A "not-so-expensive" brake upgrade for F355

Oh Sweet
One thing good about Euro cars they are quite interchangeable

 

Please show us how you machine it

An upgrade with a working OEM style park brake would be very nice

 

Mine is a long term project I am gathering parts for, I purchased the discs a while ago, thinking about it they may be 456 rear discs, I will sit them on a spare rear corner I have next time I am in the garage and take a photo and post it up to show where a bit of adjusting is needed, from memory it looked straight forward when I last matched it all up

 

I have the last set of brackets/adaptors Johan had. It was made specially for the Porsche calipers. As far as I can tell they are for 965 calipers. I am not sure if it'll work with big reds.
Should anyone reputible want to make copies of the brackets that I have I wouldn't have a problem with that. I am not planing to do the upgrade for at least a month or two.
I do however in exchange want details on the upgrade with pics for mechanically retarded people like myself

 

I sat down and worked out all the dimensions for my project a couple of years ago, and its been gathering dust ever since whilst I got on with more important things.

With this thread back active I have had a dig around and here are all the various dimensions and part number for suitable genuine brembo discs.

Looking back it seems I actually went for 456 front discs as they are near identical to the depth of the stock 355 ones but as large and as thick as the 550 version where as the 550 fronts are 7mm deeper than stock 355. How this plays out with the Porsche adapters I have I am not sure of yet, simple enough to have suitable ones machined up if it is an issue or swap to 550 front discs, the 456 fronts are so cheap in comparison though.

At the rear I went for 456/550 as they are the same disc. They utilise the same brake shoes set up as the 355 but are overall deeper so some machining/spacing will be required to match them up to the calipers.

Its scary how much more expensive the stock 355 discs are from Brembo when they are actually smaller than the 456/550 ones
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A simple drawing my do it so it can be reproduced

 

I have a machine shop here my plant works with. They don't do small items as such but I'll ask next week. Maybe we will get lucky.
The 355 deserves better breaks.

 

I used the information that PAUL500 has and ordered rotors from Amazon.de. The total price for 2 rotors was $133.13 shipped to my door. The DesignTek calipers are very nice and were $512.87 shipped. Rennline brackets were $219.39 shipped as well. So the grand total was $865.39.

The caliper sits close to the rotor, but I'll know more when I get the pads in. I'm still waiting on those to be delivered. After I get the pads in, I can check the clearance of the caliper to the rotor and space the caliper and/or bracket as needed.

(Disclaimers: I know BBKs aren't really worth it in most cases. I know the calipers are copies of the Brembos. The car is mine and I do things that I like to it. I like red Ferraris and red meat. I like my $500 360 wheels. I will repaint the calipers. I will clean everything I find that's dirty. And any other disclaimer needed... )
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Nice work! Which Rennline brackets did you use? I only see ref to Racer's Edge brackets in this thread.

 

I used Rennline CS04 brackets. These are the same fitment as the ones listed by the OP, but I liked the larger gap at the bottom for clearance. There are other brackets out there for the same fitment and a little less expensive as these.

 

Awesome, thanks. I've used Rennline on my past 911s so I wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Looking forward to your updates.

 

Quick update to what I found. The Rennline bracket sat too low, so I picked up one from Lindsey Racing designed for 330mm rotors. They fit OK with standard Brembo 456 rotors, but should be spaced up a bit. They need to be spaced up 5mm for use with Girodisc. I installed 5 1mm spacers to get the correct height but have my local machine shop making brackets that are 5mm taller than the LR ones. Spacers are normal and are part of the Girodisc kits for Porsche to use larger rotors. Wilwood does this too with their kits.

The brackets from LR are https://www.lindseyracing.com/LR/Porsche/LRA-8788-13-BRCA.html
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Lets make some correct ones

I'm in 100%

Or turn down the rotors a few mm

 

Can't turn the rotors. It's the hat to rotor hardware that interferes with the pads.

 

What hackers !!!! LOL

Grind he calipers

 

I just ran out to take a pic of the spacers. They are Ferrari parts for centering calipers.
Here's an example of the Girodisc spacers: http://rennlist.com/forums/996-forum/551864-girodisc-rotors-finally-installed.html
I dropped the second bracket off at the machine shop today though
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Ok and after just a little bit more digging...

The different between the Big Red and the Big Blacks are the offsets are different. A good example is the picture in post #100. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/139506712-post100.html

Big Reds require 5mm spacers to match the offset of the Big Blacks.

So off the shelf brackets from LR should work perfectly with the Big Blacks.

 

I have oem big reds with 550 rotors and stock 355 wheels... fit perfectly with zero issues
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What bracket are you using?

Edit... Are you referring to the wheel fitment or caliper to rotor clearance?

 

I think I was referring to your link of post 100 which was wheel clearance related, but 332mm caliper clearance is prefect as well.

I'm using user "madturk" brackets

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

 

I linked to post 100 to show the picture of the caliper. The mounting points of the Big Blacks shown in that picture are 5mm "higher" than the Big Reds.

 

I see what you are talking about. Weird, i always read the big reds and big black were identical. Guess not?

 

If anyone is interested in trying to do this upgrade, I have the stock 456 rotors for sale since I used Girodiscs.

 

In my early HPDE track sessions, I did have a few problems with overheating the F355 brakes; one of which lead to an off track excursion.......

However, after switching to Ferodo pads, and 550º+ fluid not later than the day before the track session, I have been able to do 72 minute stint (1 full tank of gas) while circulating within 2 seconds of the lap record at TWS (long course) most of the laps in 103º Texas summer heat.

 

You don't have any pics you call send me of how you did the air ducts and the hose attachments do you pal. I want to do it to my car