Big brakes or Not

[vRS Carl]

Ok before i start i want to stress that this post is My Personal Opinion  

Currently i am thinking of upping the power on my car. Now wether this is K04 or Big Turbo kit i have yet to decide.

A number of people keep telling me though "oooh your gonna need bigger brakes if you start doing that".

What i really want to know though is Why do i need bigger brakes?

My thinking is this -

My car is a Skoda Octavia vRS. 200bhp as Standard and a 149mph top speed buy the book. So the car has 150mph Brakes on it anyway.

Now as i don't take my car on a track the only thing i have done brake wise is uprate the pads to DS2500's at the front. This has provided me with a bit more bite etc however i don't find myself braking later into corners etc.

It doesn't matter how good your brakes are your car will only go around any corner at a given speed. After that it is going to under/oversteer depending on the Corner/Car & Chassis.

Ok i agree having better brakes means i can brake later going into a corner. But as i have said i don't race my car on a track so this feature is of little use.

I have also been taught how to drive a car at high speed and control it so don't really have a problem when it comes to cornering or stopping etc.

I am also a firm believer that you could have the best brakes in the world but if you have Sh!te tyres then they aren't much use. To me it makes much more sense to have decent brakes (which the car has) and decent tyres. Surely this gives the same effect as having a big brake kit on and not so decent tyres.

My other thinking is no matter what i do power wise the car will still be the same weight etc so if (for example) i am trying to slow from 130Mph. I may have got there quicker but the Velocity & Mass of the car are still the same so my OEM brakes coupled with DS2500's are more than capable.

AM i being really stupid here (or in my case trying to save money and spend it on a Diff instead  )

Or because i don't take the car on the track and i don't drive like i stole it everywhere i am actually making sense?

Thoughts/comments good or bad welcome but please be constructive

Cheers

Carl

[tony_danza]

312s are fine then.

Just spec the fluid and pads accordingly so should you ever seriously need them, they'll have much better capability to deal with it.

[gillm]

small brakes heat up and fade , due to the size and fluid you run . plus the oe calipers are single pot sliders so not a massive amount of force is applied , correct tyres is where things happen . im a firm beliver in tyres , you could spend 2k on coilover arbs etc , but if you spend 50 quid on hedgemaster 3000 (joke tyres) then you will be in the hedge backwards .


the best thing for you to do is to buy some r32 calipers and good discs with some ds2500 / braided hoses / 5.1 dot fluid .

[tony_danza]

TBH I do agree with Gill,

312s might serve you well for years, but for what R32 stoppers cost and the improvement they make, it's a no brainer.

You don't need a £xxxx BBK for sure.

[Janner_Sy]

audi RS4 B7 360mm twin pots can be had for £750 all in if you speak to the man in the know........he'll be along shortly. they'll be substantially stronger than R32 brakes for sure


they were mine until i decided to flog the vRS for something quicker

[john_o]

agree with what others have said.
your choice is really spend ££ for R32 (+ rear to balance it?) or ££££ on a BBK

the key point for me was that the std 312mm arent '150mph' brakes in the first place.
marginal for 200bhp maybe but higher definitely not.
even without crazy driving or track, one good stop from reasonable speed and they would fade.
I guess its the opposite of the headroom tuning ability for the K04 cars  

there are also additional issues like improved pedal feel.
I intend to writeup on my build thread but there are also downside to R32 setup (increased unsprung weight), and prob more balanced with matched rears.
Top Cats RS4 (old version) brake setup is well nice too for a bit more £££
Im very happy with mine, but Im looking to offset the weight with TT arms/hubs / new wheels etc

in summary I reckon you should consider your options  

[Hedge]

I can only echo what the others have said and would go as far as saying my R32/Cupra R fronts is one of the best things I did to my car.

They can be a bit grabby at times though but their ability easily outweighs any negatives. 

[gillm]

just to add to my post , i have used my 312s on track . on uk tracks they were fine on cold sessions (nov track days) done a whole day at donny , but at the ring mine were dead at adneu . and at combe in summer months they were tired after around 5 laps .

[Janner_Sy]

my 312s with uprated pads were absolutely shagged after 3 laps of the ring.  by far the weakest point on the car

[vRS Carl]

Something I failed to add was that I only have 17" wheels so I don't want to be forking out for 18" wheels aswell just to fit an R32 brake kit.

I reckon I could get the same from the DS2500's, maybe better discs, braided hoses  and decent tyres.

As I said I don't go on tracks with the car and don't drive it like I stole it.

Thanks for all the input guys. Keep it coming

Carl

[Janner_Sy]

well do not fear carl the audi b7 360mm twin pots fit under 17" wheels. Topp cat has done it on here already, and they will only cost you a further 150-200 over the R32 setup and weill be hugely stronger
http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,36.195.html

[tony_danza]

R32 stoppers go under 17"s too 

[vRS Carl]

Is that a definate as JKM say that they only fit under 18's

Carl

[tony_danza]

Yeah, I've seen an R32 with 17" Monzas on and German winter steels are only 17" too.

[danishmkvgti]

this has been covered several times before, yes r32 stoppers fit under 17"