Front Brake Upgrade..(better/cheaper? than Volvo!!)

[Turbo 3.8L E21]

Hey Guys+Girl

Well recently i have been looking into brake upgrades for the front of my e21...apparently they're important for some reason

I looked into the Massive Wilwood kit, but for the price by the time i got them here, nearly made cry,

enough of talking crap, this is the part you all opened the thread for

been toying with the idea of setting up a Holden VT Commodore twin piston caliper(very similar to some Corvette's) as they're very cheap, and a very good caliper,

so today i found motivation, and went to the local wrecking yard, where they had 14 VT Commodores lined up, as i only wanted a caliper for mock-up purposes i didnt need anything to flash, and happened to find a passenger side caliper just laying on the ground, took it up to the counter, $20 later i was walking out,

now looking at this caliper, im thinking wow this thing is quite big, and really didnt see it fitting, as the pads themselves are about 2.5x the size of an e21 pad!

Now this is where it gets exciting for me!! and hopefully you also

I got home, and as i already had the e21 calipers and dust covers off, i wentover and held the VT caliper up to the car, and this is where i realised the mounting bracket holes, lined up perfectly, like dead on,

so i picked up a bolt and got even more excited as the bolts where a nice snug fit through the caliper and locked up tight on the car

I was very very suprised, and at thsi point all the relief of having to make up adapters was gone!!

but then another though came to mind, how well does it fit over the rotor?

and wouldnt you belive it, the bloody thing is spot on offset!! the rotor is sitting perfectly between the pads,

A direct bolt on caliper for our e21's!!!!!

then i noticed the caliper making the rotor look like a dwarf compared to it lol, so i took some measurements, and it appears the 1, and only 1 issue, is the e21 rotor was to small,

so simple and easy/few hundred $ solution, blank 300x28mm rotor drilled to our pattern...now unfortuantly you will need a minimum of a 15" wheel for this,

as i have 16" on my car, I have 20mm clearence from the caliper, to the inside of the rim.

So thats my story for the day, I wasn't going to put it up untill i had purchased the New Calipers, and Rotors, but i couldn't wait lol

here are some pics with e21 rotor, sorry for how dirty the car is, blew a radiator hose when i last drove it

Fitting nicely behind a half arsed wheel fit attempt lol


Thicker Rotor needed!


Caliper Dwarfing the e21 Rotor


Mounting point, lining up Beautifully


I'll put up exact pricing of everything, when i purchase them New, shouldn't be more than a couple weeks i hope

[Madhatter]

Sorry mate, but its nothing new, tim (tonberry) ran them on his car for quite some time. Problem is getting the rotors with the right offset and dimensions, dont think his were 300x28mm though, but atleast you know it works. Now, its from memory, but im pretty sure he got the idea/components from bob hamilton

Edit: Ill see if i can find some photos

Ahah. Score!

[Turbo 3.8L E21]

I've just been informed of this!

here i was fuckign around with sorting it all out and what i'd need, and then this was pointed out to me

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BMW-E21-300mm...item3f03dee2b8

the exact thing i was going to be doing, was right infront of me the whole time lol

i'm on ebay all the time and have never ever seen this lol

[scase318i]

if you get a part number for the rotor ket me know so i can do some pricing(trade at repco) and does the commodore brake line screw up to our brake lines?

[Turbo 3.8L E21]

if you get a part number for the rotor ket me know so i can do some pricing(trade at repco) and does the commodore brake line screw up to our brake lines?

custom line with correct fitting at either end im asuming

ah sweet cheers man, dunno if ill get all my own stuff now or just buy the kit lol, sorcing own parts i reckon i can get away with it for under $500

[Madhatter]

I've just been informed of this!

here i was fuckign around with sorting it all out and what i'd need, and then this was pointed out to me

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BMW-E21-300mm...item3f03dee2b8

the exact thing i was going to be doing, was right infront of me the whole time lol

i'm on ebay all the time and have never ever seen this lol

Looks like the kit runs a spacer on the caliper mount to bring it inbound a little and take away from the need to run a wheel spacer. Might not be a problem with your wheels though

[Turbo 3.8L E21]

I'm quite bummed right now lol

but ah well, I like things to be easy, so im buying the kit haha!

[goswald79]

Too bad the Commodore never came to the US...

[Layne]

The E32 has a 302x28 rotor. I don't know the offset, but it's big like an E21. I can measure my old ones if you need. Only problem is you need to drill a 4x100 lug pattern and make a centering ring.

[OLD MAN]

too bad the commodore never came to the us...

2007 -2009 gto ????

[jjgbmw323]

Too bad the Commodore never came to the US...

Yeah it appears these brakes are MASSIVE!

[JeffCiesielski]

2007 -2009 gto ????

