E30 Front Brake Upgrade

Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:16 pm

Not really, Alcon are somewhat pricey. Each front caliper is about £350-400...

Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:28 pm

Its not so much the price of the calipers. The main thing that I have noticed is the cost of the rotors from the likes of AP, Alcon etc. Typically 150-200 notes each

I've been looking to use some Alcon 4 pot calipers with a Wilwood rotor (70-90 quid a piece) and machine some custom ali bells and caliper brackets.

Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:33 pm

Well this upgrade uses 1 piece discs which cost £75 according to Geoff, so I would say that the cost of the calipers IS the main thing.

You're right though AP/Alcon/Performance friction discs are costly, but much more durable than 1 piece discs.

Sat Nov 28, 2009 6:40 pm

Thing is though Theo, I am after at least 300mm discs. Geoff's are only 280

My 310mm wilwood discs were £75 each from rally design

Demon tweeks list 304mm Alcon discs for £209 and AP 315mm discs for £221 each

bearing in mind my Z1 rear discs from the dealer are £75 each new I'm keen on machining new bells to allow me to use wilwood discs which will allow me to keep the larger rotor diameter and with the custom bells means that everything is one piece and I hopefully don't need any spacers.

If your after a 280 mm setup though, then machined OEM discs from another manufacturer is definatley the way to go though if you can do it.

Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:11 pm

billgatese30 wrote:Its not so much the price of the calipers. The main thing that I have noticed is the cost of the rotors from the likes of AP, Alcon etc. Typically 150-200 notes each

You then need to factor in the £400ish for mounting bells and caliper bracket's.
So that's £800ish before you add on the cost of the calipers and pads,not to mention any master cylinder upgrades.

Re the wilwood disk's.
I found that the 310x32mm disks were cheaper than the 310x21mm ones.
Go figure

Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:20 pm

BadDave wrote:
billgatese30 wrote:Its not so much the price of the calipers. The main thing that I have noticed is the cost of the rotors from the likes of AP, Alcon etc. Typically 150-200 notes each

You then need to factor in the £400ish for mounting bells and caliper bracket's.
So that's £800ish before you add on the cost of the calipers and pads,not to mention any master cylinder upgrades.

Re the wilwood disk's.
I found that the 310x32mm disks were cheaper than the 310x21mm ones.
Go figure

You are forgetting my main line of work Dave, the day I pay £400 for mounting bells is the day I'll eat my own feet.

Lasercut/waterjet, milling and turning ain't a problem (when I get time at least, but thats not really a problem as I'm not in a rush).

Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:27 pm

I think you may have misunderstood Chris.

What I meant was £200 ish for the bells + £200 ish for caliper brackets if you're in a position where you have to get someone to manufacture them for you.

Just offering current prices as a guideline to those who may be considering carrying out a decent BBK using premium components from the likes of Alcon/A.P./Performance Friction/Brembo etc etc

Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:29 pm

Some nice bells which would accept a 295x25.4mm disc with 12 mounting holes and a pcd of 177.8mm would be nice please chris!

Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:42 pm

BadDave wrote:I think you may have misunderstood Chris.

What I meant was £200 ish for the bells + £200 ish for caliper brackets if you're in a position where you have to get someone to manufacture them for you.

Just offering current prices as a guideline to those who may be considering carrying out a decent BBK using premium components from the likes of Alcon/A.P./Performance Friction/Brembo etc etc

Sorry Dave, thought you were talking to me as opposed to speaking in general.

Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:56 pm

Alburglar wrote:How much did the disks and callipers cost? - most BBK's I've seen are 1500 dollars from the states, so should be a massive saving.

Rear discs are OEM Z1 discs, £75 each. The two piston calipers (for the rear) were £210 each from Alcon, imported to SA, so I expect that you will find them cheaper than that locally within the UK. As with my front brake upgrade (see page 1 of this thread), brackets have to be made up to fit the calipers to the rear hubs.

FYI, in case anyone is missing the point of this thread - I'm not saying that the discs and calipers I describe here are the best or the cheapest for the proposed application, I have simply presented, along with detailed diagrams and a thorough explanation, how I upgraded the brakes on my own car. There's many ways to skin this cat, all I have done is presented my way.

Tra la la la laaaaa, I did it myyyyyy waaaaayy

.

Sun Nov 29, 2009 6:24 pm

Demon Tweeks have the 2 pot alcon's in for £206.01 incl VAT @ 15%. Judging by alot of DT prices, that means you should be able to get a slight cost saving by going else where. There is a list of UK distributors on the alcon website for anyone interested. Seems like you got a pretty good deal Geoff considering where you are located for shipping etc.

Out of interest Geoff, you paid about the same for your fronts as they are listed in the DT catalogue too, seems like location makes very little difference in price which is a nice thing to see.

Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:46 am

billgatese30 wrote:Out of interest Geoff, you paid about the same for your fronts as they are listed in the DT catalogue too, seems like location makes very little difference in price which is a nice thing to see.

Hmmmm, thanks Bill, interesting to hear. I bought both my front and rear calipers from ATS motorsport in Johannesburg. ATS are the SA agents for ALCON. I guess they get a substantial discount buying direct from ALCON UK, and then the rest of the price is made up from our local import duties and taxes. I quite expected our import duties to well exceed the discount ATS get from ALCON. I guess it does all balance out.