I should have added that in reality this whole thing really starts with the tires. A light car on narrow tires like a lotus Europa doesn't need 15-inch diameter rotors and massive calipers, especially on street tires. Nor will stock brakes work on a modified 3200 lb Camaro with 600hp and wide wheels sporting DOT radials. My comments are related to what I have owned and run on the track with both high-performance summer-only tires and DOT slicks. Nearly all were V8 2500 lb midengined prototypes with 10-13 inch wide tires.
Taking a home-built car to the track and developing it to not only be quick but reliable is not for the person who easily gets distracted. But if you are persistent and willing to learn It certainly can be done. I was at COTA the time before last and there was a guy with a new GT3 Porsche with Hoosiers on it. We turned out to be in the same run group which really means we are more or less equally capable drivers. During the day we ran a lot of laps together and had a great time. His 250K Porsche and my 100K SLC were running nose to tail with nothing to show between them. Until......we got run down and passed by an Instructor with a student onboard in his race-prepped Miata. The Miata had a rotary in it but just saying.............. it's really all in the driver.
Back to brakes. This is pretty much the hardest system to get just right. It will take swapping out some parts and some trial and error. But if you do the labor then it's really not that expensive.................compared to having Porsche do it. I have some information on an older race-prepped Porsche somewhere and it was surprisingly close to the same rotor and caliper sizes as I have alluded to above. The difference was in the caliper total piston area but not really in the ratios between the front and rear. The Porsches calipers were generally larger in piston area as are a lot of real racecars with manual braking systems.
As to swapping parts. You are going to have to pick something and set a baseline to tune the rest of the system to. I think it is the front calipers/rotors. Because they are the most expensive parts. If I had to do it all again I would put these on the front ( 5.18 piston area, 1.25 rotor thickness, 14-inch diameter rotors) and tune the rest of the car to them. These are not the most-greatest-latest-bling but they are also not the most expensive. Note that the calipers have the "Thermolock" pistons in them. I think this is a requirement for track cars but maybe not street cars. At least on the front of the car. This piston is very stable and does not grow in diameter or distort under extreme heat. It is a lot more money but I think it is worth it on a race car.
So there ya go: what I know about brakes.
Wilwood Engineering is a manufacturer of high-performance disc brake systems. This page displays search results for: Search: 120-13263
www.wilwood.com
Wilwood Engineering is a manufacturer of high-performance disc brake systems. This page displays search results for: Search: 160-8398
www.wilwood.com