I'll see if a friend of mine might be willing to do a little research on one of his test cars.

2007 -2009 gto ????

http://www.gmmotorsport.com/brake_upgrades.shtml

^ That site makes me think you're onto something.

[OLD MAN]

I'm thinking US Made GTO front bracket up grades.......

Like these or more?? Of course these are totally out of the ball park on price but it shows we can get parts here in the US also - thanks for the thread "turbo 3.8L".

[chase94]

your a genius! even though this has been done before, i never would have known about this without your post, thank you! this is going to be done to my e21 for sure.

EDIT:who sells blank rotors?

[FranzE21]

Be cautious with this seller. I bought a alpina stress bar off him and it doesn't fit nor would it be strong enough to make any sort of difference. One bit of stress and I'll bet 100 dollars and a case that it would snap like a twig.

That being said, what hes got for sale isn't fabricated so it might be hard to mess it up. I will also consider this kit.

[Electric Space]

I've known andy's auto sport for a while. As long as you don't have a corolla gts ae86, you're good......so far?

07-09 GTO=very hard to find wrecked and new parts would be close to volvo.

I'm switching front suspension out completely thanks to the expensive parts for these cars and rarity of other parts that would work for it. More toyota stuff!

[OLD MAN]

Be cautious with this seller. I bought a alpina stress bar off him and it doesn't fit nor would it be strong enough to make any sort of difference. One bit of stress and I'll bet 100 dollars and a case that it would snap like a twig.

That being said, what hes got for sale isn't fabricated so it might be hard to mess it up. I will also consider this kit.

Never done any business with Andy's and was not really thinking of, sorry for the miss direction. My point was to show that Wilwood has brake up grades for the GTO so that means we here in the US can get the same parts you can in Ausie, but thanks for the heads up. With research I am sure one in the US could find a lot of front brake parts to do what some of our Down Under brothers have done with the Holden parts. Like walk into any auto parts store and buy off the shelf replacement stock GTO front Calipers and pads. Anyway this looks worth more research.

[RichE30]

I'm switching front suspension out completely thanks to the expensive parts for these cars and rarity of other parts that would work for it. More toyota stuff!

Intrigued... details on what you are doing?

[hakhawk]

Never done any business with Andy's and was not really thinking of, sorry for the miss direction. My point was to show that Wilwood has brake up grades for the GTO so that means we here in the US can get the same parts you can in Ausie, but thanks for the heads up. With research I am sure one in the US could find a lot of front brake parts to do what some of our Down Under brothers have done with the Holden parts. Like walk into any auto parts store and buy off the shelf replacement stock GTO front Calipers and pads. Anyway this looks worth more research.

pretty sure his post was directed towards the ebay seller. im pretty sure theres a thread about him on here somewhere.

[jjgbmw323]

I'm quite bummed right now lol

but ah well, I like things to be easy, so im buying the kit haha!

If you decide to buy that kit, next time you go to the junkyard can you get two front calipers for me? They seem very cheap in the yard. Let me know what the cost of them are, and what the shipping to the USA - cause now you got me thinking about this upgrade....

[jrcook320]

oh Joe... You're all about upgrades instead of what you actually need. I suggest you run your current volvo brakes until you have your 2.9 m20 done, then run it for awhile and see what you think. If you need more brake, run some more aggresive pads (like Hawk hps) and see what you think. If you get fade, then worry about larger rotors and the necessary calipers.

Also, I suggest you get a GM part number of these calipers and cross reference them. It wouldn't surprise me if you can find them super cheap in a yard here in the states (perhaps a c4 corvette?) These look pretty much teh same as the c4 stuff my buddy Jeremy is running on his iroc. Finding the bolt hole center on GM calipers shouldn't be hard to do.

[Turbo 3.8L E21]

My mate is running the Corvette equivelant of this Caliper on his Charger, ill find out what model his are from, and let you guys know

[Jmabarone]

these look very similar to the calipers on my Ranger, oddly enough. I'll see if I can dig up some pictures and just compare a little.

[FranzE21]

pretty sure his post was directed towards the ebay seller. im pretty sure theres a thread about him on here somewhere.

Oh no, this is actually a guy who lives in Canberra where I live. I bought an 80 dollar stress bar off him like 4 months ago, and it was pretty much a joke. i couldn't be bothered following it up. But like I say, his fabrication skills might blow, but taking bits and cleaning them and putting it into a kit, thats probably alot easier for the noob fabricator.

I'm not saying burn him at the stake, I'm just saying, be cautious, I may still buy that kit even, but if I can do it another way I will.

[shadyduk1979]

I would be shocked to find out that they weren't the same as a 4th gen camaro, impala ss, police package caprice etc