Now for the Brembo story with pictures!
I bought a set of front brakes from A Evo XI which had done 70 miles. The car was being rally prepared and the brakes were being replaced. perfect! £255 later, I was the proud owner of some Evo Brembos.
I measured everything up and was pretty confident that they would fit under the 16s I have with 300 - 305mm discs. So, everything arrived and I started putting it together...
....as you can see from these pics - the pads look like they were made for the 300mm ST170 discs!!
I then put the pads in the caliper and made sure the caliper assembly cleared the discs...bingo - everything is looking perfect!
Time to see what the sit like in the wheel.....plenty of room - they clear the spokes with around 5mm to spare!
Ok, last hurdle....the hub
Things are looking a little tighter than expected. The hub hits the caliper and has still got 40mm to go before it is still home in the disc.
The first option would be to cut away the part of the caliper that is in the way. However, this is very close to the mounting holes and requires the structural webbing of the caliper to be cut through. I have no way of knowing how the brake would react under heavy repeated braking that the Nurburg Ring would inflict on them. It is possible that they could completely sheer off!! This is not a risk I am willing to take just to get some Evo brakes on.
So, any other options? Spacers are a possibility. The above close up of the mounting points is after the disc and wheel have been spaced out. As you can see from below, the spacing on each side would be pretty substantial to say the least! Given that this car will be producing a lot more power in the not to distant future, I am not really willing to put the CVs etc under the additional load that the spacers would put them under. I would spend mosu of my time replacing worn out parts!! Not to mention the fact that my front wheels would then stick out beyond my front wings. The first sign of a large bump at speed I would be saying good buy to my wing and hello to my bodyshop!
Any other options? Yes, I thought about having the original hubs re-drilled with the mounting points much closer to the body of the hub and cutting off the access which could allow the caliper to slip in. However, the underside of the hub's hangers thickens towards the body. Therefore, if we were to drill new holes there, any bolt the other side may a) simply not for or b) not sit flush with the back of the hangers. Again, this is a safety compromise that I am not willing to take.
Anything else?! Yes! Custom alloy hubs! They would be lighter and I could have the hangers made to my specification. However, an off the shelf alloy fiesta hub is £1,500 (for both sides). That is without any custom work! Little point in exploring that further as the costs is prohibitive.
Not all is lost, as we mocked the smaller Brembo brakes up in the below pic, and they should fit a bit easier! Just need to sell on the Evo stuff (something I could not do if I started to butcher them!) and source a set. I may even just go for the standard Ford ST170 calipers on the front and rear as they are an awesome set up!
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