Wilwood brake upgrade - Is it worth the investment?

[Just 1 More]

Is it worth spending the $ on the Wilwood upgrade or just invest in better pads and drilled/slotted rotors for the stock system?

[Ted G]

I have the Wilwoods and I only have about 100 miles on my car thus far. They are great and look great, but honestly, these cars are so light that it is probably a bit of a waste. In hindsight, I may have went with another set up.

[GoDadGo]

How do you plan to use the car?

1. Road Racing
2. Auto Crossing
3. Drag Racing
4. Cruising
5. All Of The Above

My car is a cruiser that has only made one pass at the dragstrip.

[JohnK]

I think there are other setups that will work just as well, but since you use the term "investment" I'll say that from a resale standpoint the Wilwoods may offer some "name brand appeal" over other setups, if that's a consideration for you.

[Papa]

Big brakes are expensive. Are they necessary on these little ccars? No. Do they work well? Yes. Is the "look" important to you? Is the price in your budget? You see where I'm going with this. I was weighing whether to just go with the kit brakes when I was configuring my kit. I knew I could upgrade down the road, but at an even higher cost and I really wanted the look, so I ordered them and feel that was the right decision for me.

[Al_C]

Do you need big brakes? No. Do you need 400+ horsepower? No. But you have (if I'm not mistaken) 425 HP... So why not get big brakes? They really do stop better.

Here's another analogy: I've been on the track a total of 1 day. It was Gingerman in South Haven, MI. You go down the back straight as fast as you can. For me, that was close to 100 MPH. That straight ends in a 90 degree turn. I was very happy to have the Wilwoods because they kept me from going into the wall. I've had all kinds of driving geniuses cut me off or do other stupid things. Big brakes are comforting in those situations. Just my 2 cents.

[john42]

Someday I hope to do some sort of "test". I have Cobra GT brakes and have often wondered if Wilwoods are better. Someday I hope to find a buddy with Wilwoods and do some measured stopping tests... Also I would like to know how they personally feel when getting on them hard and stopping.

[JimLev]

I went with the stock FFR (Ford) brakes and bought better pads that someone here recommended.
Slotted and drill rotors have less material to absorb heat so they probably will only work better when your rotors are wet.
Wilwoods do look better.

[Ducky2009]

I planned street on driving, not racing. I used the supplied front brakes and equivalent rear, but added the vacuum booster power brakes system (and upgraded front pads). Works great

[PointmanUSMC]

Someday I hope to do some sort of "test". Also I would like to know how they personally feel when getting on them hard and stopping.

Cold You may find with a "TEST" they both may stop you relatively in the same distance. Where the drilled slotted rotors ,stronger calipers and pads shine are consistent hard braking and higher temps over time. I would think most everyone loves the look of some freshly painted Red Calipers without a spec of dust on them but they are brakes. They are going to get dirty. Wilwood makes a decent product but there are others in the game as well. Brembo, StopTech, Baer to name a few.

[brewha]

Your day of driving or track day could be cut short if you lose a brake pad with Wilwood. They don’t carry them at any main auto stores that I know of. You need to plan ahead.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Consider that the Challenge Series cars raced HARD using Mustang derived brakes with good pads. For a street car I consider Wilwoods to be jewelry. Flame away.

Jeff

[PointmanUSMC]

Consider that the Challenge Series cars raced HARD using Mustang derived brakes with good pads. For a street car I consider Wilwoods to be jewelry. Flame away.

Jeff

Agree 100%

[Dave Tabor]

I ran the 11" OEM Mustang, 13" OEM Mustang Cobra and finally the 13" Cobra R Brembos- on the front - with 13" OEM Mustang rear calipers/rotors.

If you are on the 11"s, you can go to the 13" Cobras for cheap- Rockauto or even Amazon. Assuming you have wheel clearance, the 13s fill the wheel nicely and offer a bit more stopping power 'feel' in terms of torque.

A gentle suggestion is to determine what pads you want to use and maybe let that help you decide.

I track my car maybe 10 days a year and go through rotors pretty quick- it's nice to use cheap OEM rotors- pads cost more- just change them out together.


