ART rotors, DiGrappa X-brace, powdercoated calipers, and stainless brake lines on!
07-22-2001, 08:25 AM
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ART rotors, DiGrappa X-brace, powdercoated calipers, and stainless brake lines on!
After 14 hours of hard work yesterday installing the ART rotors, powdercoated calipers, Earl's stainless steel braided brake hoses, and Porterfield pads, and 30 minutes this morning installing Mark Digrappa's fabulous x-braces, Reedz and I have new cars!
James and I will post pictures later today, but here are our first impressions:
The ART rotors are very well made, and with the new Porterfield pads and Earl's lines, braking is improved by about 20 percent. Pedal feel is firmer and stopping is even more assured. We couldn't be more happy, at least until the ultimate brake system is finally devvelped by dwb1 (it's just around the corner). The biggest issue, of course, with the stock rotors and calipers, is weight (we're guessing a total of 120 pounds of unsprung weight, 30 lbs on each wheel) so dwb1's much lighter system will be an incredible improvement. But for now, we're very happy with the upgrade we made yesterday, both for its appearance and additional stopping power. The slotted ART rotors, with everything cadmium plated in silver are terrific and it's great not to have any rust showing. The attention to detail on the Earl's lines is phenomenal. Nothing has been overlooked, and the mounting hardware and the way the hoses thread through it is a vast improvement over the stock system, no doubt adding a considerable additional safety margin over the stock hoses.
As for Mark's billet x-brace, what more can be said than it's a superb piece of work. The fit is absolutely perfect, and my seat of the pants caliper tells me the chassis is marginally stiffer with it in place of the Spoon. But I do have to admit that this may be a result of the placebo affect. It's a shame such a fined mechanical element is hidden under the car! BTW, when we took off the Spoon brace, I was apalled to find rust is several key points after only 7 months on the car. I'll bet the thing doesn't last five years on a car in the harsh environment of the Northeast. If you buy the Spoon brace, the first thing I would do is have it powder coated.
We have many pictures to post, but first I have a bunch of windscreens to prepare for shipping.
James and I will post pictures later today, but here are our first impressions:
The ART rotors are very well made, and with the new Porterfield pads and Earl's lines, braking is improved by about 20 percent. Pedal feel is firmer and stopping is even more assured. We couldn't be more happy, at least until the ultimate brake system is finally devvelped by dwb1 (it's just around the corner). The biggest issue, of course, with the stock rotors and calipers, is weight (we're guessing a total of 120 pounds of unsprung weight, 30 lbs on each wheel) so dwb1's much lighter system will be an incredible improvement. But for now, we're very happy with the upgrade we made yesterday, both for its appearance and additional stopping power. The slotted ART rotors, with everything cadmium plated in silver are terrific and it's great not to have any rust showing. The attention to detail on the Earl's lines is phenomenal. Nothing has been overlooked, and the mounting hardware and the way the hoses thread through it is a vast improvement over the stock system, no doubt adding a considerable additional safety margin over the stock hoses.
As for Mark's billet x-brace, what more can be said than it's a superb piece of work. The fit is absolutely perfect, and my seat of the pants caliper tells me the chassis is marginally stiffer with it in place of the Spoon. But I do have to admit that this may be a result of the placebo affect. It's a shame such a fined mechanical element is hidden under the car! BTW, when we took off the Spoon brace, I was apalled to find rust is several key points after only 7 months on the car. I'll bet the thing doesn't last five years on a car in the harsh environment of the Northeast. If you buy the Spoon brace, the first thing I would do is have it powder coated.
We have many pictures to post, but first I have a bunch of windscreens to prepare for shipping.
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