Wilwood Brakes

Wow, thats all I can say so far. I've gotten most of the parts to my brake kit. I still need a few parts and will be looking into getting those in the near future. The weight of the aluminum Wilwood 4 piston caliper is so much lighter than the steel 1 piston caliper that came on the car stock. The rotors are 12.19" which is 2.19" larger than the stock rotor. The rotor hats and the caliper adapters were made by Juan at JSK Innovations. I'm hoping this will help bring the stopping distances down. Also better modualtion and control should also come with the setup. I've only maxed out the stock brakes a few times but, it's one crappy feeling to try and stop and there's just no more pedal. With the Wilwoods I should be able to stop from high speeds all day long and still have a firm pedal. I'll update with results and some more facts as soon as I can. For now take a look at the pictures and drool on them like I have been for awhile now. Here are a couple of pics of the old setup.

And here some of the pics for the new stuff.

I fianlly got around to installing the 12.2" Wilwood kit on the front of the car. What a big improvement over the stock setup with crossdrilled rotors and KVR pads. Don't get me wrong the upgrade of the crossdrilled rotors and KVR pads was a big improvment over the stock setup. The 4 piston Wilwoods and the 12.2" rotor combo is so much better that I was really surprised at the difference that it made. Not only is the stopping power much greater but, the weight is less and the appererance is better as well. Looks like a win win situation to me don't ya think?

My goals to accomplish with the brake upgrade were:

1. Much less or no brake fade after several high speed stops.

2. Better modulation that the stock setup.

3. Better apperance than the 10" rotor behind the 17" rims.

4. A more matched ratio of HP and braking power.

5. Increase the safety of the car by reducing stopping distances.

Plans to help address this are as follows:

1. More aggresive pads for the rear. I was hoping to be able to stay with some good off the shelf rear pads but that doesn't look like it going to happen. I'm waiting for the Poterfields to come in for the front so I can evaluate them before making my decision for the rear.

2. Make certain the rear pads are fully broken in and then install a proportioning valve to help fine tune the balance of the system.

Rear Brake Upgrade

The rear of the 280ZX came from the factory with disc brake to help with the added weight of larger body and added electronics of the "Grand Touring" desigh that Datsun was going for at the time. While much better than the drums of the previous Z cars it still has room to be upgraded. What I have designed it honestly a small upgrade for the rear of the car. It consist of a larger rotor off a 84 300ZX non turbo, stock 280ZX caliper, and a new caliper adapter to push the caliper out enough to clear the new larger rotor. The 84 300ZX non turbo rotor while still a non vented rotor it is 11.5" vs the stock 10" diameter rotor, it very close to the stock rotor in back spacing and is a 4 lug pattern that matches the 280ZX. This should help to give the caliper more leverage to help stop the car aswell as a little more mass and suface area to help disapate heat. I was looking to accomplish a few things by doing this and I think the upgrade has done exactly what I wanted it to.

Goals were:

1.Increase rear braking power to go with the front upgrade better.

2.Upgrade the rear brakes and maintain a parking/emergency brake.

3.Have a better matched apperance to the front brake upgrade

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