Dave
Gen III Coupe #17
18,000+ miles

[Fman]

Is it worth spending the $ on the Wilwood upgrade or just invest in better pads and drilled/slotted rotors for the stock system?

I am running the GT brakes with Powerstop pad kit along with drilled and slotted rotors and have 5200 miles on my car now with them. They stop this car with no issues even have a beginner track day out at Thunderhill with the GT brakes and had no brake fade. As others mentioned what is your end game? Do you want the cool factor of Wilwoods? Build budget? Personally I would not spend 5k on a brake upgrade for a car that weighs 2300 lbs. I would put that money into IRS, engine upgrades, etc...items you can't easily change down the road. You can always bolt on bigger brakes later on if you feel like you need them. Definitely can't easily add IRS. The GT brakes are definitely safe and not under engineered for this car.

[GoDadGo]

Consider that the Challenge Series cars raced HARD using Mustang derived brakes with good pads. For a street car I consider Wilwoods to be jewelry. Flame away.

Jeff

Sir Jeffski,

Your comments makes me feel a lot better about my GT-Mustang Fronts that are paired with 1995 Explorer Rears.

The Redbone Roadster stops well and is very predictable with this basic brake setup.

Steve

[Ted G]

Consider that the Challenge Series cars raced HARD using Mustang derived brakes with good pads. For a street car I consider Wilwoods to be jewelry. Flame away.

Jeff

I think that is the exact reason why I went with the red Wilwoods.

[Just 1 More]

A lot of great comments, Thanks guys. This will be mostly a cruiser with a few Auto-X days thrown in. I think i'll stick with what's on it and do some paint work on the calipers. I'll upgrade the rotors to drilled and slotted since I have to buy rotors anyway. What upgraded pads to y'all recommend? I'm running EBC Blue on my 68 Camaro and they work great but have a lot of dust.

[Tooth]

I went with willwoods for the reason Jeff said, "jewelry". But, that's what I wanted and cost was not an issue. I don't intend to track the car, just drive like an ahole time to time.

[RoadRacer]

A lot of great comments, Thanks guys. This will be mostly a cruiser with a few Auto-X days thrown in. I think i'll stick with what's on it and do some paint work on the calipers. I'll upgrade the rotors to drilled and slotted since I have to buy rotors anyway. What upgraded pads to y'all recommend? I'm running EBC Blue on my 68 Camaro and they work great but have a lot of dust.

I run Hawk HP+ and I bought from tirerack..

[Gentle Ben]

I finished my Gen 1 33 back in 2013. Chassis #199.
I wasn't happy with the brake performance since there is no booster.
I swapped out the kit master cylinders and went with a smaller bore.
It really helped.

[Just 1 More]

FOr now, I've decided to keep the calipers I have and upgrade pads to the Hawk HP+ and add drilled/slotted rotors. I cleaned and painted the original calipers, turned out pretty good.
20230610_180704.jpg

[DanQ]

Can you give me more information on how you added a vacuum booster into a '33 hot rod? I just completed my gen 2 '33 and I feel some power assist will help the low brake power without going to the $$$$ Wilwoods.

[progmgr1]

The photos below show how I did it. Not an easy job as I had to modify the pedal box to add a bell-crank mechanism and eliminate the supplied MC's. Also had to extend the chassis rails behind the firewall to pick up the mounting points. Another challenge was finding a vacuum booster that had a small enough "pumpkin" to fit under the hood and inside the side covers. IIRC, Summit had a search tool that allowed me to sort based on reservoir size and other features. It was a tight squeeze, but I'm satisfied with how it came out.

Also, FWIW, I saw a builder at the Huntington Beach Cruise-In about 10 years ago who had integrated a booster assembly out of a BMW. Sorry, no pictures, but my memory is that his set-up was slightly more compact than mine.

Keith HR #894

20210217_154514.jpg 20210223_164751.jpg

[TxMike64]

There are a few guys here who have built their own power brake setup. Several have used the Whitby setup. I'm using the Whitby setup as my base design and modifying it as I like [using Wilwood dual MC, lowering the angle, a couple other tweaks].