[V8] Brake Upgrades?

[Greg Johnson]

Jeremy,

Pretty darn close.   We are a "members-only" non-profit.  Most of the 
brackets are milled aircraft grade aluminum, but in a few instances, 
where we could not get the thinkness we required, we have used steel.  
There is a liability release.  If you sell the car, the buyer must 
become a BIRA member (e.g. sign the liability waiver) or the BIRA parts 
must be removed from the car.  If the part are removed, the purchaser 
must become or be a BIRA member.  In sum, in this litigious society we 
weren't interested in not making any money (non-profit) and getting sued.

For all practical purposes, we have two G60 replacements.  Sys3, which 
fits under almost all 16in wheels, and Sys 6, which prefers 17in wheels, 
but does fit under some 16s.  We also have a UFO replacement.  It also 
prefers 17in wheels but I suspect it may fit under some 16s.  All of the 
existing UFO upgrades we were aware of required that you take a torch to 
the strut and cut off some of the tabs, or replace the hubs.  Both of 
these solutions make the process semi-irreversible.   Our system bolts 
onto the existing strut and uses the existing hub, thus the process is 
easily reversed.

We've received some flak about the required wheel upgrade (to 16s or 
17s).  Let me begin by saying Keith's/Audiconnection's Wilwood upgrade 
is very slick and we love and support the "Yankee Ingenuity" that 
created it.   If you want a brake upgrade under a 15in wheel, it's the 
way to go.  There are, however, two caveats.  The first is that brake 
rotors are essentially heat sinks.  When you are trying to haul down a 
fast, front-end heavy, 4000 lb car, there's a whole bunch of braking 
energy that becomes heat, which can eventually lead to what we all call 
"brake fade."   Plain and simple, you can fit more heat sink under 16 
and 17in wheels.  Second, Wilwoods are light racing calipers that were 
designed for cars that come with mechanics who cam rebuild the calipers 
whenever it's necessary.  They were not designed for road use (e.g. 
dust, mud, salt and gravel).  Porsche monoblocs are fully road worthy.

Any questions, holler.

Greg J
BIRA.ORG

Jeremy Ward wrote:

>Yup, that would be my website.  
>
>http://198.107.18.114/V8Q/ - New website look and feel
>
>http://198.107.18.114/v8q/Wheels/ - Old wheels page soon to be added to
>the new site.  Hey, when are you guys going to send me some content to
>add to this wheels page?!?  :-)
>
>BIRA (as I understand it) is a 'members only' non-profit organization
>that can help you with a group buy on the mono-block (milled aluminum?)
>piece that allows you to adapt your Girling-60 style strut assembly to
>fit the Porsche calipers.  The caveat to BIRA (again as I understand it)
>is that you sign a form that releases them from any liability due to
>failure of the non-factory brake setup, and also states that you will
>remove the BIRA setup when you go to sell that car.  Further, you will
>not sell the BIRA setup to anyone when you are done with it (or is it
>just non-members...?)
>
>BIRA has a setup for both V8s with UFOs and G60s.
>
>(Greg, am I close on this one?)
>
>Ron says the RS2 caliper brackets also work (If you can find someone in
>Europe to send them your way).
>
>There was a post not too long ago about the cheapest place to buy your
>Porsche calipers, but I can't find it.
>
>
>I have been dreaming of finding the UFO setup and converting my V8 BACK
>from the G60 setup...  Now I just need time, $$, and parts.  :-)
>
>Regards,
>
>- Jeremy
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: v8-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v8-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf
>Of Scott Baumann / Progressive Technology Solutions
>Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 8:56 AM
>To: v8 at audifans.com
>Subject: [V8] Brake Upgrades?
>
>Hey gang - two things - wasn't someone putting together a site to show
>various tire/wheel combos on the V8?  
>
>The big question - I am aware of the BIRA upgrades, although not
>entirely of the details.  Are there Porsche brake assemblies (calipers)
>that bolt directly to our V8's?  Mine has been converted over to G60's
>already, and I would like to find a good upgrade from those, however.
>Any thoughts?  
>
>Scott Baumann
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