I want to get better brakes for my 90 trans am, but there is a problem. My drop spindles make the 1LE brakes a no-go (so I gather). So my other option is to get a set of Baers. Ive been checking them out and they seem pretty good, but does anyone know if any of their sets will clear the stock 15" wheels? I know they have templates, but im lazy. HELP!

 

Any bigger brake upgrade you do to the F-bodys will make you have to change or modify your spindles. You can do the 1LE brake upgrade on drop spindles,but you will have to drill and tap the spindles for the caliper bracket. Baer makes a 12 inch Sport system that fits behind stock 15 inch wheels,but they come on modifyed stock spindles. They have an option for Bell Tech drop spindles that are few hundred dollars more. I think your best option if you want to stay with brakes that fit behind the stock wheels is to modify the drop spindles you have and do the 1LE upgrade.

 

A good friend (and speed shop pro customizer) tried to use stock 1LE parts on his Bell Tech spindles, and couldn't make them work. He ruined a pair of Bell Tech spindles trying to do the 1LE thing. I also have drop spindles and want to do a brake upgrade so I have weighed my options and decided to go with the Baer Sport System. I talked to Rick at Baer, and he says that they have had to develop their own brackets for the Bell Tech upgrade since the actual spindle is 2" higher on them. The up side to this is, you can send your spindles down and they will build the system on them for you for only $55 more, bringing the total cost to $1025 + shipping. That is only about $200 more than the 1LE is going to cost to build, plus you'll need to figure out caliper brackets. Also Baer says that their calipers are more rigid than the stock 1LE calipers, and after talking to a couple guys at the AutoX track, they say that there is a noticeable difference between the stock parts and the Baer parts. I had a Sport System on my old car, but sold it (because I was going to get out of 3rd Gens in favor of C4 Corvettes) and I kick myself every day for that dumb-*** move. That was probably the most impressive upgrade I had ever done, the difference between stock (10.5" rotors) and the Baer was night and day. As far as wheels go, you can't use the 15" wheels or the 16" GTA wheels with the Sport System. 16" IROC or Formula wheels work fine, but not the GTA wheels. If you really want to go ape ****, step up to Baer's 13" rotor system (I don't remember what it's called) and be prepared to do some serious stopping. My brother has them on his Iroc, and OMG they are f*ckin awesome. Too much money for me though.

 

is he using the 13" kit with the PBR's or is he using teh 4 piston alcon's?

i am planning on going with the 13" pbr setup, it is maybe a $100 more than the sport system, but when you step into the alcon setups the price goes up buy a good $1500

 

You know, I think that he's running the PBR's but I'm not sure. After the cross drilling and slotting of the rotors, I just can't spend the extra c-note. I know I should but, I don't need the 13" rotors for my car and I really want the cross-drilled & slotted look. I had drilled rotors on my old car and I personally think I felt a difference in the lack of brake fade at the track. I'll get a pic of my bro's brakes up tonight when I get home and I'll double check which caliper he's using.

 

thanks, it isn't a huge deal, i have pretty much descided on the kit i am getting.

just getting money for rims so i can drive my car after i put the brakes on

 

DETAILS DETAILS. What you don't want to just leave it up on jack stands and look at those pretty rotors & calipers.
Behind a wide open wheel those rotors look cool as hell since they have red aluminum hubs. Damn, now maybe I'll have to re-think my position on brakes... :hail:

 

I had been told that you could do the 1LE on bell tech spindles,but I have never seen it personaly done so sorry for the misleading info. By the way the 13 inch Baer brakes are the track system and cost me $1250 but it was worth every penny.

 

ok, another question. I have the stock 15" trans am wheels, so according to your posts, I would have to step up to 16" wheels. I want to keep my car totally stock looking , so I would have to stay in the pontiac family. So are the formula wheels exactly the same as the trans am wheels, except an inch bigger? They sure look it to me. If so, would I have a problem fitting them under the car with belltechs up front and drop springs in back?

