Brakes

[Ray Pignataro]

Jim rather then admitting you were wrong. maybe the others had another interpretation that was more right.

[Simon Aarons]

Brad,

Changing to 5 stud does have its benefits.....you have a much larger choice of wheels as anything off a gtv6/75/90 or 147/156 will fit straight on, plus there is no need to fabricate anything to make the V6 brakes fit... they should simply bolt on.

[OzMidnight]

The last owner has fitted what appears to be alloy Camira brakes over the solid front rotors on my GTV4.  I'm yet to try them myself but he seemed to feel there was some improvement and that the brakes worked well. 

[alfagtv152]

Hi Brad,
As a fairly simple improvement just for road use you can bolt straight on a set of callipers from a late (85?) Alfa 33 which takes a DB 349 pad.It is only a single piston sliding calliper but it gives you 1.7xthe standard Alfetta pad area and will even accomodate a 13 inch wheel if you want.As many have said it just depends on how far you want to go,the next easiest is the GTV6 brakes which bolt straight on,all you have to do is redrill the brake rotor to 4 stud instead of 5.I run Volvo 4 spots with 164 rotors,redrilled and using a spacer between the rotor and the hub,on my track car with the rear calliper modified to take Alfetta front pads and slotted rotorsfrom Vin Sharp.
Pics 1 rear 2 front 3 Suggested mod 4 suggested mod

[alfagtv152]

Also a BIG part of braking performance is dictated by the pads used,I personally swear by Hawk,HP Plus black(Ferro Carbon),pads which for me have excellent performance without any fade and still have good cold bite in a power boosted road car,lots of black dust and not much rotor wear.
There are all sorts of pads to choose from depending on your requirements.
Cheers
Andrew

[OzMidnight]

Interesting about the 33 calipers as I run a 13" wheel!  Anyone got any ideas on vented setups to suit a 13" wheel?

[Storm_X]

Hi Brad,
As a fairly simple improvement just for road use you can bolt straight on a set of callipers from a late (85?) Alfa 33 which takes a DB 349 pad.It is only a single piston sliding calliper but it gives you 1.7xthe standard Alfetta pad area and will even accomodate a 13 inch wheel if you want.As many have said it just depends on how far you want to go,the next easiest is the GTV6 brakes which bolt straight on,all you have to do is redrill the brake rotor to 4 stud instead of 5.I run Volvo 4 spots with 164 rotors,redrilled and using a spacer between the rotor and the hub,on my track car with the rear calliper modified to take Alfetta front pads and slotted rotorsfrom Vin Sharp.
Pics 1 rear 2 front 3 Suggested mod 4 suggested mod

i like the vented  disks on the back

[alfagtv152]

Hi OzMidnight,
I have seen vented discs for 33's advertised on Ebay which could probably be fitted.The GTV6 rotor is not out of the question for you,I had a look at those calipers Today and if you get some GTV6 rotors at or above minimum machined thickness and take a couple of millimeters off the pad thickness,(You will need to do some sums to determine the caliper maximum opening and the thickness of pad to go with your rotor thickness),then you could use the 33 caliper and have vented discs.

[Evan Bottcher]

i like the vented  disks on the back

You forgot to ask how much they cost ??

[Sheldon McIntosh]

A few questions for OzMidnight if you don't mind.

Could you post a decent pic of the Camira caliper if possible. Have you tried it yet, any good?
Why are you running 13's on a GTV, I've never heard of such a thing?
What's up with the coilover?

[alfagtv152]

Hi OzMidnight,
Is that the yellow one with the F3 wheels that was on My105.com some time ago?.There are plenty of 13" F3 slicks(second hand) available from the Adelaide Kumho Motorsport Dealer.
Cheers
Andrew

[OzMidnight]

Hi Andrew...thanks for the tip about the brakes and the tyres, I've funnily enough just received four near-new F3 rear slicks from SA thanks to a friend down there!  It was that car from my105, I planned to have it running again before now but had to store it for a year whilst building another house, so things got delayed.

Sheldon, I've answered you in PM so I can help not taking the thread further off-topic.  I'm wondering if the Camira calipers are bigger in pad area than the Alfa 33 ones - might have to do some homework.

[Craig C]

a technique that Carrol Smith recommends in "Drive to Win" and it works well on our project car at uni.

so get a copy of "Drive to Win" and have a read on stabbing then squeezing the brakes.


This sounds like a great reference, are there any other recommendations for race driving reference books before I go to chase this one up?

[Tristan Atkins]

Hi Craig C,

Carroll Smith is considered a legend at out university and his racing books are our bible. He has written a whole range of different books. Check here for details: http://www.carrollsmith.com/books/

Personally I've read 'Drive to Win' and I've looked stuff up for reference in both 'Tune to Win' and 'Engineer to Win.' I will say the books do tend to focus on high end, open wheel, racing cars but everything is first explained simply in first principles usually using sedans. There is also a number of tips and advise throughout the book, stuff that could normally only be obtained through years of experience.  Best of all, 'Drive to Win' comes with Carrolls list of other books to read so its not a bad place to start.

[alfagtv152]

Hi all,
I got a quick look at Victor's brakes at Mallala but not enough time to get the story,can you give me the story on your new brakes please Victor?.