Shockworks 6 pot alloy calliper upgrade

[asagaai]

Originally Posted by nelsonian101

Can someone confirm the pad thickness on the fronts? Thanks.

Rough by eye measuring- with back plate and pad material- 15 mm.

The actual pad material- 9mm.

These are the Frixa pads as supplied by Shockworks.

So thinner in pad thickness to accommodate the 34 mm cooling curved vane discs and to have caliper size fit in FPV 19 inch wheels, but significantly larger pad area as say compared to the Brembo 6 piston fitted to FPV.

Engineering = no free lunch & compromises

[Romulus]

Originally Posted by asagaai

Rough by eye measuring- with back plate and pad material- 15 mm.

The actual pad material- 9mm.

These are the Frixa pads as supplied by Shockworks.

So thinner in pad thickness to accommodate the 34 mm cooling curved vane discs and to have caliper size fit in FPV 19 inch wheels, but significantly larger pad area as say compared to the Brembo 6 piston fitted to FPV.

Engineering = no free lunch & compromises

It would be great to see a picture of the brembo vs Frixa pad side to side to see the difference in height.

I'm sold on this upgrade, I'll be getting it once my wheels arrive. I've already the 355mm rotor and PBR caliper upgrade to fit behind the factory 19" Ford wheel, and while this combination works very well for street use (it's never ever had brake fade), there's always room for more

I just need to lean on Brett a bit more and see if he can do a better deal on a suspension and brake package

[raised by monkeys]

Originally Posted by Romulus

I just need to lean on Brett a bit more and see if he can do a better deal on a suspension and brake package

If you're successful let me know cause there was no blood coming out of that stone for me

[asagaai]

Originally Posted by Romulus

It would be great to see a picture of the brembo vs Frixa pad side to side to see the difference in height.

I am getting these brakes fitted this Friday. Some rough and ready technical specifications:

Caliper weight with 2 pads inserted = 5.7 kg per side.

34 mm disc with radial curved cooling vanes per side = 9.95 kgs

The thickness of the Shockworks Frixa pad is 9mm as per here:

The thickness of a 4 piston Brembo pad is 10 mm as per this Ferodo DS2500 which is a great track/street pad

And here is a shot of the 6 piston caliper with 4 piston brembo pad sitting inside the caliper to show differences of pads

I will measure the weight of the OEM discs and calipers, but will not be totally accurate as the oem discs are worn, as are the Brembo 4 piston pads.

More interesting to come- is how the brakes operate-and perform - normal and spirited driving

[asagaai]

Fitted- needed new front lines.

Then drove and brakes needed bedding in- which I did. Came back nauseous and a bit shell shocked- like when I took that heavily worked F6 for a test drive-thinking WTF was that about. Bit of a visceral shock- physical sensations and physics a first for me- good and bad.

Someone said that these feel OEM- from my experience these are so far removed from OEM 4 piston Brembos in so so many ways.

Going to have a few drinks tonight to quell the nerves and let it all sink in. Might do a new thread to not pollute this Shockworks thread any further.

Time for a Fat Yak or two.

[asagaai]

Rather than start a new thread- will post a mini review here. Brett if you want me to move pm me and I will get a mod to move.

Here is the new Shockworks caliper ("SC") in place-monster size that shocked me.

[

Here is the caliper exposed with braided lines when I was working on it today after breaking in last night and this morning.

Here is the rotor- you can see it is a directional curved vane- the vanes face rear of car, and pump air from inner to outer rotor. I looked at the Brembo rotors and it has simple posts between the 2 plates- no air pumping via directional vanes there.

]

Finally, the weight of the OEM Brembo rotor worn was 11.95 kgs, and is worn, so for a new one round up to 12 kgs.

The weight of the 4 piston Brembo caliper with pads -pads very worn almost to plates, about 5.0 kgs,say 5.2 kgs with full pads. This included the mounting bracket.

[asagaai]

Ok my mini review.

Weights-Between OEM Brembo/Shockworks (SW).

OEM Brembo rotors -12 kgs + OEM Brembo Calipers with bracket-5.2 kgs=17.2 kgs.

SW rotors- 9.95 kgs + SW Calipers without bracket -5.7 kgs + bracket (estimate-say 1.3 kgs) = 16.95 kgs.

Fitted- First Drive

Wow- no braking power and soft pedal.

Break in Last Night

Take it to country road with no other users. Break pads in-start feeling the brutal gripping power of calipers. Calipers at high speed due to clamping power reach limits of front tyres and bring in ABS- where OEM Brembos at those speeds did not reach limits of tyres bringing in ABS.

Do some uhm higher speed runs-Brutal clamping that causes front tyres to really grip the road, and due to front bias braking there is a yawing effect of energy from rear to front because the rear OEM brakes are now underpowered.

Harder I drive the car the more the brakes clamp and grab. Go into a fast corner where I suffered previous baaaad brake fade and the SW brakes clamp hard -real hard -on a slight bend-unsettles the rear with that energy rear to front yawing effect.

