One of the front calipers has seized on today. MPG went through the floor, cars stopping as soon as off throttle. easy to tell which corner, as a lovely burning smell and a red hot disc which i couldnt touch when i pulled up after a few dozen miles.
while this is probably an easy enough fix, a brake upgrade was on my radar as part of my prep work for various more horses.
I’ve been looking at various shops, (bofi, bbr, racingbeat,goodwin etc). and there are so many options!
So im looking for some input from others who have taken the upgrade steps. how did you find it? happy? did you wish you went bigger or better? any wheel clearance issues?
My requirements:
currently just running a remap
suspension upgrades done
will be visiting tracks in 2025
wider rubber will be next on ‘supporting mods’ list, so will be running a x8 or x9 wheel with wider rubber
likely a supercharger stage 2 for the engine upgrade.
so i am looking at the ‘little brake kits’, the 4 piston willwoods as they are much lighter than OEM plus extra stopping. (will get new discs and pads at same time). but, these are only the fronts.
Picking on BBR’s website - they recommend these for N/A upgrades, but the 6 piston for Forced Induction. However ive gone through all of their previous cars for sale, and i cant see a single car running the 6 piston option. overkill?
and, what do people do for the rears in terms of upgrade? I saw Flyn Miata offer a willwood rear too, but make specific note about a very poor handbrake quality. is that an MOT failure in UK? is that why i cant see any Euro parts site selling the rears?
Many questions.
did a search on here couldnt find anything on the topic.
I have previously commented on brake upgrade options here:
(Click the post title to see the nicely formatted table)
I have the Freaky Parts Brembo kit on mine and standard rears (powdercoated to match)
Had the Wilwood fronts but a seal was leaking and they aren’t very weather proof
I believe @BlueAgave has the Wilwood 6-pots and @exiled-viking has the Wilwood 4-pots from memory in discussions on other posts
I have a Super 200 ND1 with Wilwood 4-pots on the front. No upgrade to the rears aside from having the calipers sprayed red. Stopping power for enthusiastic road driving is great. I can’t imagine needing more. I’ve not tried the car on track. The only negative is that I have a metallic/mechanical clunk that I think might be related to the calipers - the car has been up on a ramp lots of times so I don’t think it’s anything sinister. I run OZ Alleggeritas and have no clearance issues.
thank you, love that table. i hadnt seen freakyparts (probably as i was searching brembros) but that does look a good price for that set.
Thanks for the link
I’ve been looking into this too. I’m pretty much sold on the Freakyparts Wilwood 4 pot kit. It looks the same as BBR but a bit cheaper and in grey, which I’d prefer to Red for reasons of subtlety.
I’ve spoken to a couple of people who have the wilwood 4 pot rears who’ve had MOT issues. They’ve got through eventually but after a lot of faffing about. I doubt they’d be worth the faff for a road car.
Ive got the 6 pot Wilwood calipers from BBR with 12.88" discs from Goodwin Racing. Plenty of stopping power with the Wilwood BP20 pads. Been on the car for 8 years with no problems. I use Redstuff pads at the rear and work well with the front pads.
I’ve got the 6 Piston Wilwoods and 4 Piston Wilwoods on mine, the rear ones are a PITA come MOT time and my MOT tester is never happy about them but can see the car is tip-top every time and wanting for nothing, he’s always let it pass with an advisory. The handbrake is weak, but in my experience it does hold the car.
yes I do have the four pot with black Dimond disc’s with 20mm spacers soon to be replaced with 15mm spacers due to new wheels set up easy to fit kit Racing Beat Europe supplied them Clive/Lisa are very helpful…they been on around 5 years now …
thank you all!! awesome feedback. The rears + MOT looks like i was in the right ball park. i’ll stick with the front upgrades for now.
i’ll see if i can get my hands on some 6 pot wilwoods. that pic of Blue’s with the huge caliper in the wheel looks lovely. (although i’ll be sticking with standard disc (new)).
@BlueAgave i dont supposed you had the 6 pots and the recaro alloys on at the same time for a period did you? do you recall if there is clearance?
I hate giving business to foreign firms but having decided to fit Wilwood to my MX I had the same issue regarding rears. I finally concluded my search in the USA. The company are called Flyin’ Miata. Contact- https://flyinmiata.com/products/fm-nd-rear-little-big-brake-kit
Hi Gareth,
There is a real irony to that. Being (for once) sensible, I upgraded the brakes prior to having the Super200+ITB+exhaust+suspension upgrade from BBR! They never mentioned Wilwood! RIP Dave Brodie. Fondly remember seeing “Run Baby Run” blow the opposition away at Brands Hatch and other circuits. (Yes, I’m very old).
