What are the effects of unsprung weight like on Hondas? I know many say it is a huge factor with Miatas. Enough to be worth the weight savings of Wilwood brakes? Currently have ITR brakes and are quite heavy as you know.

 

I have been thinkin about the same thing also. The weight sav ins of wilwoods and mayve a 2peice rotor is pretty good.

 

ya approx. 14lbs a side over ITR brakes, seams like alot of weight to me

 

I saw a thread on using Porsche calipers, which are also quite light, but never were any pics of it done. Both options also being great weight savings on your wallet.

 

the wilwood kits are on for 499 which is a great deal, especially if a person needed brakes but what effect will the weight savings,if any, have?

 

The porsche calipers require 16" wheels.
As far as the effects of less weight, you'll get less rotating weight from a lighter rotor. That will help acceleration. The lighter calipers will take weight off the suspension which will make the suspension work more 'efficiently'

 

Make sure you buy the Dyna Pro kit...the other kits for honda/Acura are not all that great.

Keep in mind that although unsprung weight is reduced, the rotors are heavier contributing to greater spinning mass; although the Dyna Pro is a true floating rotor and the hub is very light, the larger rotor increases spinning mass. This is sort of splitting thin air at some level since the braking performance of this kit is quite good. If you intend to track your car often then opt for the non-booted pistons...the rubber boots will melt during constant track use.

Wilwood had a problem with rotors a few years back...I had constant vibration problems. After trying many new rotors and meticulously torquing and safety wiring these I finally sold the kit.

When they worked they worked well...I remember while being certified by BMW, my BMW co pilot slammed the imaginary passenger side brake while I entered turn 1 at LRP...and after completing the turn his remarks were...well, I cannot print them here. I scared him...tee hee.

Your tires also need to be somewhat matched to your brakes...sticky tires help breaks work better...the non-sticky kind make the brakes work harder

 

In theory less unsprung weight is an advantage for reasons already posted. But in my opinion unless you have heaps of seat time and are able to feel the fine difference between subtle changes in the cars setup I dont think you will notice any advantage due to unsprung weight over your ITR brakes. 2 things that may be noticeable are less brake fade (which shouldnt be an issue even with ITR brakes and the correct temp range pads) and more even pad wear (less taper resulting in a more consistent pedal feel through the pad life).

I would say if you have the money to spare throw them on. The wilwoods are relatively cheap and the even pad wear is definitely a plus.

I just picked up a set of stoptech's for my car for about the same price as a wilwood kit, and although the RSX-S brakes worked fine on the track I couldnt pass up the deal.

 

I would rather use StopTech...and I also thought the ITR brakes worked very well.

...the inside pads on my Dyna Pro 12.4 " Wilwood kit wore faster than the outside pads, for what it's worth. Individual pads wore evenly.

 

I think this post sold me on keeping my ITR brakes, i had no reason to swap them other than weight. They work very good as is.
thanks

 

Cool glad I could help! Another way to think of it is this just means you can spend the money on seat time or tires and benefit way more

 

if going with wilwood... use the forged units and NOT the billet

 

I worked with the engineer at Wilwood to piece together an autocross specific kit for my car. I wanted a no-compromise setup that would drop the max amount of weight off the front suspension without worrying about enough brakes for autoross. It became a somewhat "drag racing" style of setup.

10.75" cross drilled 3/8" solid rotors (non-vented)
aluminum hats
Dynapro 6 calipers
Polymatrix A pads

This yielded a drop of about 10lbs per corner over the OEM 9.4" setup. That in conjunction with some other mods has dropped about 26 lbs per corner.

I also did this to try and get as much weight off the front of the car to move the Fr/Rr bias as far towards the rear as possible.





Oh, and it works pretty good. The 1st pads I had were far too hard. I'm running no brake booster because of underhood clearance issues, and needed a more aggressive pad to work with that.

 

if anyone needs some wilwood parts I have some available. I have a set of hangers, braided lines and hats... all new. 4x100 for the integra

 

in SCCA Solo 1 which class allows 2peice rotor?

 

Holy cow... solid rotor?

 

he said they are autox specific. so my assumption is the car also gets trailered to events.

 

I have the fb kit with dynalites. I see a lot of people running dynapros. Why do people seem to dislike the dynalites so much? I figured I'll try them out and see what I think on my relatively light CRX. Unless my car will burst into flames from having the dynalites or something, that's almost the impression I get.

What is the general cost difference of dynapros vs dynalites?

 

I had issues with flexing... the billet was MUCH less stiff that when I finally switched to Forged. BUT, I have run both for a long periods no problems.

 

Dyna Pro is in a different class altogether...I would also opt for solid rotors...many tracks/clubs no longer allow cross drilled rotors unless they have come from a make like Ferrari or Porsche.

My experience taught me that gas slotted rotors run a little hotter than solid pads...although holes look good and in theory create a cooling pathway. holes are also weak points and spider crakcs will develop if you use these on the track fairly often.

Again, as I wrote above, if you are tracking your car make sure you buy non-booted calipers! The rubber boots can melt!

 

He was talking about solid vs. vented I think, not cross-drilled vs. non-cross-drilled (or slotted). Solid on track would be a DISASTER. For autox I'd bet it's fine, and seems to be working out for Jaker.

 

I didn't even see that in the photo??? I hope that is a rear rotor...but the knuckle looks like it belongs on the front. I guess if you need maintain hot rotors/pads during an autoX event where cooler temps might not provide super respsonsive braking...

 

Even OEM Porsche GT3 rotors come off the car after a hard track day littered with cracks and little pieces missing from around the holes. It surprises me that high end brands even use that crap, its really purely for looks.

 

Definitely front. It's more the fact that he doesn't need the brakes to disperse more heat than small amounts so the extra material isn't necessary.

 

Very interesting. Slightly out of the box thinking...not watching what everyone else is doing. gotta love it!