Drive home outer suburbs and let brakes cool- still a slight softness and sponginess that has me uneasy.

Second Day

Wake up early- decide to take for a drive, brakes normal driving still have a spongy pedal and on initial application do not seem to bite like OEM- need a bit of effort and then clamp - hard if you want.

Take it for another high speed country run and left in no doubt these brakes have huge clamping power and the harder you go the more they clamp with NO brake fade-engine power is now weak link.

Came back suburbs- normal driving- still a spongy doughy pedal- and start thinking perhaps the master cylinder has not enough juice to power the extra fluid in 6 pistons and the extra fluid has more compression.

Then decide to check over calipers, pop off nipple cap and the bleeder valve is dribbling- both sides. Car up- both wheels off, and all 4 bleeder valves were under torqued and 3 were dribbling. More concerning was that the wheelnuts were pretty loose as well- and with the driving I had done in the remote areas to break in and test

Take for a drive- and now the pedal is firm and in normal traffic has a feel closer to OEM Brembos, but if you clamp hard there is more feel ie-you push in and can feel the clamping taking effect- and the more you push the more it clamps.

A bit like driving a car with 322 rwkw you can modulate the throttle and feed in the power. Like these brakes. Standard OEM Brembos are a bit more either on/off without that feel- this is a bit of an exaggeration but the 4 piston Brembos do not have that depth of feel.

In terms of driving the steering feels slightly heavier more solid, but I felt no difference in suspension performance up front. The different more solid and heavier steering I ascribed to extra weight, and driving home I was estimating by the difference in weight of the steering wheel that the SW kit must be some 3 kgs per wheel extra weight at least.

Doing the calculations, the SW kit is lighter, so I can only explain that the SW rotors on the outer circumference is heavier where it has more gyro effect, the weight savings alloy hat is in the centre and so has less gyro effect.

Conclusion

The OEM Brembos are great for normal driving and reasonably spirited quick blasts.

But- if you drive fast and do high speeds with repeated heavy braking, track or want to track, and want to feel brutal clamping that mashes tyres and activates abs at speeds you probably have never had abs activated at, and need brakes that get stronger the faster and harder you drive them-then these are for you.

They really are racing capable calipers for heavy track work (not sure how the dust caps would stand up) and are brutal and you pull forces that approach a nauseating force. Last night I came home feeling really sick-I blame my empty and weak stomach.

The only real downside is that you will need to upgrade the rear brakes to 4 pistons to reduce the front brake bias these calipers and rotors result in.

Thanks Brett for these monsters- now what about the rear so I can reduce the front brake bias?

PS- ha ha- just notice in the photo below the front tyres are showing scrubbing mashing effect of the brutal braking -gunna need a bigger front tyre.

[Romulus]

Great review. Will have to wait for Brett to find out when the rear kit becomes available.

You've FPV wheels - do you think 255's will fit on the front?

[arronm]

Tyres and brake pad material make a massive difference to braking. As well as suspension component rigidity.

[Shockworks]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the great review asagaai. We ourselves were a little surprised with the clamping power of our new calliper and have been able to spend full days at Sandown bashing them up with no fade or pedal change throughout.

In regards to the brake nipple and bleeding. After the full bleed, we find best to spray water inside the nipple and then blow out with air and repeat. After bleeding, there can still be some fluid in the top of the nipple that will seep out of the rubber cap due to the G forces over bumps and looks like they may be leaking. Tight nipple's do help though ha!

I will get some photos together and post our new 4 pot rear upgrade for the mighty Ford. The current spec uses the Brembo CTS-V calliper, however we have now finished the developed of our matching 4 pot slimline calliper which will be used in the future rear kits.

[boss351290]

That is a massive caliper... I'll have to keep my eyes out for you driving around Newcastle. If you see a strange bloke in a white FGX turbo ute trying to pull you over it's not the police. Just me.

[Shockworks]

Here is a photo of the rear 4 pot upgrade we have developed. This is now using the Brembo CTS-V calliper but future rear brake kits will use our own slim line 4 pot calliper to match the front 6 pots we have made.

[KRISL]

Nice. Are these the only 2 piece front and rear discs avaliable to fit onto a gtp fg that already has 6 and 4 pots calipars? Any other slotted patterns? Or hat colours?
Thanks

[Shockworks]

Originally Posted by KRISL

Nice. Are these the only 2 piece front and rear discs avaliable to fit onto a gtp fg that already has 6 and 4 pots calipars? Any other slotted patterns? Or hat colours?
Thanks

Hey Krisl,

At this stage, these are the only model of rear disc we make. We can change the slot design or maybe color but would be a custom order mate.
Cheers
Brett

[KRISL]

Pm sent

Originally Posted by Shockworks

Hey Krisl,

At this stage, these are the only model of rear disc we make. We can change the slot design or maybe color but would be a custom order mate.
Cheers
Brett

[Interceptor]

will they fit inside BA-BF FPV 19"s?

[NCII40]

These still available ?

[Shockworks]

I am sorry but we are moving away from the brake upgrades and just focus on what we do best which is the dampers.
Cheers
Brett