Bigger brake musings
In yet another in a series of diversions (feature creep), I've started to think about what I want to do about the brake situation. The 1.6L comes with smaller rotors than the 1.8L cars. If this is to be a trackable car, IMHO, I think it needs bigger brakes. :)
I came across some links (this one too) about fitting FD3S/T-II calipers to a Miata. The first one looks like a lot of work to me. The advantage is, though, I have a set of FD brake calipers in my stockpile, so those parts would be free and I have some race and street pads. If I were to, ahem, upgrade the FD, then I would also have spares for this car. ;)
Several concerns with this:
- Cost of pads - I would like to have a wide selection and inexpensive pads. FD pads aren't made by as many companies as a Wilwood/AP/Outlaw caliper, so I'm limiting myself in this aspect. I should research the FD pad size and see what comparable "generic" pad for a racing caliper costs, if it is significantly cheaper, then this is a vote in favor of the racing calipers instead of trying to retrofit FD calipers.
- Cost of rebuild - Mazda kits aren't too bad
- Time/effort to fit - given the FM/Goodwin kits are $1600 for all 4 corners (different brackets for rear to increase swept area/rotor diameter), this needs to be cheap and easy. If there's a way to just bolt them on with an adapter, I'd be all for it but having to cut off the mounts and grind them down isn't very appealing and then I don't have interchangeable spares (until the FD goes bigger brakes).
Bob Bundy has played around with this quite a bit. I have some archived Miatapower posts on the matter for reference. I'm inclined to follow in his footsteps since his car is used for the same thing I intend mine for.
I have a spare set of 1.8L rear calipers/brackets I can use. Add pads/rotors/rebuild kit and I have a bolt-in solution for the rears for more swept area. The issue becomes bias with the fronts. From what I recall reading about the FM kit, they select the front calipers in such a way that a different MC isn't needed and the bias is not affected (with different brackets for the rear). Same thing goes for what I've last heard about the FD from RacingBrake.
I need to get the Miata in the garage with the wheel off and see how the FD caliper would fit and do some research on pads. Bigger rotors are going to be the same money wise and are essentially independent of the caliper decision (thickness aside). They will definitely cost more than a combo set of stock 1.8L rotors/pads from PlanetMiata.com.
More on this after I do some more research.
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