About Wilwood Brakes?
 

To All:

Why are the top end Brakes of Wilwood generally less expensive than the Bear, Alcon and other 4 and 6 piston Brakes w/ 13 and 14 inch two piece rotors?

Thanks,

tyoneal

so we low buck guys can afford it..

The high end Wilwood's are not cheap by any means... considering that the STR caliper runs about $3800.00 a piece.

The cheaper stuff is what is packaged in kit form for the general populus. What you are actually "seeing" is their bottom end products.

FWIW: I was thinking about the 6 front 4 piston rear calipers.

ty

To add to what Chicane said. The Superlite 4 piston IS (I think) the top-of-the-line Wilwood rear caliper, pricewise. I would guess it is pretty comparable with whatever anybody else has to offer (you can only put so much brake on the rear anyway).
Where things get a bit cloudy is the 6-piston front calipers. The Superlite 6 is almost the bottom of the Wilwood 6-piston line (I think the GN6 is cheaper, but I don't know if they still offer it anymore). Above that, you have the TC caliper (~$750/piece), Integra 6R (~$1800/piece), the Prolite (~$2700/piece), and the STR (~$3800/piece). So, basically, Wilwood is using one of thier cheapest 6-piston calipers to make their kits from (not saying they're a bad caliper at all, in fact, that's what I'll be using).

The others
Baer: I don't have any tech here (I don't know their price for just the calipers)
Alcon: Imported (very expensive just for that reson)
Brembo: Imported (same here)
AP: Imported

They're also not of a monobloc design which reduces the price considerably.

The word "mono-block"... is over rated by itself.

FEA rules... and that is what keeps it affordable.

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What is the main difference between these two?

http://www.wilwood.com/Products/001-...6R14/index.asp

and the,

http://www.wilwood.com/Products/001-...SL6R/index.asp

Is the major difference between these two the size of the Rotors or do they adapt to higher heat situations.

http://www.wilwood.com/Centers/Infor...let/c59704.asp

I guess my car with me and/or someone with me could be as heavy as #3800 lbs. It is not uncommon at all to have 60-90 days at or above 100 degrees.

Is there any reason why fast repeated stops or slow downs from 100+ mph
would push into bad fade? (This is the major condition I am really familiar with regards to brakes, and being about to put them "into" fade fairly easy. has been very disconserting in the past, and makes driving confidence go away pretty quickly for me because the braking peformance is always changing.

Is this anything I should be concerned with with either one of these levels of product?

I know I'm probably beating the hell out of a dead horse at this point, but it is unintentional. I speak from a pure lack of updated knowledge.

At this point It's more I know what I don't want, or like, rather than what I do, as I said before my experiance, and ability to evaluate current technologies is limited.

Thanks,

tyoneal

I agree. Some of the C5R cars I've seen run high-end calipers that are often not a monoblock design...ask those guys and they say the same thing.

They often don't use 14" rotors, either.:yes:

I ran a 4 piston 12" rotor in my NASCAR LMS racing days. I raced on a 1/4 mi paved oval. My rotors would be gloing red after 10 laps... and they worked great. I think these huge rotor/caliper combos are way over rated in my humble opinion...:captain: