4 Pot Caliper Performance

[309PUG 2 1 Cars]

If we assume we use the same diameter / thickness brake disk, same pads but had a choice of which caliper to use for a dedicated track / competition car what would be the best performing and WHY.

 

My guess would be the following

 

1st AP

2nd ALCON

3rd Brembo

4th Wilwood / Compbrake / Hispec etc etc

 

Do you agree ??

 

Just why are AP and Alcon so expensive / good ??

 

Chris

[engine killer 5]

I do not think you will find the answer. Just take AP as an example, I am using CP5200 but you can find a few mor set of calipers with the same no/diameter of pistons from AP catalogue.

 

My friend is the AP dealer in Hong Kong for more than 10 years and he will never say AP is significantly better than Alcon or Brembo. He also serves a lot of race teams in Hong Kong, Macau and China but he never thinks Brembo and Alcon are weaker in performance. But for other brand, no comments.

 

AP, Alcon and Brembo (not these red one installed as stock for those high performance Jap cars) are expensive because they DO provide very consistence peformance and reliability. My friend also stocked a few Wilwood but already rusted.

[Longfield 0]

I think people will have difference preferences depending on their own personal experiences. The outfit that are currently rebuilding my car tend to prefer AP, Alcon and then Brembo before the others but rate AP and Alcon as a noticable step above Brembo. Truth be told though, I don't know why. They've experienced caliper flex from Wilwood so I guess that's why they don't like them but then again, Saleen's use Wilwood's as std equipement and I guess they've got more of a car to stop than a dedicated 205/309 track car. I have Alcon's on my 205 and would recommend them to others like they were recommended to me. Why? Because they're tried and tested on rally and track cars before me.

 

... that's the best I can do to help answer your question even though it's not a direct answer. Sorry!

Longfield.

[Rippthrough 98]

The likes of AP and Alcon tend to have far stiffer calipers than the lower end of the 4-pot game - they use aluminium MMC's instead of just machined ally billet, which are far stiffer and often lighter too, they also put immense amounts of research into the geometry of the piston seals to minimise retraction, pedal travel and piston friction, without having the piston stick on, and the pistons themselves tend to be less conductive to heat due to stainless shields and ceramic coatings.