Larger rear brakes

Afternoon all. Hope everyone is having a good weekend?

I am thinking of getting larger rear discs for my 20VT and I wanted to know if anyone has done this on a road car and if so is it worth it? If so which discs/calipers/pads did you use?

I find that the rears are so small compared to the fronts and can only assume it's due to the rear of the car being much lighter than the front that this is the reason for the small discs?!

I am hoping to go for Compbrake front two piece discs (not sure of which pads to use yet) and braided lines. The lines I've heard to give the pedal a better, tighter bite.

Thanks in advance,
Paolo.

Anyone??

It's probably not worth it for a road car unless you just want them to fill the wheels more.
You need to be careful that you don't go too big for the back, as it can give some interesting handling braking hard into a fast corner!

Wouldn't increasing the size of rear discs make no difference to the brake bias? You'd just be spreading the same force over a larger area, right?

I'm probably horribly wrong here but the front / rear brake bias will surely be fixed...

This is a good read on he subject

Brake Bias and Performance

Firstly, I would suggest you do a Google search for "compbrake problems"

Secondly, two-piece floating discs are already available off-the-shelf for the Coupe. You need Fiat 500 695 discs (also available as options for the 595). The price is steep - around £600 the pair, maybe more. The performance is a significant step up from standard cast discs and the weight saving is a bonus too.

Thirdly, there's no point upgrading the rear discs. They are already more than capable of locking up the rear wheels under heavy braking (assuming you have half-decent pads fitted). All you need to do is make sure the load apportioning valve is working and adjusted properly and that you have a decent set of pads installed. Any more is overkill and a waste of money

All the above IMHO, of course....

Thanks all.

Admittedly, I forgot I posted this until yesterday :-)

Ok, definitely won't go Compbrakes after reading about various (many) issues. I will look into the 500A 695 discs and may even get a discount from the Fiat/Abarth dealer I worked at many moons ago.

As for the rears, I was thinking of going drilled with decent pads as I do think the reason I wanted bigger rear discs was to fill out the wheels more. I just think they look tiny in comparison to the fronts.

Again, thanks for the info guys.
Paolo.

Interesting read - thanks!

Like I always say, the cheapest and most effective upgrade (after a strut brace for a wobbly coupe) are the best modern tyres you can find.