned engineers who care about their products - and the brakes will be custom fit to the car!

Still open to any input however:thumbs:

Cheers

Paul:cool:

If you just want better brakes go for the UK spec. Get some intermediate pads from Chris Wilson, change the fluid, put braided lines on, & you will have an awesome braking system.

HiSpec Motorsport are advertising in the current issue of "Motorsports Now" so they must be relatively confident of their engineering as far a competition cars go. I'm going to check them out as they're quite local. Watch this space.

Originally posted by Terry Saunders

Paul there was a guy when we were still UK Supras with a silver car using Wilwood Calipers & Hi-Spec discs all supplied & fitted by Hi-Spec. They caught fire at a Bentwaters trackday. They also destroyed the discs in a very short period of time. It wasn't the most impressive combo. I think his name was Graham. Anyone know??

Graham Dash. He's now heavily into motor racing, and he's doing REALLY well :-) I recently made him some bells to allow him to run some BIG AP discs I supplied under the Wilwood calipers, and he is very pleased indeed. I also got him some Performance Friction pads to run in the Wilwwods. I still say AP are FAR better than the Wilwood calipers, but the decent discs and pads have transformed his set up. I can put people in touch with Graham if they want.

Chris,

I must speak to you about my brakes. If you can make up bells etc. you may be just who I'm looking for. My limiting factor is 17" rims. I'm looking for something that means tyre grip is the deciding factor not brake fade, and ideally 4 pot calipers.

Originally posted by John Packham

Chris,

 

I must speak to you about my brakes. If you can make up bells etc. you may be just who I'm looking for. My limiting factor is 17" rims. I'm looking for something that means tyre grip is the deciding factor not brake fade, and ideally 4 pot calipers.

For the odd track day UK brakes with PROPER pads and fluid will suffice. Otherwise you need to run an 18 inch rim to package some bigger diameter discs, again, the UK calipers should suffice, although a six pot AP would give a lot more pad area. To see the sort of thing I do I have some pics of the brakes I did for my RX-7 on my site, see :

http://www.formula3.freeserve.co.uk/rxbrakes

They are AP 6 pot fronts, AP 4 pot rears, and will go inside a 17 inch rim. However, duplicating something like that is over 3000 quid as a custom jobbie. UK calipers and discs are pretty good, given current state of the art pad materials.

Hi Chris,

How much for 2 piece discs, slotted for UK Calipers??

FWIW, what for of racing is Graham doing?

Originally posted by Terry Saunders

Hi Chris,

How much for 2 piece discs, slotted for UK Calipers??

 

FWIW, what for of racing is Graham doing?

Not sure what you mean by "slotted"? I would guess, but need to check, that 2 AP discs with custom bells for the Supra will work out around 80 quid each for the bells and about 250 each for discs.

Graham is successfully running a sports GT car in a 750 Motor Club championship. It has an 8 valve vauxhall engine.

i HAVE NEVER USED ONE OF THESE BULLITEN BOARDS BEFORE BUT i WOULD LIKE TO TELL YOU OF MY EXPERIENCE WITH HISPEC

I HAVE HAD A 6 POT KIT FOR 13 MONTHS FITTED TO A TARMAC GRPA IMPREZA

THE CAR HAS DONE 14 COMPETATIVE MILES AND THE BRAKES FAILED, i HAVE BEEN IN A 7 MONTH BATTLE WITH HISPEC REGARDING CALIPER DEFLECTION RATES OF THE 152-6 KIT, i HAVE BEEN WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH TRADING STANDARDS

i HAVE HAD INDEPENDANT TEST DONE TO PROOVE THAT THE DEFLECTION IS TO GREAT CAUSING SOFT PEDAL AND REDUCED BRAKING ETC

HISPEC HAVE DONE THERE OWN TEST WHICH SHOWS A ORIGINAL DEFLECTION OF 0.0395" THEY HAVE RE-DESIGNED THE CALIPER TO HAVE THE SAME PISTON AREA AS THE AP CP5555 BUT IT STILL FLEXES 28% MORE THAN THAT UNIT

i CANNOT GIVE YOU MY OPINION DUE TO SLANDER RULES ETC BUT YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT, AS A WORD OF NOTE AP ARE NOW MAKING MASS PRODUCED KITS FOR ASTON MARTIN , JAGUAR ETC WHICH IS RESULTING IN THEM BE ABLE TO REDUCE THE COST TO THE CUSTOMER I HAVE BEEN QUOTED £1350 FOR A 6 POT KIT WHICH INCLUDES EVERYHTING PADS FLUID HOSES AND THE KIT

Oh, and for chrissake don't bother with EBC red or green pads. Greens on the front of my supra were OK to use, but lasted less than 4000 miles, and a friend of mine used reds on his BMW and was equally impressed. I think you'd get much better results investing in UK discs and pads all round. I haven't heard very many good things about cross-drilled discs either . . .

EBC redstuff on jap spec brakes do stop the car nicely but as you say, they wear very quickly and if you get heavy with the right foot, they do smoke loads so have a fire extinguisher handy!

i HAVE NEVER USED ONE OF THESE BULLITEN BOARDS BEFORE BUT i WOULD LIKE TO TELL YOU OF MY EXPERIENCE WITH HISPEC

I HAVE HAD A 6 POT KIT FOR 13 MONTHS FITTED TO A TARMAC GRPA IMPREZA

THE CAR HAS DONE 14 COMPETATIVE MILES AND THE BRAKES FAILED, i HAVE BEEN IN A 7 MONTH BATTLE WITH HISPEC REGARDING CALIPER DEFLECTION RATES OF THE 152-6 KIT, i HAVE BEEN WORKING IN CONJUNCTION WITH TRADING STANDARDS

 

i HAVE HAD INDEPENDANT TEST DONE TO PROOVE THAT THE DEFLECTION IS TO GREAT CAUSING SOFT PEDAL AND REDUCED BRAKING ETC

 

HISPEC HAVE DONE THERE OWN TEST WHICH SHOWS A ORIGINAL DEFLECTION OF 0.0395" THEY HAVE RE-DESIGNED THE CALIPER TO HAVE THE SAME PISTON AREA AS THE AP CP5555 BUT IT STILL FLEXES 28% MORE THAN THAT UNIT

 

i CANNOT GIVE YOU MY OPINION DUE TO SLANDER RULES ETC BUT YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN JUDGEMENT, AS A WORD OF NOTE AP ARE NOW MAKING MASS PRODUCED KITS FOR ASTON MARTIN , JAGUAR ETC WHICH IS RESULTING IN THEM BE ABLE TO REDUCE THE COST TO THE CUSTOMER I HAVE BEEN QUOTED £1350 FOR A 6 POT KIT WHICH INCLUDES EVERYHTING PADS FLUID HOSES AND THE KIT

All that knowledge and you still bought a keyboard with the caps lock stuck on...impressed

Hi Paul

Be careful as my nephew had them fitted to his porche with poor results and very bad fitting,welded a bar from the sevo to the inner wing cos they said his bulkhead flexed,burnt paint,copper brake lines hagging and as bent as dale winton.

Never did sort it,all the stuff was removed.

D.

Guys - this thread is 3.5 years old! WTF are we replying for?

Guys - this thread is 3.5 years old! WTF are we replying for?

I think Darrens reply to tell Paul to be carefull is best reply

he's still with us lol

sorry guys been away a long time,not looking b4 typing lol.

D.