Re: 13.5" brakes on a 5K

[audidudi@delphi.com (Jeffrey J. Goggin)]

>Which begs the question: Do you have enough horses to stop? Say, 300?
>If not, then start harnessing that horses first.

For normal street use, you may have a point but otherwise, I respectfully
disagree ... IMHO, better brakes are worth having regardless of how much
power your car has.  I'm finding the primary benefit of locking the center
diff on my Ur-Q while autocrossing is the ability to drive deeper into a
corner and use the brakes much harder without worrying about locking a wheel
... "poor man's ABS" indeed!

>a) You have to think first of your fenders. Either you roll them, which is
>another thread by itself because on 5Ks the fenders are double sided. But
like I
>said, you do have to have that space available. Or if you have the money,
get the
>front and rear fenders of a V8, slap it on, and smile at how your 5K looks.

You CAN fit 8x17s to a 5ktq or 200q without doing ANY bodywork if you're so
inclined ... BTDT.

>b) Now that you have the fenders, move on to the wheels. You need at the
>minimum a 17" wheels with enough clearance for your red or blue calipers.
>This is crucial because apparently only DTM/spider web style wheels can
>accommodate you 13" rotors and 4 pot calipers.

My 5-spoke Compomotive MOs will accept 355mm rotors ... too bad I can't
afford to buy them at $700+ per!

>d) I cannot tell you how to install them because I do not know how. However,
>if you have done the above, 95% of the frustation is over.

Again, I disagree ... I'm in the process of fitting '86 944T calipers to my
200q and it means machining a hat for the rotor and an adapter to space the
caliper further out to clear the rotor.  This is definitely quite a bit
harder than NOT modifying the bodywork and ordering a set of wheels with the
correct offset!  :^)

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