Topic: Wilwood Brakes for the Kappa

[lil goat]

Who, what I didn't say that, don't know what you would be speaking of, coming out in December? No clue of what you speak. In production and final test, no idea what you are talking about. Being made by the same company that did the 2010 SEMA car for Ford Racing? No clue, never heard of such a thing.

(I know what's on my Christmas list, 6 count them 6 pistons up front 13" GT48 Vented Rotors 2 piece rotors also available)

[DragonSolGXP]

This will be my next mod in the spring. Thanks for the info.

[snaponbob]

But still no rears with e-brake. Bummer.

[lil goat]

When I spoke with the guys in July the plan was to do a 13" rotor for the rear that will use the stock caliper and a new mounting bracket and caliper cover. They can get the Wilwood rear unit with e brake, or even do duel rear calipers like they do on the Sears Sky. They just found no benefit from the extreme expense of the Wilwood rear caliper on our cars. Ian the owner of ASD, drives a Solstice and has the Stage III kit with stock rear caliper and 13" rotor on his car, I am not absolutely positive the rear is 13" but it is larger than stock and a 2 piece rotor from what I remember. The 6 piston kit for the front with the stock rotors are is only $699 in black ($769 in red WTF, it's a Wilwood thing I checked)), that is pretty reasonable, same calipers as in the Stage III kit. I will be getting the Stage III kit, why because I have been bugging them for 2 years and they want to shut me up. In all seriousness you never met a nicer bunch of guys, especially considering the level of there typical customer. There are a lot of high end racing parts that come out of there shop that do not have there name on them, I know one is the Ford Racing products, as well as the cars. They do a ton of Carbon Fiber stuff too for the NASCAR guys.

[DragonSolGXP]

Any idea on the price of the Stage III kit? That's what I would be after as well in Red. I'd get the 13 inch rear disk and caliper cover as well.

Hopefully some pictures will be available?

[lil goat]

The calipers look just like the stage II, the price is yet to be announced. I know that the front, I have not seen anything of the rear, I am not sure how it will be marketed, may be a separate kit, but you can figure the calipers for the front will be $699 then you have the rotors added on for the stage III the the hats run about $200 and the rotors are about the same unless you want drilled then add $100. So for the red ones front only I am guessing $1400, but that is just from looking at Wilwood retail prices on the rotors, these are custom hats so they may be more, about $1300 for black. I know Ian is trying to set a good price point so it will hopefully be less but I have no real clue right now, that is all just a guess.

[DirtyMike]

If one must have a rear willwood caliper w/ e-brake.... TCE sells them

[kennysabarese]

Informative post from Flash's Owner on brakes

http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f63/turbo-vs-v8-overall-package-41552/index7.html#post895656

[Johnny-Longtorso]

Is there a reason the offerings from SSBC aren't "good enough"? Am I the only one that thinks the 13" brakes on the rear of this car is overkill?  When folks do this upgrade are they putting in anything for proportioning or does GM have something in place?

Too much rear brake can be a really bad thing.

[snaponbob]

If one must have a rear willwood caliper w/ e-brake.... TCE sells them

I may bet my schmeckle (as a Mod) slapped for this, but I just got off the phone with Todd at TCE. He KNOWS for what he speaks. Somebody needs to talk to him about being a supporting vendor.

[numbbers]

I purchased Wilwood front and rear calipers and rotors from TCE for the Mallett.  13 inch front, and 12.3 inch rears.  I thought about doing 14 inch on the front, but they would not clear the deep lip 20 inch rims.  The kit comes complete with pads, hats, racing fluid and stainless steel lines.  If you are interested, contact Doug at TCE.  Tell him Dave Russell told you to call.

[snaponbob]

13" rears, too. Single piston VW units adapted to the Kappa with big vented and slotted disks. E-brake included.

[lil goat]

Like I said before Solstice-Sport can get you the Wilwoods for the rear, but as someone mentioned you don't need them. They are creating a less expensive option. The TCE kits have been out for some time, and there are a lot of configurations, SSS knows about them there goal is to make a more cost effective solution that works. I met with the Wilwood rep and the only difference between the TCE and SS kit's is Wilwood will be making the entire rotor and hat, not really a big deal. I am sure the TCE's are basically the same kits, SSS also offers a kit using the stock size rotors and the 6 piston caliper if you really want to save some money. I have to admit having seen a Solstice with the SSB kit with the larger rotors they just look so much better, it's a lot of money to add the larger rotors but less than lambo doors.

