2 Calipers

[PaulAmes]

I was talking to someone last night and got on to the topic of mini brakes. He said that once he had put two calipers on each front disk. Just wonderd what people thought of this idea - good/bad?

[MattG]

sounds like a sort of very cheap bodge to me , better off spending money on better calipers .

Matt

[Carbon mini]

Seems like a nice little method to increase unsprung weight to me, DOH!

[PaulAmes]

Ok then what calipers?!!

[evolotion]

Dont bently use a duel caliper setup!?

seems like a really good way to maximise pad - disk area. could allow for better brakeing on non-servo'd cars.

[evolotion]

by better brakeing i was referring to pedal feel/effort..
sorry, shoudl have worded it better.

to reduce pedal effort you need a smaller bore master cylinder.

[PaulAmes]

Well i thought it was a good idea! But i dont really know. I mean if I use four sets of metro turbo calipers surely the braking couldnt get much better?! Its not really a cheap way to do it - I mean the calipers will fit really easy while maxiemising the pad area.

[Geehawk]

But the whole point is that if you use the standard late Metro discs and calipers it will be good enough, there are a number of Vtec minis using this setup. If you use Gti vented discs it should be better, ie. more than good enough.

You don't need to add extra calipers, or bigger discs, alloy 4 pots or anything. Most will need 15" wheels anyway.

I mean the calipers will fit really easy while maxiemising the pad area.

How easy exactly will it be to add extra calipers when theres nothing to mount them to :?: :roll:

Graham

[PaulAmes]

Dont need to add a 170bhp engine to a tiny mini - but we all love it. Could argue that the A series engine is "good enough" but...

Anyways - just say you wanted to uprate the brakes from the GTI (even if they are good enough!) and keep 13" wheels - what would you do? Anything you know that would fit under 13" - I thought that adding another caliper would be a fairly easy route. Just make a decent bracket and there you go....

Not that I will do it - just me thinking! :wink:

[Geehawk]

But you add a big engine because the A series is not up to the job, the GTi brakes are. They are as used on the MGF, and that had 15" wheels as standard so they could easily have fitted larger ones if they were needed.

If you want to keep 13" wheels then your only option is to find, a set of Willwood, Brembo, etc calipers that will fit. As far as I know nobody has done this in the Metro tuning world, mainly cos its not necessary. Then you'd possibly have to make up some mounting brakets.

Ask around on the www.performancemetro.com forum and see what people say.

Get your car on the road, and then decide on whether the brakes are no good. Remember that a lot of the Vauxhall people are using old metro turbo brakes, on their cars, and that was slower than the GTi.

If you want to improve on the GTi brakes then splash out on some decent pads, and disks.

[MattG]

thats right darren , you have all these nice ideas , but they all add time, get the car on the road and then do the new items over the winter ... my disk brakes will still not be going on this year ... fuel injection first !

Matt

[PaulAmes]

It was just an idea - how cool would three calipers be on the mini!! Now you cant say that would not look good!

[Geehawk]

It was just an idea - how cool would three calipers be on the mini!! Now you cant say that would not look good!

Actually I think 3 calipers would be far less than cool, as the surface of the disc would be so hidden as to not be able to dissipate heat very efficiently :P

As to how it would look ......... dont tempt me :roll: :wink:

Graham

[PaulAmes]

Ok - thats a v.fair point.

You guys win!!! It was a silly idea! :oops:

All,

I've done a lot of SCCA racing in the US before moving to the UK, and some of the Porsche racers toyed with the idea of increasing braking power by adding a second caliper - the primary problem they found was the rotor overheating since it was spending too much time inside the caliper/between the pads, and not enough time in the open air.

The tech's at BMW M Power (Motorsport) have been looking at an alternative for F1 and IMSA cars: dual rotors, but the costs are considered astronomical even for these ultra-rich racing teams - with relatively small gain in performance.

-oAk-

[PaulAmes]

Ahhhhh - well at least I am not the only crazy fool with silly ideas !!!!!