No doubt. I have done the same with the OEM brakes and had no problems. You guys are missing my point. But that is ok, there seems to be no interest to learn here, so I will stop wasting my time.

 

Locking up your brakes is not stopping your car, that's just a great way to lose control and crash your car. You are not testing the efficiently of the brakes doing that. Again these are street cars they don't just brake once and shut down.

One thing those charts are missing is actual stopping distance...

Well that is your opinion but you have 3 people telling you otherwise, that's why I like to hear from the users themselves and see what they have to say. I think the main benefit of these brakes is the weight loss though.

 

Well can you tell me what pads you ran with on the stock OEM brakes? Maybe I need to try a new pad cause I do run into problems, my brakes are ok for normal driving but not the greatest for spirited driving.

 

No doubt. However locking up the brakes 100% undeniable proof that your brakes are stronger than your tires. They produce more torque than the tires can resist.

I don't know what you mean by efficiency. Can you elaborate. Please be very specific so there is no confusion.

That is true. Stopping distance is dependent on a number of factors. As I have pointed out a few times, the stopping distance of all the kits in the chart will be exactly the same for a single stop. Tire grip is the limiting factor, not the brakes.

If you tell me:
weight over front axle (during a panic stop)
weight over rear axle (during a panic stop)
coefficient of friction between tire and road (depending on road surface, and temperature)

Then I would be happy to calculate an estimated stopping distance. I think you will find that none of the other folks gave stopping distances either.

I tend to trust the science more than eye witness reports. Most people don't understand the science, I am not talking about you or anyone else in this thread, just "most people". It is hard to trust something you don't understand.

IMO, what people are reporting as "better brakes" are actually just a better pedal feel. This took me a while to discover. Brake feel is much more important than outright brake torque. Feel is the whole reason why I created that chart, to compare pedal effort and travel to stock. Outright brake torque is there as well, but I put little stock in it. I have little doubt that I would like the brake feel of the Wilwoods better than stock.

What car have you driven that you like the brakes the best?

 

I bought the car with unknown front pads. Very possibly the factory originals. These brakes along with factory iron rear discs had no problem locking up a few different sets of 140-200 treadwear tires. I also ran the car with Hawks HPS front pads which felt about the same as the previous pads but dusted a lot more. I am not a big fan of the HPS pads.

I don't disagree that the OEM brakes are no good for spirited driving. I bet they would be ok with racing pads, but who wants to go through that pain? Again, all I am arguing is that the Wilwood kit being discussed here will be no better.

 

same performance as stock, at 32 lbs weight loss...sounds like a win/win to me.

 

Maybe. It depends if that level of performance is good enough.

Also, yes the static weight is lower, but what about the moment of intertia? You would really need to do the moi analysis to determine if the car is seeing less weight or not. See Dorothy Hamill video from before.

 

It's unsprung rotating mass, a drag car sees that everytime.

 

Sure but the weight is also at a larger radius.

I=m*r^2

The radius drives the inertia faster than the total mass. It sucks engine power to spin up all the rotating components (flywheel, clutch, rotors, wheels, tires). How much is not a calculation I am going to spend time on here, since nobody seems to care anyway. However you can be sure that the 9lbs per rotor in static weight your are saving in the Wilwood system is reduced by the fact that your engine takes more power to spin up a larger radius rotor.

But I didn't realize we were talking about drag cars now. If we are talking about drag cars, why not just go to a 3/8" solid rotor and be done with it?

 

we're talking about street cars that see regular drag duty. those 3/8" thick solid rotor brakes are not strong enough for the majority of those cars as they're only good to about 3000lbs worth of car to stop.

 

That is what I thought Tony was talking about. Then you started saying "drag car" so I assumed that is what you were talking about. My mistake. Anyway, I've burned enough energy on this thread. If anyone else wants to continue to discuss shoot me a PM.

