Sometimes you get lucky

An audacious plan that just sort of worked out. The factory single piston floating calipers, no matter how much I lubed the sliding wedges always dragged. As a joke the idea came up to consider sport bike brakes for my tiny car and late that night I won an ebay auction for a pair of front calipers, lines and pads off a 2008 GSXR 750 for the 9.99 opening bid.

When they got here I first took them apart and measured the pistons. each side has one 30 and one 34mm piston. Total area of 1615sq/mm. The fiat caliper has a single 45mm piston with a total area of 1590sq/mm.....Woah!!! that is so close as to be scary. Brake biasing will be unchanged.

The only problem is that they wouldnt fit over the thicker rotors but that was easy Some aluminum spacers cut out with a recessed hole for the internal fluid seal An extra seal, some powdercoat and done

An abarth decal for bit of detail

Fabbed up a pair of caliper carriers

At this point I was all of about $15 into the pair but I had to have custom brake lines made at $32 each ouch! But they are DOT legal braided stainless with the proper banjo fittings for the calipers and the original fiat ends to fit into the chassis mounting clips

This morning I had the chance to put it all together Started with this 11lb mess and installed 3.69lbs of sportbikey goodness.

Driving impressions? The reduction in unsprung weight is awesome. The car actually feels faster. Less banging and crashing on bumps as well. After bedding the pads in the first real stop almost made me bite the steering wheel. Modulation is better, before they were kinda like a 3 position switch. off/kinda on/locked up. Now they work like.....gasp...modern brakes.

So there it is my $79 brake upgrade. Gixxer brakes on a car.

That is sweet, very well done

Now for the rear end

That could be the best use of $79 I've ever seen.

My only concern is the aluminum spacer, wont the heat affect that part greatly?

the only load it has on it is a clamp load.. are you worried its gonna go soft and squish out?

Great mod!

In reply to Vigo: Pretty much, so when it's cool the feel will be great, but when it's heated the pedal will go soft, don't get me wrong it's beautifully done just a thought on my part. I didn't think aluminum was a good idea for brakes, though I'm no metalurgist, or however it's spelled.

The two other halves of the calipers are aluminum as well. I cannot imagine the 6061 in between softening and failing before they do. Every wilwood caliper is spaced to fit the rotor width with aluminum And the rears are in the works. Thinking about doing the exact same thing (the factory braking is 50/50 bias) and using a pair of cheap go-kart mechanical calipers as the ebrake

Cool, I didn't know, my only reasoning is those calipers were designed for the mass and associated heat generated by a substantially lighter vehicle, plus motorcycle brakes are in the air being cooled substantially faster than in the wheel well of a car. Just concern, not critical I'd hate to see something go wrong, plus I'm an idiot, trying to learn lol.

Wow.... VERY cool.

Most impressive!

I'm shocked to see non-vented rotors, though, hahaha.

What's this on?

That fiat doesn't weigh much more than two o those bikes!!!

Joey

Where did you source the lines? I'm go need me a custom setup.

2002maniac wrote: Where did you source the lines? I'm go need me a custom setup.

I make my own out of Earl's fittings and lines...

Awesome job!

I smell a business opportunity for you. There have got to be other fiat people that would like that mod. I can think of at least one I need to send this link to.

I really wanted to go with vented rotors. I figured rabbit GTI 9.4 inchers would be a good match but when I held the solid and the vented in each hand I decided unsprung weight was more important. This car is not a high speed track car. It is a daily hooligan and hopefully sometime autocrosser. Fade isnt one of my big worries

The car is my Fiat 850 Sedan here http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/820/add-update/

The brake lines were made up by "pacific Rubber" a local industrial hose place. Neat little machine that crimped the ends and pressure tested them to 3500psi.

To be honest even though the math all worked out I was still afraid they wouldnt work as I bolted them on and bled them. The first stop reassured me completley.

In a few days I will inspect the whole mess and re-torque everything.

I do believe that has to be one of the most cost-effective brake mods I have ever seen. Very nice.

Considering a lot of calipers are made of aluminum I wouldn't be worried about the spacer. Sweet upgrade.