Braking overkill!

[dlamyle]

There are some who will say these are way too big and they could be right... But not on my car. With 380hp and big wide sticky tires I'll get these heated up in no time. I have separate front and rear master cylinders so getting them balanced won't be too difficult. And I will admit it is partially for looks because the Wilwoods I had up front were doing a fine job and I hadn't really found their limit but this just had to happen. I now have big vented rotors that I can easily find replacements for. I did an experiment after I mounted up the front rotor. I spun it with my air hose and got it up to a some pretty good rpms and as it was spinning (with my air hose off) there was a bunch of air blowing from the vented center. These things will cool nicely. I am adding weight in all the wrong areas I know, rotating mass and unsprung but again this just had to happen.

The rears started with the Subarugears "Subabrake" conversion. I quickly learned the kit was of little use for my application since the 04 Subaru brembos mounted on a larger knuckle/hub. I did use the hub and bearing cap but I had to weld up my backing plate with a spacer to make it work. Very nice kit though for those installing smaller brakes. The use of the factory inner drum ebrake is a great selling point.

The front went pretty smooth for a custom application. Just had to fabricate my own hubs... All I had to do was cut the hat off of the disc rotors I already had and then turn them down on the lathe to carry the Subaru rotor. I then drilled for the pressed in studs and that was it. I don't have any pics of the caliper bracket but it was pretty straight forward for this set up since the bolting position for the caliper was right in line with the face of the spindle mounting surface the two pieces of 1/2" aluminum plate could be bolted or welded overlapping each other. I'll add those to the album once I'm done if anyone is interested.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/104665862@N04/27998B

[Jadewombat]

Wow, quite a setup.

[Ian Godfrey]

Great work on adapting those brakes,
What size are the Volk wheels and what offsets? There seem to be a few sizes in the sub stud pattern

[dlamyle]

The wheels are 17x 7.5. Not too sure what the offsets are but they came off a 2003 WRX so best guess is in the 53mm vicinity. I'll check next time I have a wheel off.
Test drives are going well. Still bedding in the pads so I can't apply too much pedal but It really does feel like I have power brakes!

[Jadewombat]

I love the look of those wheels BTW. I used my bus as a support vehicle for two Pro-rallies back in 2001. I wanted to put some Compomotive rims on her, but wound up going the cheaper route with some used Mercedes wheels off a CLK.

[matberry]

How are the dropped spindles? I suffered heaps of brake pad "knock-off" that was fixed by going back to OG spindles. R-spec rubber

[dlamyle]

I haven't noticed any knock-off / knock back with my set up. Could be my separate brake master cylinders either help or mask the condition. I'll try to pay more attention in the future just in case. Thanks.

[DORIGTT]

Hey dlamyle, what pedal cluster are you using? What size master cylinders are you running front and rear?

[dlamyle]

Hey dlamyle, what pedal cluster are you using? What size master cylinders are you running front and rear?

Pedals are the Wilwood floor mounted 3 pedal assembly. This assembly has a balance bar for making bias adjustments and I haven't had to max it out even with the huge brakes up front.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/wil-340-12411
Masters are both 5/8th in bore.

[DORIGTT]

How does the pedal 'feel' to you?

Also, are you running a larger diameter master for the clutch?

[dlamyle]

Pedal feels about right to me. Firm and has enough travel to modulate. I wouldn't go any bigger on my set up.
Clutch is 3/4 in. which is just a tad over the 11/16 in WRX factory size. Feels great with my stage 2 South Bend clutch.

[DORIGTT]

Great. I've got 944T calipers and rotors, and will need to use an aftermarket clutch slave cylinder for my Porsche 915 gearbox. I purchased the OBP under pedal master cylinder setup for my Ghia.

You're a great inspiration and resource!

Thanks.

[dlamyle]

I purchased the OBP under pedal master cylinder setup for my Ghia.

I should have gone that route...I cut a big chunk out of my firewall to make room for the masters and now things creak and squeak up there. I'll have to revisit that area with the mig welder one of these days.