 

The formula wheels look just like the 15's only they were silver painted, used a silver center cap and they had a row of rivets around the rim. Look pretty sweet. There were also 16" flat faced wheels that looked like the 15" ones (like the Fiero 14" wheels just 2" bigger). I think that if you stripped off the silver paint and ran a black GTA center cap, most people wouldn't notice the difference. The rivets would be a dead give away, but the 16's look huge compared to the 15's anyway. They will fit just fine aside from the occasional rub over bumps. May car has 2" lowering spindles up front and with new struts, I rarely rub anymore.
Superman, that looks sweet as hell. I think that between you, Dewey316 and my brother I've been covinced to do the Track instead of the Sport.

 

The 12 inch Sport system will fit behind the stock wheels. For the 13 inch track system this is the specific notes from Baer on the Track system.


Most 16"one piece wheels. SPECIFICALLY WILL NOT FIT OE 16" Pontiac or Buick Mesh reproduction rally wheels. Verify all with wheel templates.

 

The Formy wheels and the T/A wheels are essentially the same, if you're talking about the 'Turbo' style, also known as the 20-slot, or 'Feather' wheels Some of the 16's are known as the 'Aero' style, because they have a convex face with a flush center cap and hidden lug nuts.
They should fit on your car as long as you run a stock size tire , 245/50-16

I have a set of 16x8 Aero wheels stashed under the back porch somewhere, no rubber, tho..... If you're interested, PM me and we'll talk.

 

Trust me, the Sport will NOT fit under a 15" Firebird wheel. I had that same system on an old car, and ended up running IROC wheels. The problem is with the rear caliper (of course if you just do the front this isn't a problem) on the GTA 16" wheels(says Rick @ Baer). Roumor has it, that a .25 inch spacer on the rear solves that problem, but I don't know, I've never tried it. The fronts rubbed like hell on the caliper when I tried my 15's. I didn't have access to GTA wheels when I had this problem, and I had a set of IROC wheels in the shop so I ran them. Just to be sure, download the template and check it out. If you go with the Sport system, don't buy your rear from Baer, find a 89-92 rear disc set up and use that. Baer gets $795 for their rear system and it is pretty much identical (their calipers are slightly different) to the stock 89-92 rear system. Their rear calipers don't say BAER on them either, like their website leads you to believe.

 

After a little investigation, my brother is running the PBR's for sure. Heres a couple pics. That's some hard miles on there. That's right after he returned from the power tour.

 

and another

 

OK, so I printed out the templates for the Sport in front and the touring in back, and tried them on. The touring for the rear seemed to fit fine, and the sport for up front rubbed on the inside face of the wheel, but a spacer should take care of that, right? Oh, and I tested both an the rear wheel, but I cant see how that would make a difference.

So what does this mean? Do I have magic wheels? they are the stock 15" ers from a 90 trans am. Or are the templates not accurate. And yes, I measured out on the scale that they have and they printed right.

 

I really don't know how they fit, but if the template says they will then they will. They would not fit under mine, maybe a spacer would have fixed that, but I didn't have a spacer on hand to see. If I recall, the rear clearance issue wasn't a diameter issue, it had more to do with interference with the back face of the GTA wheels. If you want to try to get away with a spacer, then give it a try, but if it looks bad (the front wheel being spaced out), or doesn't fix the problem, you'll have to look into another wheel option. I am by no means an expert, I just know that the wheels I had (stock 15") wouldn't work on my Sport system and I really couldn't (and can't now) run a spacer due to the fact that my wheels rubbed a little anyway, any more out and I'd have big problems. Good luck on this project and keep me posted on how it goes, I think it would look pretty cool with the whole wheel full of brakes. :rockon:

 

does anyone know what it would look like or what problems it would create having the front wheels spaced .25" - .5" eash. Could you tell they were spaced? Would it rub (cause I have belltechs)? Anyone got pics or just done this?