Ok before i start i want to stress that this post is My Personal Opinion :)

Currently i am thinking of upping the power on my car. Now wether this is K04 or Big Turbo kit i have yet to decide.

A number of people keep telling me though "oooh your gonna need bigger brakes if you start doing that".

What i really want to know though is Why do i need bigger brakes?

My thinking is this -

My car is a Skoda Octavia vRS. 200bhp as Standard and a 149mph top speed buy the book. So the car has 150mph Brakes on it anyway.

Now as i don't take my car on a track the only thing i have done brake wise is uprate the pads to DS2500's at the front. This has provided me with a bit more bite etc however i don't find myself braking later into corners etc.

It doesn't matter how good your brakes are your car will only go around any corner at a given speed. After that it is going to under/oversteer depending on the Corner/Car & Chassis.

Ok i agree having better brakes means i can brake later going into a corner. But as i have said i don't race my car on a track so this feature is of little use.

I have also been taught how to drive a car at high speed and control it so don't really have a problem when it comes to cornering or stopping etc.

I am also a firm believer that you could have the best brakes in the world but if you have Sh!te tyres then they aren't much use. To me it makes much more sense to have decent brakes (which the car has) and decent tyres. Surely this gives the same effect as having a big brake kit on and not so decent tyres.

My other thinking is no matter what i do power wise the car will still be the same weight etc so if (for example) i am trying to slow from 130Mph. I may have got there quicker but the Velocity & Mass of the car are still the same so my OEM brakes coupled with DS2500's are more than capable.

AM i being really stupid here (or in my case trying to save money and spend it on a Diff instead :giggle: )

Or because i don't take the car on the track and i don't drive like i stole it everywhere i am actually making sense?

Thoughts/comments good or bad welcome but please be constructive

Cheers

Carl

I would have thought that if you are going to drive it sensibly and just have that warm and comfy feeling that comes from knowing you have got another two shed-loads of power when you want it then you should be ok. Like you I wouldn't have thought bigger brakes would be of great benefit unless you are driving near the design limits of the present brakes and if you are doing that on a public road then you would benefit from a separate piece of advice. I guess the insurance company might quibble about the car being under-braked but they will quibble about anything so if god forbid you did have an accident at what would presumably be somewhere under 80mph then I cant see that the standard vRS brakes could ever be identified as having a shortfall.

DS2500s are my favourite pads although I'm on Mintex 1144s at the moment, brrrrrrrrrrr never again.

I always say good pads, decent 5.1 fluid and braded hoses are the keys to good brakes and I think that you're right; unless you're putting your car through it's paces regularly on a track then that's quite sufficient.

AM i being really stupid here (or in my case trying to save money and spend it on a Diff instead :giggle: )

Or because i don't take the car on the track and i don't drive like i stole it everywhere i am actually making sense?

I'd say both!

I think the percieved logic is that if you have a shed load more power, you will arrive at any given corner on your favourite road at a greater speed than you could if the car was standard.

Thus more powerful brakes are a good idea to help slow you from a higher speed than you would otherwise be travelling at (assuming you want to brake at the same point as you would in a standard car obviously)

However, I'd agree that unless you do a lot of track driving or are driving like an idiot for prolonged periods on the road, the standard brakes should be up to the job, especially with the uprated pads you have which would help deal with any fade issues.

Personally we put bigger brakes on the wifes Fabia without increasing the power, but that was really because the standard brakes were crap even with the standard 130bhp!

edit: double post

Edited 23 February, 201016 yr by Stevoraith

carl you have a PM

Spend the money on a diff Carl

Spend the money on a diff Carl

Ditto.

The only thing that disappointed me with the car was the OEM pads (Pagid sourced by VW I believe) - good at low speed but bowel-clenching fade on a few occasions that I had to throw out the anchors at speed! However, I understand that it was about the pads rather than the set-up. I'll confirm when Sy sends me his old pads as I am a total hypocrite and still running OEM pads!

I had a long chat with Robin at the Briskoda RR day on Saturday and he convinced me that diffs was the way to go. However, I navigate some windey roads every day and sometimes have a bit of fun when it's quiet. I don't track it either so I guess you have to ask yourself if the driving you do really justifies the dosh involved in a diff. As you know, it's easy to talk yourself into anything but £1200+ (?) to supply and fit a diff requires a bit of honesty on yourself. Unless of course, you're wedged then **** it!

Carl, I think you know my feelings on the subject but all I will say is "It is better to have more brakes than you need rather than need more brakes than you have". :wonder:

Carl, I think you know my feelings on the subject but all I will say is "It is better to have more brakes than you need rather than need more brakes than you have". :wonder:

Can't argue with that either!

DS2500s are my favourite pads although I'm on Mintex 1144s at the moment, brrrrrrrrrrr never again.

I always say good pads, decent 5.1 fluid and braded hoses are the keys to good brakes and I think that you're right; unless you're putting your car through it's paces regularly on a track then that's quite sufficient.

Spot on Advice IMO

Unless you are doing a lot of track driving, road rallies or want to drive very hard decent pads, (again I swear by DS2500's) & a change to fluid with a higher boiling point like 5.1 or race fluid will be all you need. 5.1 is available at Halfrauds & not that expensive. My rule of thumb test is will the ABS kick in quickly, if yes then the brakes are fine. If you fitted stickier tyres then this may change. If you start track driving or racing through the mountains repeated braking will heat the brakes to a point where they start to fade so fitting bigger brakes is a good idea, another fix is air ducts to the callipers to get more cooling. Many ignore this as big brakes look better in the pub car park than holes in the front of the car. At the first point you detect the brake pedal starting to soften try & keep the car going without brakeing SENSIBLY !!!! the air flow will cool the brakes far quicker than stopping. If the pedal has softened you need to bleed the brakes when you next get the chance, Once the brakes have cooled they will appear normal but once the fluid has boiled causing the softening pedal it boils at a lower temp next time.

When you get 5 mins have a read through some of these, dispels a few of the urban myths on Brakes http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/tech_white_papers.shtml

Thanks for all the advice folks

I think i am going to go as far as an R32/S3/Cupra brake kit as that will fit under the 17" alloys i have

As Ian has said i think it will be better to have more brakes than i need than need more brakes than i have

Will also go with Braided Hoses & Better Fluid

Cheers

Carl

Thanks for all the advice folks

I think i am going to go as far as an R32/S3/Cupra brake kit as that will fit under the 17" alloys i have

As Ian has said i think it will be better to have more brakes than i need than need more brakes than i have

Will also go with Braided Hoses & Better Fluid

Cheers

Carl

Octy 1 hoses were lined so Im guessing Octy 2 ones will be the same so you may not need braided hoses assuming yours will fit the new callipers, they do look good though

Re brakes that fit. I ran 335 Dia with AP 4 pots on 17" rims, Godspeed built those for me & went on to do 335 with AP 6 pots behind std Mk 1 VRS wheels for someone else so you can go Huge if you want. Damned good brakes as well