Sarra
02-16-2007, 12:54 AM
I'm going to be hopefully going up to Washington and buying a set of stock WRX brakes, brackets, calipers, rotors, and 2 complete sets of pads, front and rear, they're going on my BK (no longer have the BE).
I got my BE's brakes so hot that the rotors were glowing bright orange. That was driving down a 14 mile stretch of road, the start of which is at 5,600 feet, the bottom at about 3,500 feet. I now found an extended section of road, it goes another 15 miles, and is extremely twisty, and it finishes at about 1,800 feet.
Will WRX brakes be enough for me?! We're talking going from 55 to 35 mph on extreme downhill roads probably 40 times in the course of 20 minutes, and that's not even pushing it! Pushing it is going from 100+ to 35 multiple times, often with a steep, sheer drop, and no real guardrail, on the very edge of the road. Engine braking helps, but it's almost too easy to dump it in second and drop the clutch when going 80 mph, which would be bad for the engine in more than one way. Brakes are a must!
WRX brakes, front and rear, will cost me $280 ish, plus however much gas it takes me to drive from SoOrg to NoWash. Worth it, or should I get 17" in wheels and 4 pots? Or should I get ceramic rotors and pads? My BE had OEM rotors and ceramic composite pads which worked really well once the brakes warmed up, but once they started glowing, they faded really bad. The OEM pad material just freaking caught on fire, and smoked a lot, whithout really having any kind of grip on the rotor once the rotors got to "slight glow".
The last thing is, is there an easy way to change the brake bias on the fly? The second time I hauled butt down the mountain in my BE, the front brakes stopped working, more or less, and the only way I could slow down was pulling the parking brake lever about half way and leaving it there. losing brakes on this hill at 55 mph, or even at 35, could be fatal. At 35, with no ability to slow down, the car will accelerate, even just using engine braking.
I got my BE's brakes so hot that the rotors were glowing bright orange. That was driving down a 14 mile stretch of road, the start of which is at 5,600 feet, the bottom at about 3,500 feet. I now found an extended section of road, it goes another 15 miles, and is extremely twisty, and it finishes at about 1,800 feet.
Will WRX brakes be enough for me?! We're talking going from 55 to 35 mph on extreme downhill roads probably 40 times in the course of 20 minutes, and that's not even pushing it! Pushing it is going from 100+ to 35 multiple times, often with a steep, sheer drop, and no real guardrail, on the very edge of the road. Engine braking helps, but it's almost too easy to dump it in second and drop the clutch when going 80 mph, which would be bad for the engine in more than one way. Brakes are a must!
WRX brakes, front and rear, will cost me $280 ish, plus however much gas it takes me to drive from SoOrg to NoWash. Worth it, or should I get 17" in wheels and 4 pots? Or should I get ceramic rotors and pads? My BE had OEM rotors and ceramic composite pads which worked really well once the brakes warmed up, but once they started glowing, they faded really bad. The OEM pad material just freaking caught on fire, and smoked a lot, whithout really having any kind of grip on the rotor once the rotors got to "slight glow".
The last thing is, is there an easy way to change the brake bias on the fly? The second time I hauled butt down the mountain in my BE, the front brakes stopped working, more or less, and the only way I could slow down was pulling the parking brake lever about half way and leaving it there. losing brakes on this hill at 55 mph, or even at 35, could be fatal. At 35, with no ability to slow down, the car will accelerate, even just using engine braking.