question is for a 4th Gen Honda Prelude. anyone that has had some expirience with this please give me your 2 cents. i want to upgrade the brakes on this car. since it is the VTEC model i was told that my rotors and calipers where awesome already and all i needed to upgrade was the pads? opinions? one thing i dont like is with a larger than stock open wheel on the car the rotors in the back show up real well and they look to small for the rim? what are the options on replaceing the back rotor with a larger one ? thanks for any input ?

this car is not a high hp car just basic bolt on's I/H/E. but before i do anything else with the motor i would like to have the brakes down first. so asking opinions ... thanks again!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by flashmang &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">question is for a 4th Gen Honda Prelude. anyone that has had some expirience with this please give me your 2 cents. i want to upgrade the brakes on this car. since it is the VTEC model i was told that my rotors and calipers where awesome already and all i needed to upgrade was the pads? opinions? one thing i dont like is with a larger than stock open wheel on the car the rotors in the back show up real well and they look to small for the rim? what are the options on replaceing the back rotor with a larger one ? thanks for any input ?

this car is not a high hp car just basic bolt on's I/H/E. but before i do anything else with the motor i would like to have the brakes down first. so asking opinions ... thanks again!</TD></TR></TABLE>

4th gen vtec rotors and calipers are fine if all you want to do is have good braking. better braking is achieved with better tires, not big brake kits. big brake kits are used for cars that have thermal issues with the existing brakes (turbo cars, heavier than normal cars, cars that are overheating the brakes at a race track).

if it's an aesthetic issue, there are a number of big brake kits out there, however, i'm not sure if there are many for the 4th gen vtec lug pattern (4x114.3)--OTOH the cheapest option would be the AEM kit, which is an oversized rotor with a new caliper bracket that you will use to bolt the OEM caliper to.

effective brake upgrades for 99% of our cars are limited to: pads, SS lines (though it's not that much of an upgrade imo), good brake fluid, brake ducting.

 

^^Correctomundo. Brakes love new/good tires.

Also, if you do have money to blow, the Gran Turismo brake upgrade from Brembo kicks total ***. I have an old friend who did a 5 lug conversion on his 4th gen & installed the GT big brake upgrade, and the stopping/braking distances was unbelievable.

But if you're on budget... You might want to look into the Legend or NSX caliper upgrade. The 1st gen NSX calipers are a direct bolt on, and I forget which year/model Legend calipers fit---The Legend calipers if I am not mistaken require some bracket modifications.

I will be doing the NSX brake upgrade most likely this summer.

 

This is kinda what i was thinking ... similar to boostlee's prelude (if anyone is familiar with his) how many gens of nsx are there ?? just 2 ?? so like 91-2003 NSX will work ? not to mention how does one come across these. seems like buying a new set of NSX calipers sounds expensive.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by flashmang &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">not to mention how does one come across these. seems like buying a new set of NSX calipers sounds expensive.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you plan on buying a new set from the factory, damn straight, they're probably going to cost you a couple Gs, I think.

Try searching this forum or try nsxprime.com and search the forums' classified section. I've seen lots of them up for sale over the last year. You should be able to get away with a few hundred bucks for a good used set.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Akhany &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">^^Correctomundo. Brakes love new/good tires.

Also, if you do have money to blow, the Gran Turismo brake upgrade from Brembo kicks total ***. I have an old friend who did a 5 lug conversion on his 4th gen & installed the GT big brake upgrade, and the stopping/braking distances was unbelievable.
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sorry, but i'll bet that the actual distances didn't change. as far as brakes go, the only mechanical changes that a big brake kit makes is that it changes pedal feel and lessens the pedal effort and the amount of time to it takes to generate enough force to lock the brakes/engage ABS. Seeing as it's pretty easy to engage ABS and do it quickly on a stock brake setup, a BBK isn't going to lower stopping distances.

as far as NSX calipers go, you don't really need them. especially if you want to "fill the wheel" since you'll be using the same sized rotor. as far as braking performance goes, they'll change the way the pedal/brakes feel, but you're not stopping any quicker.