[s-cars] I need a guinea pig

[Frank Amoroso]

--
First off, let me start by saying that I have driven several stoptech
equipped E36 M3s and they braked very nicely. The kits provide an
excellent brake upgrade at an excellent price point. The value
proposition is difficult to deny. I am more comfortable saying this now
that there are some teams running their Aerorotor in professional race
series (although I am skeptical about all of the hype surrounding the
Aerotor and it's cooling attributes. The directionally vented hats seem
a bit gimmick-y).

Now, I've also spent some time with the Brembo Jaguar Silverston 2 piece
caliper (supercedes the F50 unit), the Brembo 2 piece Porsche 993tt
caliper, and the Stoptech 2 piece caliper. Even though stoptech claims
to have develped their caliper in-house, it walks, talks, sounds, looks,
and smells like the Brembo equivalent (the through bolts are larger, a
la the Porsche units). The bolt-in bridge piece also strikes me as a bit
marketing gimmick-y too, and heaven forbid you get a set of pads with
irregularly sized backing plates (would never happen? Yeah right!) and
that bridge looks to be a bigger PITA than it might be worth. Besides,
one of the best features of the Porsche Big Red is the totally slick pad
retention spring clip system.

The monobloc caliper is not exclusive to Porsche. The McLAren F1
utilizes a Brembo billet monobloc (gold in color), and there are Brembo
race billet monobloc calipers (also gold) available as well. As to
questions regarding stifness, etc., it is very difficult to argue
against Brembo race setups, McLaren, Porsche, and Formula 1 teams. Are
you telling me they are worried about grabbiness vs. overall
performance? Seems a bit nonsensical.

The Brembo eight piston RS6 caliper is a monobloc that utilizes four
pads per caliper, having inspected these calipers and driven the car, I
can say that they are excellent, but they are big and heavy and I have
never been enamored by the four pad setups. The Porsche Gt2 6 piston
(conventional two pad setup) calipers (with built in heat shields for
the pistons) are, for my money, the best units currently available.

IIRC, the AMG eight piston is not a monobloc (I don't really remember
though). I know the AMG four piston as found on the C32 and ML55 are
conventional two piece units. Also, IIRC, the Brabus eight piston is o
conventional design too.

Frank at s-cars.org

--
Delivered-To: s-car-list at audifans.com
From: "TM" <t44tq at mindspring.com>
To: "'Adam D.'" <adam at s4.org>
Cc: "S-Car-List" <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Subject: RE: [s-cars] I need a guinea pig
In-Reply-To: <000601c2359d$228e1670$0300a8c0 at adamd>
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Sender: s-car-list-admin at audifans.com
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Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 15:35:36 -0400

Adam,
Thanks for the reply- any idea how the Stoptechs compare to
996tt calipers over 993tt rotors- aka BIRA S6x?

Porsche monobloc calipers are exclusive to Porsche and they're
one piece, no attachment hardware, less stuff to flex, far
stiffer torsionally.

I haven't seen the RS6 calipers, so I can't comment on them,
nor the new AMG 8-piston setups.

Taka

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