Hello all,

Whilst surfing on ebay for brake upgrades for the Octavia I came across this listing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volkswagen-VW-Golf-mk1-mk2-mk3-mk4-mk5-mk6-Front-330mm-6-Pot-PB-Big-Brake-Kit-/280904087049?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item4167303609

Any body heard of them? Used them etc? (PB brakes that is). In the listing there is a magazine review (journo in it was from Max Power many years ago) stating they are great.

Thanks

Mike

I looked at them as an option and exchanged a good number of emails with them. Ultimately my decision not to use them in the end came down to two main things. Firstly, the initial price looks attractive but once you add £140 delivery and import tax they aren't far off a set of the known name brake setups. Secondly, I hadn't heard of them and there was a lack of history with the company - sort of buying into an unknown quantity. For brakes, I wasn't going to take that chance although I admit, every company has to start somewhere and the emails were replied to very promptly.

I have to agree I've been looking and forge are (after tax and delivery on the above) only £100-200 more for a trusted name.

Thanks for the input though

If Max Shed had published an article that tl;dr as "rain is wet", I'f have wanted independant verification!

I have to agree I've been looking and forge are (after tax and delivery on the above) only £100-200 more for a trusted name.

Thanks for the input though

That was the competitor I compared against too! In the end however I went a different route (see my sig) and I'd wager whilst it may not perform better than the Forge ones out and out (Porsche NQSBBK are way better than the S3 345mm setup though imo) , the Porsche ones offer far better vfm. Also, mine are currently running fairly tame pads, there are a lot more aggressive pad options available to improve them further. Im glad I went the route I did in the end.

That was the competitor I compared against too! In the end however I went a different route (see my sig) and I'd wager whilst it may not perform better than the Forge ones out and out (Porsche NQSBBK are way better than the S3 345mm setup though imo) , the Porsche ones offer far better vfm. Also, mine are currently running fairly tame pads, there are a lot more aggressive pad options available to improve them further. Im glad I went the route I did in the end.

I've been looking also at the porsche and S3 options. They are cheaper. Only thing really going against the Big Brake kits like forge etc is the cost of replacement discs around £460 a pair! I'll continue to research

I've been looking also at the porsche and S3 options. They are cheaper. Only thing really going against the Big Brake kits like forge etc is the cost of replacement discs around £460 a pair! I'll continue to research

Sounds exactly like the process I went through in my mind!

Ive had the S3/R/TTS 345mm setup previously on the Octavia Mk2 stage 2+ VRS estate and I didnt like them. You felt their weight in corners when hitting undulations/drain covers etc and I just thought people over played how good they were by a big margin. IMO, 312mm's running decent fluid and DS2500's as I did later on were better in a couple of ways. The Porsche setup is very light (comparatively), the caliper feels massively rigid and for the first time on any of my VAG modded cars, Ive now got really nice pedal feel offering very nicely controlled modulation.

Ive had lots of BBK's and uprated brake parts in the past on various cars - the most expensive being a Tarox six pot setup but this Porsche kit offers similar performance in 85% of the situations and allows the choice of any affordable disk and pad combination - from £40 Texar (Porsche OE) pads and £80 (ECP - with discount even less!) Pagid disks right up to the special stuff like top end £250 Pagid ceramic based pads for track days. The two piece disks for my six pot setup were nearly £600 iirc.

All in all I think these are a bargain and without doubt the best value for money option out there. I paid £800 new for the S3 setup. I paid around £600 for these and the performance is better even with my fairly average pad choice currently in place. Hope some of that helps.