Finally installed my Wilwood front BBK. Superlite 4 pot calipers, Sport 14" Rotors, Wilwood Stainless lines and Wilwood Superlite BP10 Street/Track Pads.

Same bias as OEM front calipers so pedal travel is identical. Very impressive performance under bed-in. My small journey calipers started to fade after the 5th cycle, these stayed solid all the way through the tenth and final cycle. Rotors got so hot it bubbled the caliper paint that I shot them with

The superlight pads are a whopping .8" thick so they do a nice job isolating the heat from the calipers, calipers were relatively cool after the bed-in. The Superlites have a huge assortment of pad compounds too, something for every application.

Another plus w/ the Wilwoods is wheel clearance, I still have about 3mm clearance where I would have needed about a 10mm spacer to run the Akebonos.

Rears will be in the near future (at least that's the plan, lol)











And again, my hillbilly rolling shot

 

They are lovely!

 

Looks great!

You said pedal travel is the same, but how does it feel? What kind of brake fluid?

Nothing sets a car off like a BBK, well done

 

Wow looks very nice! But I know that looks are only a secondary pro to this upgrade, do you run road courses or something? I've heard racing brakes aren't always suitable for daily driving, esp for stop & go type stuff (something about them needing to heat up), this a misconception??

 

looks good! makes me wish i had gotten something else besides the akebonos lol

something bigger and sexier

 

Pedal travel until you feel the car brake is the same but the pedal reaction is a bit faster since it's now a fixed caliper compared to the journey "floaters". Pedal is very firm once the pads hit the rotor, just a very solid feel compared to a bit more "play" in the journey cals.
Thanks for the kind words too

 

The BP10 pads are primarily a street pad but will suffice for occasional track duty. These have pretty decent bite from the get go but a little heat and they really get going, much like the Stoptech Street Pads.
I plan to do a little tracking next spring, there's a track 3 hours away that can be rented for about $600/day w/ a 6 car max, I've already got 5 other guys ready to go
FWIW I mainly did this for the looks since my OEMs were chipping, and the rotors are puny, and when you see Hyundais and Buick Regals w/ Brembos it's a bit humbling
But it's nice to know I can get on these brakes when the time comes and not worry about much fade.

 

The footprint on the Wilwoods is about the same as the Akebonos, but yours are wider
I think both are pretty balla!

 

Very cool, Brad. I love that you went with something unique (to most of us) over Akebono or Brembo, that you researched it so thoroughly, then went and DIY the project. Those black calipers look great against your rims.

Larger resolution pics would be nice.

 

Those look sweet!!!

 

big brakes look super good behind wheels. THOSE brakes look amazing.

depends on the pad. My old ITA car (honda crx) had teeny brakes, but the hawk blue pads didn't work for a damn until they were good and hot (800º+) but when they were I could outbrake any of the street car kids on big brakes and street pads

 

Looks great Brad, very nicely done. Way to set the bar just a little bit higher for the rest of us!

 

Appreciate the kudos John, In the end I'm glad I just clear coated the black calipers, the black anodized finish is a bit blah, but really comes alive w/ the gloss coats They're now visible enough back there so a color w/ too much pop might not have gone too well w/ the rest of my G.

You know me & my photos, I'm lucky enough to get them in focus

 

Thanks for the compliments Chris!
Sounds like you've been pretty tough on brakes, I doubt mine will see over 800 degrees very often, I'd imagine I was a bit over that at the end of the bed-in though. It just toasted that caliper paint that I put on the rotors and that was supposed to handle up to 900 degrees

 

Thanks Chris, I don't think I set the bar any higher than guys w/ Akebonos, just a "different" bar