Wilwood 280mm OR 310mm brake kit.

Lee_2011

Lee_2011

Member
Hi all. Looking at upgrading my brakes to either the Wilwood 280mm brake kit or the Wilwood 310mm brake kit. Is there really much difference between the two kits? What I mean is, is the difference noticeable? I know if I go for the 310mm kit i'm gonna have to get a set of 16" wheels as the wheels on my car now are 15". Thanks in advance, Lee.
 
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skiddusmarkus

Active Member
I went from 285mm with willwood 4pots to 300mm with hispecs and there was an improvement.Whether its worth having to buy new wheels for depnds on what you want to do with your car and how often.
I guess if you can sell your old wheels to fund buying some 2nd hand 16s it won't make much difference.
 
Lee_2011

Lee_2011

Member
I'm going to set the car up for fast road. Just don't want to go for the 280mm kit and maybe couple months down the line, wish I'd of bought the 310mm kit. With the 310mm kit will I need to upgrade the master cylinder or anything like that?
 
johnsy

johnsy

Active Member
you wont need to upgrade the master cylinder, however a master cylinder support bracket/stopper will improve the braking and feel slightly

bigger the better when it comes to brakes
 
Lee_2011

Lee_2011

Member
Yeah, might just go for the bigger kit. If I go for the smaller one and want more power out of the cat, at least if I get the 310mm brakes I won't need to upgrade again.
 
PobodY

PobodY

Moderators
Staff member
Think about the size in terms of torque; in the same way you can put more force on a nut by having a longer socket on it, you brakes can put more stopping power onto the hub if the disc is bigger.
 
shroom

shroom

Active Member
Get the 280mm or watever and buy some decent tires too, then you will be laughing or how the hell is your driving Style on the roads? Like a mad man on the breaks constantly lol
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
PobodY said:
Think about the size in terms of torque; in the same way you can put more force on a nut by having a longer socket on it, you brakes can put more stopping power onto the hub if the disc is bigger.
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Half correct. You would probably still be able to lock the wheels with standard brakes (at legal speed). With bigger brakes you can apply less force on the brakes to achieve the same stopping power and so generate less heat. also the bigger surface area of the disk can loose heat quicker. too much heat will cause your brake to fade.
 
fubar andy

fubar andy

Moderator & N/W Rep
Staff member
Well if you get the 280mm kit you can always upgrade to the 310mm later, but to be honest the 280mm is a decent road kit.

The disc is thicker on the 280mm (24mm) where the 310mm is 21mm!! You can buy the bigger 310mm disc and poly spacers later and swap them around if you need to.

Overall the 280mm Wilwood kit is a decent road brake kit, just make sure you do the following to make them effective.

Good Pads - Something like DS2500's/Carbotech (not EBC)
Good quality brake fluid.
Braided brake lines all round.
If possible, fit grooved discs (Clio 172/182 after market disc's are a direct replacement for the standard 280mm discs)

That should be fine for the time being and unless your kit is over heating then there is no need to upgrade to anything else.

Happy stopping.
 
Fusion Ed

Fusion Ed

Active Member
Trip said:
Half correct. You would probably still be able to lock the wheels with standard brakes (at legal speed). With bigger brakes you can apply less force on the brakes to achieve the same stopping power and so generate less heat. also the bigger surface area of the disk can loose heat quicker. too much heat will cause your brake to fade.
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Energy dissipated during braking from speed B to speed A will be the same regardless of brakes. Larger brakes can as you say dissipate this heat quicker, however still the same amount of energy.
 
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skiddusmarkus

Active Member
Years back I bedded some ebc redstuff in on the road and it was scary.They wouldn't work until they were red hot so totally unsuitable for the road and only lasted 30 mins on track.What utter shite.
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
for me Carbotech XP10 are one of the best you can get for the front, Ferodo DS2500 will be my second. I never tried the DS3000 so i cannot compare.

On a different note, My 310mm disks are 28mm wide.
 
PobodY

PobodY

Moderators
Staff member
skiddusmarkus said:
Years back I bedded some ebc redstuff in on the road and it was scary.They wouldn't work until they were red hot so totally unsuitable for the road and only lasted 30 mins on track.What utter shite.
Click to expand...
EBC claim to have changed all their pad formulations, so they are supposed to be a bit better now.
They don't seem to be particularly well regarded, but I don't know if that's just because people who tried their pads way back put everyone off them... or because they're still shite.

I won a set of blue stuff pads through Total Nissan, but I've never used them because they claim to be for endurance racing... and I've got a road car so that's going to be the same problem with them being no good until they're hot.

Incidentally, my standard brakes (grooved discs is about it) have never failed to stop the car. I've had a couple of heart-stopping moments in the cold, and I'll be honest that I'm always looking for a cost effective upgrade, but on the road obeying the national speed limit (with perhaps a little error in the reading due to a 20 year-old converted speedometer) the car always pulls-up.
 
Spikey

Spikey

New Member
A lot of ppl slag the factory Brakes off ut i have never had any Problems using Yellowstuff Bads which are awesome and dont need to much warming up either. Red stuff are no good for street use. So im still using std brakes with uprated disc and pads...
 
johnsy

johnsy

Active Member
Iv got EBC yellow stuff pads, and cant fault them!

they dont eat rotors, never noticed any fade , and are quite good from the cold,

Iv also used redstuff on my standard calipers at cadwell with out complaint,
 
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pulsarboby

Guest
after using the ds3000 pads i would never ever buy them again, they eat through the rotors at an alarming rate which is totally unneccesary, the only good thing about them is that they last well, youll burn out the rotors before the pads.
i then swapped to ebc yellowstuff which johnsy now has and i can not fault them at all plus there relatively cheap (compared to others) to replace, so i will always use them now despite all those that knock them.

lee....as for brake setup if i were you i would go for the 280 kit (for your intended use) it will be more than capable of stopping the car on fast road use and for the odd trackday, plus youll still be able to run 15'' rims, will be a massive improvement over the standard stoppers.
 
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geoff pine

Well-Known Member
So it looks like the advice is to go big in that case what 15" do you have and how much if there superleggeras i would be interested :lol:
 
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