281mm Rear Brake Kit - would you like some?

I will have a custom big brake kit for the rear axle ready for my 20VT Plus very soon. The kit will include:
- 281mm aftermarket discs
- custom adapters for OEM calipers
- custom road stone covers
- bolts

Would anyone be interested in buying a kit like this? It should work out to be half the price of the Tarox rear BBK which costs GBP640. There will be an option to have either grooved, grooved and drilled or clean discs.

Once I got it ready I will post pics and price and make for sale post.

Mods - if this post should be elsewhere, please excuse me and move it to the relevant section, please.

Sounds interesting

Can the light rear end of a Coupe take more powerful brakes. Won't it make the brake balance dangerous?

Jack how have you got on with this?

Hey Chris. The prototype is arriving this week. I want to fit it first, take some pics and then I will post a for sale ad.

You can use the brake compensator valve to adjust the braking force if necessary.

So you put bigger brakes on than the car needs and then try and reduce the rear balance with the load compensator. Sorry, I'm not getting this.

The load compensator (which doesn't seem to work well anyway) is there to add rear braking if you have more weight at the back. The only point would be if one had already previously spoilt the balance by somehow adding too much braking force at the front.

It will look better but will be of no value on the road. If you can get the balance right, the extra heat capacity of a bigger disc may have some benefit on the track.

Where exactly did I say that the car NEEDS adjustment to the brake compensator valve after fitting the kit? I have never said it.

If your vale isn't working well then you have a problem which you should get fixed.

At the end of the day some care about added performance, others about the looks, some about both and lets be honest, the Coop looks strange with such small discs on the rar axle.

Finally, if you see no value then that's OK. You are totally entitled to having your own mind on this kit. You can stick to the OEM solution.

I didn't say the valve on my car was not working After 21 years, the OE system has just put in the same performance on test as it did when it was 3 years old. It works fine.

We know that there is a lot more to braking systems than putting bigger brakes on. Changing such a basic safety-related item will surely deem the car in breach of its type approval which I guess would make it illegal to use on the road. It would fail a German test for sure and would void one's insurance everywhere should it be noticed and lesser changes get picked up.

Do you have the calculations and test data why such a change could be acceptable? You may know what you are doing but many people modify their cars and make them less safe and that is why such changes are generally simply not allowed for cars used on the public roads.

Modifications are fine but some modifications are potentially dangerous so people have to be careful about changes they make. Do insurance companies in the UK accept car with significantly non-standard brakes?

I can’t speak to all of the points but in the past I have insured larger brakes on my cars.I fitted Skyline R33 GTS-T brakes to my old Nissan S14a and didn’t have an issue with the UK MOT. The same is true of my Vauxhall Nova (Corsa A), to which I fitted Mk2 Astra GTE (GSi) front brake set up.

For my Coupe I didn’t change the braking set up but would presume the same.

I’m sure someone who is more familiar with the detail of the MOT could explain the type of brake test we have in the UK.

Chris - I think neil_r and deannn_20VT are subject to different regulations. Type approval in some Euro countries is extremely strict, so I can see where neil-r is coming from

The UK is rather less bothered about approvals - as long as the braking system meets the performance and safety requirements laid down by the Department of Transport, then it is deemed to be legal.

Back to the technical side of things, I found that uprating the front brakes caused lots of issues at the rear end. I'm not sure that the brake compensator valve has the ability to reduce braking power to the rear wheels as far as is needed when the fronts have been improved considerably. My rear end tends to go very light when I'm hard on the brakes, which can get quite lively when trail-braking into corners

Personally, I can't see the point in uprating the rear brakes using anything other than decent discs and top-quality pads. Even the standard rear brakes have to be backed off with the compensator valve to prevent locking, so uprated brakes will not generate any greater braking power.

The one really obvious benefit is that they will look a lot better than the tiny tin-lid brakes currently hiding inside the Coupe's rear wheels......

A low priced rear bbk kit would appeal to lots of Coupe owners , including me , as despite my reservations from a technical point of view , the tiny rear discs do look a bit naff.
If it proves that bigger rear discs do upset the balance , I would maybe stick some harder pads in the rears .
Form over function ? ... In this case .. yes.

I had the larger Tarox set up on my car for years ,never had any issues, but I did fit the larger Alfa Romeo front callipers and discs at the same time

Been caught up with other priorities but the kit should be ready by the end of this month. I will keep you all posted.

How did you get on Jack?

Awaiting delivery of the final version of adapters, Chris. I want this to be a perfect fit, so taking it slowly. Watch this space peeps.

Good stuff

Photobucket linking is working again (change of management I guess) so do post up some photos of how you get one

Teaser...

Nice!

Teased ..

Long story short, I am awaiting delivery of hopefully final version of caliper adapters. If I am happy with them, then I will place an order. I already have 5 sets od discs ready.

Ladies and gentlemen, the long overdue rear big brake kit is ready and I will be posting a for sale shortly. Only pain discs options are available at this point but I am working on grooved as well.

Some shots:


OEM (left) vs. BBK (right). Yey, you can actually see that Coupe has rear brakes, haha:


How it looks from distance under 17" wheels:

Looks very nice, waaay better than stock!
Any info on final price of the kit? Are discs standard production item from another make/model (for easy maintenance/replacement in the future)?

Tidy!

Looking good Jack

gturcic20vT, yes but machined to OEM width to ensure proper fitment. £250 for the set. Awaiting seller permission to for the for sale ad.

1 kit booked for me please;
drop me a message when you will have it ready
Thanks😊

OK, I will get in touch with soon.

Thank you deannn_20VT;
Will wait for your news then.
If Its possible I would like to have it with grooved/sport discs;

Mauro

Sorry Mauro, only plain discs right now.

No problem anyway;
Please let me know when it Will be ready;

To those who were worried about brake balance after installing bigger rear discs. Well, tried and tested on two tracks and have not noticed any negative effect to brake balance.

Also, replacement discs are will be available should you require a new set in the future.