Re: A Proper Big Brake Kit
Posted: June 24th, 2012, 12:53 pm
I have been through this in every concievable permutation and from every possible direction for over 2 years now.
There is no need for anything more than the Miataspeed rears. they work great and their readily available.
As AaronTietje explained, the MX-3/323/Protege caliper is designed to bolt directly to the spindle, unlike other cars on which the caliper bolts to a bracket which in turn bolts to the spindle. Because of this the stock mounting points for the front calipers are positioned so that they will be in the way...unless you move the caliper away from the center far enough to clear the mounting tabs altogether. Which is why any aftermarket big brake kit will use a 13 or 14" rotor.
The other issue is wheel offset. A 4 piston caliper is going to hit the wheel if you use a rotor with the stock hat height because it's going to be wider than the stock caliper. A rotor with a much taller hat will contact the spindle. The answer to this problem would be to use a wheel with a much lower offset than ours...which again Aaron had to do for his F1 calipers...and cost a lot of money.
I did the Subaru 2 piston upgrade for about $800 and I will say with confidence that this is the ONLY way to do any sort of decent upgrade to the front brakes that doesn't require a larger wheel and a lot of money. Now that I have larger wheels and the 323F spindles I could do a much larger upgrade but it would cost me another $6-700.
I encourage you to try, but I couldn't find a way..and I'm no dummy.
Read this...http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... azda+brake
There is no need for anything more than the Miataspeed rears. they work great and their readily available.
As AaronTietje explained, the MX-3/323/Protege caliper is designed to bolt directly to the spindle, unlike other cars on which the caliper bolts to a bracket which in turn bolts to the spindle. Because of this the stock mounting points for the front calipers are positioned so that they will be in the way...unless you move the caliper away from the center far enough to clear the mounting tabs altogether. Which is why any aftermarket big brake kit will use a 13 or 14" rotor.
The other issue is wheel offset. A 4 piston caliper is going to hit the wheel if you use a rotor with the stock hat height because it's going to be wider than the stock caliper. A rotor with a much taller hat will contact the spindle. The answer to this problem would be to use a wheel with a much lower offset than ours...which again Aaron had to do for his F1 calipers...and cost a lot of money.
I did the Subaru 2 piston upgrade for about $800 and I will say with confidence that this is the ONLY way to do any sort of decent upgrade to the front brakes that doesn't require a larger wheel and a lot of money. Now that I have larger wheels and the 323F spindles I could do a much larger upgrade but it would cost me another $6-700.
I encourage you to try, but I couldn't find a way..and I'm no dummy.
Read this...http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... azda+brake
