Advice needed for brakes...

[stiggy]

Hey all,

I have an edition 30 gti which has now been remapped (Revo stage 1, 302bhp, 327lbft) along with various suspension mods carried out by volkswagen racing and a full blueflame exhaust.  I have always felt the brakes on the car to be inadequate (to put it kindly), especially now that it has been remapped, and since the brakes are due for new pads/possibly disks, thought I'd look into upgrading the brakes as a whole.

I intend to do track days in the future (long term - once all necessary mods are done) but use the car mostly for road with the occasional spirited drive.  I have looked into 2 possibilities so far:

- S3/R32/Cupra setup - cost effective but heavy setup and any good for track?
- VWR big brake setup - costly but more powerful and bespoke to mk5 platform.  Not sure about wear rate and costs for replacemet discs.

Really not sure which setup to go for, so can people tell me which setup (if any) they have gone for and how they have found them?

Any advice, as always, would be much appreciated - thanks in advance

[gobbleplease]

The cupra, s3, and r32 ones are pretty good, yea they are quite heavy but i was quite impressed with them more so than i though i was going to be, not sure how they are on the track though but im sure some pads and fluid should sort you out as they have pretty hefty discs so should cope with the heat pretty well, aslo the discs are cheap to replace.

Ive got the APs and they are brill, no downsides to normal driving what so ever, not grabby and awesome power, expensive to replace discs though !

[SteveP]

Porsche 4 pots FTW, almost as cheap as the S3/R32's but lighter and as good if not better braking performance 

Cost wise not much more than a good set of R32's.

[Janner_Sy]

is dave still smashing these out??  if not where would you source the caliper carriers from?

[MAT ED30]

Vwr brakes all day long no point having a big brake that looks small and girly 

[danishmkvgti]

I would recommend the same as SteveP he has has the AP and gone for the NSB BBK aka. DaveB special, IMO the best cost effectve solution out there.
The S3/R32/Cupra front is okay for the road and a lap or 2 at the ring but it will fade on you doing normal trackdays, or the disc will warp under heavy use during trackdays.

So off to talk to Dave B   

 

[john_o]

firstly I disagree about the R32 setup fading and discs warping under my experience at Oulton park.
(it was wet but I drove round continously almost all day with 3 short breaks only)

for me at the time (Dec 2009) these were the best choice for me, HOWEVER roll forward to 2010 and I believe DaveB's porsche kit on std discs is the way to go now.
It removes the downsides of R32 setup (the weight increase) with very similar performance.
Im assured brake fade isnt an issue either.

If I was to be buying again , i would go DaveBBK 

[Janner_Sy]

what about r32 discs with porsche calipers.

shark90 runs merc 350mm discs with prsche 4 pots and they are awesome.  think he selling them as well

[RedRobin]

.
Whatever big brakes you put on the front, don't forget your rears. I know that most of the braking on the GTI is on the front but balancing them with better rear brakes makes a very noticeable difference.

I have AP Racing BBK on front and S3 rears on my Mk5 GTI. They may not be the latest version but I can't fault my AP's. If I was buying afresh I'd buy VWR's BBK like Mat's if only to keep my car's care under the same roof.

[MAT ED30]

just had my mot done and the tester looked at the brakes and said to me i bet they work  so i said jump in and i will show how well they work  20mph emergency stop  his head almost came off  with the words god they work 

[gazbutS3]

what about r32 discs with porsche calipers.

shark90 runs merc 350mm discs with prsche 4 pots and they are awesome.  think he selling them as well

I asked Dave about this, I think the disc thickness of the R32/S3 disc is too wide for the Porsche caliper he is using in his kits

[vRS Carl]

Im pretty sure the Not So Big Brake Kit has the Porsche calipers and 323mm discs.

I think that is the setup that Muckipup is running as he recently got some J-Hooked 323mm Discs from DaveB iirc.

[gazbutS3]

sure it uses std GTI/ED30 312mm discs which are thinner than the 345mm used on the S3/R32

[vRS Carl]

Yup your right i just had a search and look at Dave's thread.

My bad

[gazbutS3]

Yup your right i just had a search and look at Dave's thread.

My bad

so did I before I posted just to make sure