Wilwood brake kit, anybody have one?

I have a wilwood 4 piston kit, but with the 12.19in rotors and I LOVE them! There was an instant improvement with braking, hands down. You will be very happy with them! I also installed their rear disc kit at the same time. I will say, in comparison to the mildly upgraded setup I had which consisted of EBC pads, and drilled and slotted rotors.......there is tremendous difference. You will not look back, trust me
 
I have had a Wilwood brake kit for my GN for a long time and never put it on. It is the one that fits behind the stock wheels with 4 piston calipers. http://wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeK...e=Buick&model=Regal+Grand+National&option=All 140-11009. Who has one? Did you like it? Was there a big improvement or hardly anything? Thanks!

That's the 11" rotor kit. What you'll get over the OE brakes is about 10 pounds per side weight reduction, which is huge for unsprung weight. The Wilwood rotor is thicker than the OE rotor, so it can absorb more heat, and the rotor vanes flow more air, so it'll cool faster. Compared to OE, you'll be able to stop just as hard but more often. However, with just a 0.25" increase in rotor diameter, stopping distances with the same type of pad won't be reduced much. BUT, the higher heat capacity and ability to dissipate more heat than the stock system means you can use a pad with more bite.

I have the now out-of-production 140-2508 kit, which had a stock diameter 10.75" rotor. It stopped about as well as the OE brakes.

But it didn't fade out during 20 minute sessions at Putnam Park road course two weeks ago. I cooked the OE brakes during an autocross many moons ago, so the Wilwood system's heat capacity is far greater. The pads also wore evenly almost down to the backing plates. The OE brake rotors will cone and the single-piston OE floating calipers don't clamp evenly, so you end up with uneven pad wear. So the Wilwood kit can get more life out of a set of pads than the OE setup if driven hard.

My advice? If you don't race the car, you don't need the kit, unless you like the look. Sell it to somebody that can use it.

If you do race the car, install the kit.

Or just install it. It's your car, you bought the parts. There's no downside to putting them on.

However, if you do race the car, the BP-10 compound pads that came with that kit aren't going to cut it. You'll want to step up to something like the Hawk DTC-30 or an EBC Yellow. If you're just streeting it, the BP-10s will be fine.
 
I just installed the 12.19" rotor kit with 6 piston caliper. Night and day difference over stock brakes. I'm also using a factory style hydroboost, will be doing rear wilwood kit soon. Much better than factory, period!
 
That's the 11" rotor kit. What you'll get over the OE brakes is about 10 pounds per side weight reduction, which is huge for unsprung weight. The Wilwood rotor is thicker than the OE rotor, so it can absorb more heat, and the rotor vanes flow more air, so it'll cool faster. Compared to OE, you'll be able to stop just as hard but more often. However, with just a 0.25" increase in rotor diameter, stopping distances with the same type of pad won't be reduced much. BUT, the higher heat capacity and ability to dissipate more heat than the stock system means you can use a pad with more bite.

I have the now out-of-production 140-2508 kit, which had a stock diameter 10.75" rotor. It stopped about as well as the OE brakes.

But it didn't fade out during 20 minute sessions at Putnam Park road course two weeks ago. I cooked the OE brakes during an autocross many moons ago, so the Wilwood system's heat capacity is far greater. The pads also wore evenly almost down to the backing plates. The OE brake rotors will cone and the single-piston OE floating calipers don't clamp evenly, so you end up with uneven pad wear. So the Wilwood kit can get more life out of a set of pads than the OE setup if driven hard.

My advice? If you don't race the car, you don't need the kit, unless you like the look. Sell it to somebody that can use it.

If you do race the car, install the kit.

Or just install it. It's your car, you bought the parts. There's no downside to putting them on.

However, if you do race the car, the BP-10 compound pads that came with that kit aren't going to cut it. You'll want to step up to something like the Hawk DTC-30 or an EBC Yellow. If you're just streeting it, the BP-10s will be fine.

Thanks, I think the older 10.75 inch rotor kit is what I have. I do a lot of backroads with a lot of the euro guys (pretty fast and aggressive) so I do work the brakes pretty hard. I think I have the Hawk blue pads on it now. Never been a fan of EBC stuff, I purchased some of it for a car I had about 13 years ago and it sucked. 5000 miles of regular street driving, pads were toast and rotors were warped. My goal is to increase the braking power as well, was also considering hydro boost.
 
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