Brake upgrades? What are my options?

[ProfessorJ 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close ProfessorJ]

I love everything about my 1970 911T except for the brakes. They've been completely gone thru by a good Porsche mechanic who had the calipers rebuilt by PMC and, while they're better, I still want more.

Has anyone done a brake upgrade? Can anyone advise as to my options, perhaps that I can do myself, and where I'll get the most bank for the buck?

BR,

James

[JP aka LiveFromNY Find all posts View Profile Close JP]

Have you seen the elephant racing stuff? I've never used their brakes but it comes highly recommended:

https://www.elephantracing.com/porsc...ipers-for-911/

[rick71T 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close rick71T]

I have later Carrera brakes in front on my coupe, and they are fine. I will probably do the 930 upgrade though, or the 917s from twinspark. The boxster brakes are easy, though I have some sort of brembo built for another make on my targa. I'd guess the order of expense and hassle is the carrera brakes, followed by boxsters/brembo (maybe they are for the 2002?) then the 930/917. Whatever caliper, put some race/track pads in there. You might get some squeaking, but they stop very quickly compared to street pads. I noticed that with both my carrera and non-porsche brembos. That said, I felt like the stopping power went from very good to shockingly good. The only disconcerting thing is total lockup, which I experienced tonight coming upon a flock of wild turkeys, and Saturday morning almost running into a bear. Both times I had no problem stopping (and my default speed is too fast) but was blessed by being on a straight. Good reference thread though, and I'll try and dig up what the brembos are on my targa. They cost ~$900.

edit - just in case, the brembos are the Alfa GTV Brembo calipers. checked today.

[chiroracer 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close chiroracer]

I can recommend the Stoptech early brake kit.

[ProfessorJ 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close ProfessorJ]

I can recommend the Stoptech early brake kit.

Just looking at this, actually. Did you do the install yourself?

[teenchy short stroke Find all posts View Profile Close teenchy]

Assuming you have the strut housings with 3" bolt spacing, I'd suggest going the Alfa GTV Brembo caliper route. Currently running them on my '70T with Porterfield R4-S pads, and find them much improved over the stock M calipers.

[chiroracer 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close chiroracer]

Yes I did install myself. And PMB has front calipers for 3" bolt spacing.

[Tom F2 2.4 Find all posts View Profile Close Tom F2]

It's not clear what it is about your brakes that makes you want to fix them.

Without knowing more, I'd suggest that you make sure that your are using the best pads, before you tear things apart. A lot of pads looks right, but they have different friction materials. My worst experience was glazing, where the friction surface turns to glass and acts like it, friction-wise. That was a set of name brand pads from a reliable aftermarket seller.

I've had my best results with factory pads from the dealer. There may be others here who can offer superior solutions. I only know what I've tried, back-to-back.

[ProfessorJ 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close ProfessorJ]

Yes I did install myself. And PMB has front calipers for 3" bolt spacing.

Thanks. I'm going to investigate this setup further.

[Chris Pomares 2.4L Find all posts View Profile Close Chris Pomares]

i had the Alfa Brembo GTV calipers. Another option are Euro ATE 323iS calipers from the late 70's early 80's like the Alfa's. They are 3.0 cast iron and don't flex like I experienced with the Alfa's. The 323iS cars weighed 300 plus pounds more so plenty of stopping power. i have a restored set along with a restored set of Porsche LWB rears for vented rotors sitting on my shelf. They won't get used as the 69 POLO hot rod they where going on are going to the Elephant 930 type. Perfect for early LWB 912 and T cars.
I'll shoot a couple pictures of the BMW ATE's so you guys will know what to look for. They are rare calipers to find these days. They use the same brake pads as the Alfa's.
I've gone with 3.5 Boxster fronts and custom 42 mm piston rear's on my SWB car to keep the 1.6 brake bias. I kept the stock 19 mm master for a while. It was a little spongy. I upgraded to a 20.64 mm VW Golf master. Perfect.

[Chris Pomares 2.4L Find all posts View Profile Close Chris Pomares]

Here are the 3.0 bolt spaced Euro BMW 323iS front and Porsche rear calipers, both for vented rotors.
Once again they use the same pads as the Alfa Brembo. Kind of like a 3.0 ATE SC caliper and use the 20 mm thick 911 rotor.

[S66 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close S66]

And after you install the Alfa or bmw calipers in front and still want more you can put them in the rear and install boxter calipers in front with a change to 3.5” struts. That’s what my friend is doing with his 911.

[Chris Pomares 2.4L Find all posts View Profile Close Chris Pomares]

Clint Smith at Rebel Racing did that and found the 48 mm calipers to be too rear biased on the track with Boxster fronts. I suspect that can be corrected with a brake bias valve like the 87 to 89 Carrera's have. The 70 to 72 914 front calipers with 42 mm pistons out back maintain the stock 1.6 bias with Boxster fronts. I had PMB alter the mounting for my SWB car. I'm not sure what if anything you have to do for LWB cars, I went from the 19 mm master to the 20.64 VW Golf master and it cured the slight sponginess of the pedal.
The Alfa or BMW calipers with rear calipers for vented rotors should be plenty for a stock powered 911T or 912 unless tracked or doing long downhill grades in Colorado's high country as in 10 miles down hill at a fast clip.

For you LWB folks, I wonder if 84-89 Carrera 42 mm piston rear calipers will fit on your cars with Boxster fronts?
I found this chart online somewhere a few years ago. Unfortunately it was and still is fuzzy.

[raspritz 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close raspritz]

I will amplify on the (unanswered) question above: what do you think is wrong with your brakes, what are you trying to achieve, and why? Stock Porsche brakes are fabulous. I race a '67 911 with stock calipers and discs with Pagid orange pads (which you certainly do NOT want for street use). Zero issues. And I run a completely stock brake set-up on my street '69T. Again, zero issues.

[runner4fun 2.0L Find all posts View Profile Close runner4fun]

I think raspritz offers an informed opinion here. I find that factory equipment, properly serviced is often the default best way to go.

Now, that said, I am restoring a 1973 911T into a mild hotrod. Since the car is not numbers matching, and I have most of the parts, it will have an SC 3L engine, 9.8:1 CR pistons, with X-Factory ITB EFI and new Dansk SSI exhaust. Since the car is in the process of a complete re-do, I decided to upgrade the suspension to Carrera front and rear. For the brakes, I have a set of rear SC calipers (that I already had) that Jason Lightner (flyingjay) restored and re-plated with zinc chromate for the rear of the car. I am using Carrera A caliper brakes for the front (which I sent to Jason to re-plate and rebuild). Certainly more than ample braking.... If I was not doing the hot rod redo on my 911T, I would just refreshen the factory brakes and suspension. When in doubt, trust the Porsche engineers......

If you're interested, I have a set of front SC calipers that I don't need which have been completely rebuilt and re-plated in zinc chromate, never installed.