Willwood Brakes

[samellio]

Below is some correspondance i had with a company about brakes..
I suggest reading the bit at the bottom first to put yourselves in the picture..
Cheers,
Sam






Hi Sam,
Thanks for your enquiry. I have a few suggestions for you. Firstly and most importantly we strongly advise against the use of Wilwood brakes. They are very popular and in reality good value for money, BUT, and it is a big but, those who try them don't usually ever try anything else. In motorsport circles they have been proven very poor in comparison with many other types. I admit that AP Racing, Brembo and Alcon brake systems are very expensive, we know as fact that the Hi-Spec brakes are very good and on a par with AP Racing for ability and performance, but are far cheaper. The problem with Wilwood are that the caliper actually flex, the discs supplied in the kits are also absolute rubbish. The Wilwood calipers are about £30-£40 in the US and the discs are about £30, hence the quality is really not good.

I know you would be amazed with a 295mm Hi-Spec front brake kit with Pagid RS-4 Blue brake pads and a full stainless Goodridge hose kit. Rear pads I would use Mintex M1144. As far as wheels go the 15" Compomotives will fit fine over these brakes, but you can go bigger obviously, but as you comment not with gravel tyres later. As far as tyres go, if you haven't uprated the suspension any tyre will be knackered after a good track session. Ideally you would go to something like a Yokohama A032R for the track, far better than any normal road tyre and yet road legal, but if you haven't got a decent set of shocks/springs and the geometry set up as it should be and good nick bushes, then you will kill them really fast. To get going you will find the Toyo T1-S really good and they are not expensive really. Also strut braces are very efficient, not just superficial, but I suspect you have them already.

I hope these points make sense and help you to buy quality products without wasting your budget on inferior products, let us know what you have done already, ie what's on the car and we then we'll give you a breakdown of all the product costs etc as you require, cheers for now.

Yours Sincerely


Subject: Nissan sunny GTI-R


Hi,
Just wondering if you could give me some advice..
I'm looking to get some 15" wheels to fit over a willwood 280 or 285mm 4pot brake kit on my sunny gti-r.

I've been told that the compomotive mo 15" will fit but am not sure if it would be best for me.. I shall be using my car mainly on track and maybe at somepoint gravel/dirt rallying.
Also what tyre should i go for bearing in mind i want my tyres to last as long as possible and still be road legal(i'm not too bothered about levels of grip as it's just for fun but more concerned with cost!)
I don't know what offset or what size of 15"wheel and tyre would be best so what would you reccomend?
Do you stock the willwood brake kits for my car and if so how much?
Finally could you give me an idea of how long it might take before i'd recieve the wheels/tyres/brakes and all inclusive costs as well..

 

[AZ STE]

People are allowed their own opinions I have had my Willwoods for about a year now and am totally happy with them. £480 for the whole kit discs calipers and braided hoses.When I received them I totally stripped the caliper to look at its construction and found them very well made.Ok they arent APs but a mile beter than standard calipers ,I have had no problems with the units since installation there are quite a few people on here who have fitted them and am sure they will back this up.By the way the minilites we fitted are a brand new light caliper by Willwood so maybe the problems were with older models. All i would say is Willwoods good brakes ,good value

 

[J-GTi-R]

Can't say I've had anything to complain about with my Wilwoods either, there is possibly some sour grapes going on between this company and Rally Designs, as Rally Designs are the sole suppliers of Wilwood in the UK AFAIK (so Rally Nuts would only lose business by recommending Wilwoods, but I bet they stock Hi-Specs). Just have to read between the lines I think.

I have heard a lot of people knock Wilwood, but they're always talking about old calipers, where as our kit uses the new Midilite caliper (as AZ says) and no-one has been able give me constructive criticism of those as mine was the first GTi-R in the country to have them fitted.

 

[Curtis]

I've had a few problems with mine ie, the squeeling and that the stud holes on the disc are a little too big causing the disc to not sit quite central and cut into the caliper a bit, but that was sorted with a washer to space the caliper out a fraction. As for their braking ability they are very good.

 

[samellio]

Thanks for your responses chaps..
I was absoulutely set to get a willwood kit but know i'm in two minds.
Do any of you do any type of motorsport including trackdays with your brakes and if so what are the results??
The last thing i want to do is spend money on a kit to find that i'm having to replace warped discs and unseize callipers.. :?
I know there have been posts praising the willwoods but i am much harder on brakes than most :twisted:
Thanks,
Sam

 

[samellio]

My spelling just gets worse :lol:

 

[AZ STE]

I dont track mine but have given them serious stick ,as they are racing brakes you do have to bed them in, increasing the force ive had them smoking on my inital full braking but since then they have been fine.I chose the 285mm which have all cast vented discs the 315 mm have cast rotors attached to alloy bellmouths (couldnt afford them at the time).The surface of my discs are still hardly worn wearing well. I think when you actually receive the kit you will be happy.By the way ask for poly Q pads if you get them.Rally design im sure would honour any warranty issues not that you will find any.You can warp most discs if you put them on from new and hammer them without heat treating them. With regard to siezed calipers the main problem here across the board is not fitting calipers with piston seals (some still dont) water then gets around the piston corodes the alloy sticks the piston willwood have seals(midilites)

 

[GTIR-LOZ]

been totally happy with mine no squealing at all, and very responsive, i have nearly headbutted the steering wheel several times, after not driving her for a while, as they are that good (310mm i have)

 

[Davey]

It might just be me, but it dont seem fair to post that email up, with the companys name on it?
Not being funny, just seems a bit unfair on them

 

[GTIR-LOZ]

its a little unfair that the company is allowed to make slanderous comments about another product, that they dont sell and there is no slagging off tuners or anything, it is a statement

 

[Davey]

fair enough i guess, just wouldnt like it if someone did it to me, thats all, also is it legal to reproduce someones email?
Cheers, Dave

 

[J-GTi-R]

I took mine around Castle Coombe for about 10 laps 2 weeks after the kit was fitted. They managed great, no fade, very hard braking and only a small amount of grumbling towards the end of my session (so they were starting to get hot, but still nothing close to fade).

 

[Edd]

I've edited out the company details in the original post as i don't think it's fair putting there comapny emails on a public forum, unless they have consented to there opinion being made public knowledge?
The content of this post is slightly breaching on being slanderous, as it is detrimental to Wilwood brakes, and the thread is being discussed between a couple moderators and may be moved in the near future, for now i think it will be locked though.