New Brakes!

So I went and bought an upgraded brake kit. I got a used Wilwood Superlite-6 12.9"x1.1" brake kit. I know the original owner from track days at PIR where he also tracks his WRX. The difference is that he's much faster than I am with lots of performance modifications -- he's hitting around 140 MPH by T10 whereas I'm hitting about 115 MPH. That extra speed puts a lot more heat into the brakes; so he really had to move up to the next level. That's great for me as I can pick them up for a lot less than you'd pay for a brand new set -- even though I have to completely rebuild the calipers and buy a new set of rotors.

Apparently this kit was one of the very first WRX superlite-6 kits made by Wilwood; so the calipers themselves are a bit different than the kit they sell now. In particular, the caliper is about an inch wider than the narrow-body caliper. Lucky for me, my 17" wheels have enough space in there to fit everything.

Speaking of wheels, I opted to purchase another set of the same wheel package I have with the NT-01 tires for street user (got a set of Bridgestone RE960AS for street use). This way I can swap parts easily (same lug nuts, same hub rings -- heck same wheels in case I ever curb a wheel or something). And besides, I really like the understated look of the SportEdition D wheel. It won't catch too much attention; which is just the way I like it.

For this evening, I spent a bit of time cleaning up the calipers and getting the rotors off the hats. The rotors came off easily, but man the calipers were pretty dirty with chunks of melted rubber everywhere. :-) I managed to free up my pistons using my blow nozzle on the air compressor with a wooden spacer block to catch them before they pop out. All in all, it all came apart pretty easily. The rebuild kit and replacement rotors should come in tomorrow, so I'll be all set for the weekend!