| Sorry for the long post but this has taken me a long time to get done. Stoptech and Brembo seem to be 2 of the bigger selling Big Brake kits for the Z32. I new I would need something once my engine build up was complete so I started looking around. I have a few friends with Audi's and Porsche caliper upgrades (993/996) seemed to pretty popular so I was looking into that as well and started doing some research. The Porsche 993 "Big Red" caliper is made by Brembo and is the same caliper that is used in Brembo big brake kit. And the Brembo kit, Porsche 993 and Stoptech caliper all use the same specs for mounting and pads. Stoptech uses their own top bridge design. Well $1800-$1900 always seemed like a lot to me for brakes so I decided to make my own. Since the 993 and Brembo brake kit for the Z use the same caliper I knew the 993 would work. I also used Porsche 993 2-piece rotors. The Porsche rotor-hat won't work for the Z so I have a custom center hat that mates the rotor to the Z. Another member on here was also looking at making this kit so he had some hats made already. I ended up buying a set off him. So all I had left was the mounting bracket. This should have been a lot simpler than it ended up being. I started on this way back in the summer of last year. I'm sure you remember my posts in classifieds looking for people who have the Stoptech or Brembo kit. Well I wanted to get my hands on a mounting bracket so I could look at it and get some measurements. I found a guy that sent me one and away I went. The 993 rotors are smaller than the other kits so my bracket would have to custom. The 993 rotor is roughly 12.67 where as the others are 13.1, less than 1/2" difference in total diameter. I think I can live with that. You can get 13.1" rotors, but they were roughly $600 if I remember right. I got mine slightly used for $225 and they are $300 new. I was on a budget so got the used ones. They were well with in spec still. I bought them from the same vendor that sold me the calipers. If I want to upgrade to the bigger rotor later it will be easy as I have a couple of ways to do it. But back to the bracket. So I drew up my plans in CAD the best I could using the differences in the 2 rotor sizes and using the measurements from the Stoptech bracket. I made some rough brackets out of a solid block of plastic just to see how close I was. I bought a used front hub off ebay to make it easier to test fit the parts. Everything seemed to fit so now it was time to find someone to mill me out a set. I wanted to keep costs as low as possible to make this all worth while. If it was going to cost as much as a Vendor kit what would the point be? I found a local kid who was a friend of a friend. Well we all know how that can go. He had access to the machines at his school supposedly and said he could get it done pretty quickly. This was late October now. So I gave everything to him and the waiting game started......then came the excuse game....then came the "I can't do them after all" game. This fun game took 4 months!!! On top of that he lost my only set of measurements/plans. I was already pissed because I wanted them done for a track event after Christmas, so this put me over the top. My computer had long since crashed and everything was lost. My hand drawn papers were with him (which disappeared as well) so I was lost. So I tried to start over but I couldn't find another bracket. Then I happened to look through my old archive files on my work PC and found the email I sent to tweedle dumb way back when with my CAD drawings attached. Woo-hoo, back in business. I found another guy through a more reliable friend that had his own CNC machine and he also makes and sells them. They are computer operated and could use my CAD designs. Could it get any easier?! Wish I found this guy months ago. I talked to him last Monday for the first time, and was at his house on Sat working on the brackets. According to a few vendors I have talked to, the other companies use 6061 aluminum for their brackets. I have access to what ever I want at a local salvage/scrap place that sells left over stuff. I picked up a block of 7075 aircraft grade aluminum that equated to $10 a bracket once cut into pieces. It's stronger and cuts a lot better on the mill. I shouldn't have any problems with it failing on the track. It took us all day to get one bracket done as there was a lot of set up and being the first one we kept finding new and faster ways to get it milled out. But we got it done. I took it home, drilled and tapped the holes and trimmed it to size. Here's what I ended up with: 
I haven't tested them out yet as I only have one side on. He finished the other brackets yesterday (to my surprise, thought we would be working on them next weekend). But I don't see any reason why they won't work. I have a few track days in June so I'll deff get some testing time in. Here's all the parts and what it took to get them on. Here’s the 993 rotor and custom center hat. I do have all the bolts to hold them together, just didn't have them all on in the pics.
 Here are the calipers and pads. You can't tell from the pics, but they do use the 2 different size pistons like the others.
 Here's what makes it all possible, my custom bracket. Teh surfaces are very smooth, it just looks that way from the milling. Ignore the red bolts in the pic, the stock ones can be used for mounting it to the car (which is what I used). I'll be getting them anodized for free on the 24th as the local CNC club bought a kit they will be trying out. Got to love hook ups.
 As you might have noticed I had to modify the hub a tad to make my brackets work. I had to cut a piece off that held the bracket for the hard line portion of the brake line. You can trim the hub part to allow the bracket to fit yet still retain the piece, but it’s easier to just chop it off. I just used a hack saw. There is another bolt hole location for the bracket (it uses 2 bolts), but I may not even use it at all.
 
And here it is with my wheels on.
 I tried my stockers and they won't fit. It's very close though. The top of the caliper just rubs the inside of the wheel diameter. Pretty sure the face would clear as it goes almost the whole way on with some room to spare. If I tweak the design a tad I may be able to squeeze them in. I'll see what I can do there. And I think I will have to paint them blue to match the wheels and the rear calipers as well :). I should be driving with them very soon and I'll be sure to post what I find. I have roughly $1100 into this kit:
993 Big Red Calipers $600
2 rotor-hats $150
2 rotors (used) $225
Pads $100
Misc bolts/washers. $10
Material for the brackets $20 Now if the average Joe was buying the parts the additional costs would be: Cost to make the brackets including material $150 (this is the lowest price I was quoted in town, but it was right before I met this other guy. Some places wanted $225 each!!!) 993 rotors new $300. So about $200 more total. Now if you wanted the 13.1" rotors you have to add another $300 which brings the total to $1600. So I don't know if it's really worth it if you choose to go that route. If my kit as is works for me then it was worth it. And the fact I can upgrade later to a larger rotor is a plus. Just the hands on experience and learnign factor and getting to play with the CNC machine made it well worth the time in the end. Hopefully everything works great and I can take them to the track for some further testing.
 JackB nimble JackB quick JackB can suck my dick =P - james-lee 11/02/01
Arrogance is the #1 weapon against Supra Owners - MikeH 08/06/02
Dallas with a Z: I like the bulge dude 05/02/03
Bezbefootball: Does dick have anything for me? 10/21/03 |
My home made Big Brake kit write up. (dial-up beware) - 