The Stainless Steel brake kits are beautiful, but I have read poor reviews and personally spoken to someone who had them, and got only one comment and that was "they do stop the car" did not seem like he was overly impressed with them, I think for $2600 I might have had a bit more to say if I liked them.

I know that the TCE kits are most likely an excellent kit, but I know the guys at SSS, and watch the race cars they build race. I have a lot of faith in them, and I kind of like the fact the owner of the company drives a Solstice GXP and did the development on his personal car, Wilwood is very fired up about SSS selling the kits for our cars, they told me when they showed me the front rotor and hat.

This was not posted in the SSS supporting vendor area on purpose, so any discussion of other options is fine SOB. I have known about TCE for a long time and talked with them sometime back about being a test mule.

[Gentleman Jack]

I have known about TCE for a long time and talked with them sometime back about being a test mule.

Why doesn't anybody do any testing on the Ass?  Why does the mule get all the credit for expiremental work?

From "Yahoo answers"

Here are the definitions according to the Mule Barn:

Mule: A domesticated, hybrid animal that results from crossing a mare (female horse) and a jack (male donkey).
Donkey: A domesticated ass.
Which, of course, begs the question "What is an ass?" Thankfully, Mule Barn also provides a definition of this particular animal.
Ass: A four-footed, hoofed mammal related to the horse, but smaller, with longer ears and a shorter mane, shorter hair on the tail, and a dark stripe along the back.
So, it seems the aforementioned jackass is simply a male ass. The main difference between the jackass and the donkey is their domestication -- the ass is wild; the donkey is domesticated.

[lil goat]

I just read Flash's post over on the BB, he and Dave from DDM have both commented about the brake upgrades and matching up with the ABS. Dave told me there setup should work well with the factory ABS, and I know SSS did a lot of testing to make sure there system worked with the factory ABS, I think that is part of the reason they stuck with the stock rear calipers and bigger rotors. I will see if I can find out more. I know SOB has played with pads to improve the front to rear balance of our brakes, being that SSS builds race cars I am sure they paid a lot of attention to these issue's, they know how to balance a set of brakes.

[DragonSolGXP]

I just read Flash's post over on the BB, he and Dave from DDM have both commented about the brake upgrades and matching up with the ABS. Dave told me there setup should work well with the factory ABS, and I know SSS did a lot of testing to make sure there system worked with the factory ABS, I think that is part of the reason they stuck with the stock rear calipers and bigger rotors. I will see if I can find out more. I know SOB has played with pads to improve the front to rear balance of our brakes, being that SSS builds race cars I am sure they paid a lot of attention to these issue's, they know how to balance a set of brakes.

Glad you brought this up. I was wondering about the ABS. And whether it would work correctly. To be honest I'm just interested in the "looks" of the large disks, the red billet calipers. But knowing it will stop better when I need it feels good too. I'd get the large disk in back so it looked balanced, and I'm more than happy to get the red caliper cover for the back just so it "looks right".

[lil goat]

It has taken the guys at SSS a long time to get these ready, they just won't do stuff half assed. I was told it will be worth the wait, and Ian told me on his car they are "perfect" that is some hefty praise from a race car builder.

[DragonSolGXP]

I would imagine... yup. They can sign me up.

Lil Goat, are you going with the black calipers? Someone mentioned to me that the red may not look that good on a yellow car.

[DrJones]

...Someone mentioned to me that the red may not look that good on a yellow car.

I always think "Hotdog" when I see yellow and red on a car :/  unless you really like hotdogs!

[lil goat]

I would imagine... yup. They can sign me up.

Lil Goat, are you going with the black calipers? Someone mentioned to me that the red may not look that good on a yellow car.

I have red now and I never thought they made the car look like a hot dog  but I will not pay the extra money for the red, and have seen the black on a yellow car it looks good, the Wilwood brakes are traditionally black, my son has them on his GTO and Ben has them on the Snake, both are black. Everyone says my car looks like a bumble bee now, figured I would just go with it.

[Kelu]

Hotdog, bumble bee, yellow, red, black, guys this topic wasn't supposed to be a tehnical discussion about upgraded brakes?  

[DragonSolGXP]

Ah, but color is an important consideration 

In any case, really looking forward to this. Will probably be my last mod. I don't want to over do it and the car is really "sweet" right now. 

BTW... has any one read "The Solstice Book"? It gives a lot of details on what it took to design and build this car. It's really something and I'm happy and proud to own one.