AP Racing are kicking up a fuss about uprating the rear calipers on the kit that they will be doing for me as they dont do a caliper that allows for the handbrake. I've asked them to try and mount the standard caliper in tandem to keep the handbrake, however are there any other rear calipers out there (perhaps from a Alfa) that are a straight swop and work better?

Seat Leon cupra R should work and allow a vented disc (not sure what diameter). I suppose you could space it out too and fit whatever diameter you wanted.

You could always use a spot caliperlike this one to run in series with the AP rear larger image here these are just tiny little handbrake calipers with no effect on normal braking, or do as Willwood have done and build it into the rear pad like this .

I certainly wouldn't run both the AP and the coupe caliper as you'd be doubling your unsprung weight on the rear.

As you know Si, I'm investigating an option for a vented rear disc shortly. I believe that this will allow a straight swap with the standard caliper for something that can accommodate the handbrake as well, but need to check it all out first .

Mind you, it won't look as nice as that Wilwood one !

Phil

I know your looking at things Phil.

Jimbo - I'll see what AP have to say, thanks for that!

This is interesting....

Is it posible to swap the handbrake for an hydraulic unit that would make it possible to use 350z or Evo brembos...??

Sorry if this is a stupid question chaps, but could you not use the handbrake to run some kind of slave cylinder to drive a standard set of Brembo calipers?

I'd be interested in how this turns out, having replaced all of my rear caliper workings and still having useless handbrake

handbrake has to be on a different circuit and cable AFAIK.

So having the cable linked to a seperate cylinder to drive the caliper wouldn't be any good then John?

The handbrake has to be mechanical.

OK, so the rear Porsche brakes that look the same as the fronts actually have the handbrake mechanism attached?

Phil, are you trying the VAG rear calipers with a set of 16vt/20v front discs on the rear ?

Well I'm going to give JohnS's VAG calipers a try with some Fiat Punto front discs (257 x 22mm vented), but I need to get all the bits together first and then see how things fit together. In theory it looks possible, but only time will tell .

Phil

What model punto disc do you need? I have some kicking about in my garage that I need rid of. They're the 14 million grooved type tarox too.

I think they are the 1.8 16v ones from the facelift model. There is a 1.4 Stilo equivalent as well IIRC.

Phil

Hmmm, mine were for a 1.2 sporting 98 model. I'll check them tomorrow if you want?

How does the Evo etc pass the MOT then?

Could go for an aston martin double caliper setup

Aston's just use the spot caliper like the one I posted above.
I think Scoobys use a drum handbrake inside the disc but dont quote me on that so the EVO ones are probably similar to that.

yes both evo and scooby have a drum brake inside the rear disc

May as well check them Matt, but I don't think they will be the right size . Pick up the calipers from JohnS tomorrow, so may try offering them up on Saturday.

Phil

Why uprate the rear brake calipers? 90% of the braking force on a FWD car like the Coupe is required at the front AFAIK.

Dave

To fit bigger/better disks at the back as it might also be to do with not being able to upgrading the front brakes too much further as there isn't much room for upgrade/bigger brakes at the front due to the size of the Brembos unless you have bigger wheels fitted.

I thought it was more of a 70/30 split with the braking?!
Mark

I'm trying to get the back of the car to behave better under braking - I thought the same and had completely standard rear brakes for a good while as a result. I then changed to textar rear pads, and there was noticeably less rear lift when braking hard.

Last time I was on track I also had a siezed bias valve - so the rears were doing very little. Unless I was braking in a dead staight line things got a bit wobbly.

When the caliper is taken from another car to go on the back, will a spacer or plate adaptor be used to attach the caliper to the hub or how will that work? If that's the case, won't it make the caliper go out of line of the hub by the width of the plate/adaptor and therefore not allow the disk to sit tightly on the hub? I'm just trying to work this out in my head...

Mark

The VAG caliper is a direct fit to bolt on to the trailing arm of the coupe, its gettig the caliper centred on the disc that might take a little while with some shims.

I see. Thanks for that.

Mark

I could be wrong , but I dont think the coop's caliper is centered on the disc, sure I have read some where..

It is centred on the disc although it has a bit of float in it either way.

Well I now have some bright green Skoda vRS calipers to try from JohnS (thanks !). At first glance, this isn't going to be straightforward, as the slider on them is at a more pronounced angle than the Coupe ones, so may need to play around with some shims and the like. There may be some other options from an older Fiat model, so I'll have to do some investigation...

I'll keep you posted . Hmm, green and Sprint Blue !

Phil

Would either of these options work on a coop:

http://www.rogerclarkmotorsport.co.uk/shop/info.asp?fldID=694&backID=121&location=&pagecurrent=

http://www.rogerclarkmotorsport.co.uk/shop/info.asp?fldID=695&backID=121&location=&pagecurrent=

they're both designed for a scoob.