John

 

wildwood also makes a bolt on set up for the 3rd gen cars

ya drop about 10lbs off the unsprung wt of the car.
ya can pick 2 piston or 1 piston calipers. kits under $360
red
black
polished
comes with new slide pins
pads
Bolt on and go..
forgive the yellow Zink plate on every thing..just everybody was doing the black thing...just not me


front

I like them
saves time and money. and works for better feel/looks/and shaves off a few LBS


forgive the dates on pics..off by 7 years
now to polish the rear calipers. and plate all the small parts on them.
to get them to look just as good...pic shows GM rotors...going by by..new matching front and rear rotors on now..
ya know..when you take the time to chrome plate. all the small parts. that hold even the brake lines and buff out the brake lines (SS)
ya don't ever want to take it back to the strip to use the car for fun anymore....sucks

 

Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself as much as the ones that actually bought the product.

Just ask GM why they put such large brakes on Corvettes.

 

I can tell you. with stock 92 z28 4 wheel disk brakes (not 1LE)
stopping from 120 130 mph is just fine. on the 1/4 mile
the way I had mine set up. on applying brakes.. the car would sit down..not nose dive.

now with the new parts...will do the same set up.
home track has 2 return turns. its always fun to try to make the first one!
all the vets and other sports cars make the first one...lol

 

ok, great info, im looking into this kit, im wondering if the one with the 12.19 rotors from wilwood will fit under a set of 15x4 skinnies before i order, greg weld 5 star wheels to be exact

 

those wheels fit over stock ls1 brakes with little or no issues, so i'm going to say they'll fit over these without any real hiccups.

 

Just another update..... I drive this car 80-120 miles a week and these brakes still work flawless on the street

 

thanks for the update .... I am getting ready to pull the trigger on this kit .... difference of opinions is what makes TGO a great resource

 

Go on Flynbye website and look at his 82-92 stuff. Complete C4 or LS1 front setups $800-1K.
The LS1 and or C4 rotors and calipers are far better for actual driving. Same price as the drag only Wilwood kit.

 

I paid 637$ for my kit shipped to my door...... and its not rated as a "drag only" kit, its rated for a lighter than stock street setup brake kit

 

K, well, I don't think that the arguments that this thread has already made need to be had again. Just wanted to say that for around the same amount of cash you can have a set up that has thicker rotors and better calipers with a much larger selection of brake pads and replacement parts.

 

No harm no foul..... I know everyone has their own opinion and yes if this kit were on a road race car it would not be the best choice but as a kit that bolts on with minor mods, offers the same or better performance with savinv weight its really nice.... wilwood has an actual "drag only" front brake kit but this kit isn't that

 

I have been looking at a big brake kit for my 1986 camaro but there are so many choices .... first by putting a bigger rotor i would need to cut the 2 pieces of the spindle going over the stock rotors right ?? .... did anybody did it already ??

 

Yes you have to cut two pieces and drill and tap two holes

 

Sorry to revive such an old post but there's great information on here! Thanks 87350Iroc for posting the spreadsheet data. I was curious what do you run on your car? What would your top choices be if someone wanted to upgrade front brakes from factory 1 piston? I was thinking of putting a LS1 front brake setup on my car.

 

Hi Bryan hope you got your car back and all is well I am going with the C5 corvette brakes that I pulled off car that Im working on

 

Another update... car has rolled over 10k miles with the wilwood brake setup... only problem is the brake pad material it came with stock needed to be swapped to a different material pad because it had a bad squeal.... since then no concerns

 

What would it take for you to think the system failed your expectations? Would anything short of the car hitting an object allow it to meet your expectations?

 

I'm just bumping an update to a brake setup that people have doubts about.... the setup is great for what I use it for which is driving around and the occasional drag race at the track... by no means would I expect it to be the "best" I just want people to be informed

 

It may have sounded like I was being an *** but it's a real question I'm wondering.

 

I guess not meeting my expectations would be not stopping from hitting someone.... which under the right circumstances could be unavoidable... for my purpose they work great and are light

 

If you are buying this kit, you can upgrade the calipers to 6 piston calipers, contact Wilwood and they will swap out the 4 piston calipers for their new forged Dynapro 6A. These are a direct replacement for the 4 piston dynalite