brakes

anybody know if it possible to put front brembos on to the rear if so how do you solve hand brake situation thanks

Why would you want to put Brembos at the rear?

Ofcourse its possible if you have the money. You'd need a custom made bracket to accomodate the brembo caliper, and a new rear handbrake caliper (possibly a spot caliper - like on expensive super cars) just to operate the handbrake.

The standard rear caliper aren't wide enough to fit over the front discs. They are just too thick.

Also - you don't need massive brakes on the back.

NB: You can't fit a hydraulic handbrake on a road car which uses the same hydraulic system as the foot brakes.

Ages ago, I managed to chop through one of the ABS sensors, which rendered my ABS inoperative for a couple of weeks.

It was mid-summer, so my commute home included the obligatory "making good progress" along the wonderfully twisty B road that forms about 10 miles of my commute

On a couple of occasions, I noticed a puff of blue smoke from the exhaust as I came off the throttle - it seemed worse the faster I went. I got 'that sinking feeling' when I deduced worn rings or a stuffed turbo

However, after a few runs, I found that the exhaust smoke only happened when I braked, not when I lifted off - well confusing

Then, one day, 'my' road was completely devoid of traffic, so I pressed on a bit - there's one stretch with a short straight, followed by a sharp left - I planted it and jumped on the brakes to be greeted by the most sideways moment ever experienced in a Coupe that wasn't on snow or ice

It turned out that the blue smoke wasn't my engine - it was my rear tyres - the rears were locking easily and I'd not noticed the ABS while it was working properly

Anyway, the point of all this rambling is that (IMHO) the Coupe simply doesn't need bigger rear brakes - it just needs decent discs and pads with well-maintained calipers - this is more than capable of locking up the rear wheels, so what more performance could you possibly want?

Interesting Nigel. I always found the rear brakes to be very underpowered - even with the rear brake compensator working correctly, which is why I upgraded them. Afterwards I could actually handbrake turn the car and it stopped that annoying rear end lift on hard braking!

My upgrade was to an Audi TT rear caliper (equivalent) which was single piston - with a slightly larger solid disc. This allowed me to keep use of the handbrake.

hi guys thanks for all the input so far the reason im asking is that im in the process of building a hi power coupe with 18" wheels i am going for a big brake conversion on the front to accomodate larger wheels and more power as i have the brembos from the front left over plus i have doner car with a set on and the cost of bigger brakes on the back is nearly the same as the front i was wondering what my options where and maybe utilise left over brembos thanks

I have an idea running throuh my mind for some time, but can't get the time to get the rear wheel off and try if it's possible...

How about fitting 295x10 discs from Fiat Ulysse?
TRW 295x10 fiat ulysse

Coupe 240x11 discs
TRW 240x11 fiat coupe

295x10, depth 56mm, c.bore 58 (trw sketch states 59?), holes 5x98
240x11, depth 40mm, c.bore 58 (trw sketch states 59?), holes 4x98

They are the biggest rear solid discs from Fiat-Alfa-Lancia parts bin (58mm center bore) that I could find. One would need to drill extra 4x98 holes, and make a rear caliper adaptor to offset the calipers 27mm radially and 16mm inwards.
The discs are 1mm thinner, but as min. thickness of Coupe discs is 9mm, it leaves 1mm of metal to wear...

I hope the rear brake compensator can cope with the increased size; I'm thinking about the mode because occasionally I park my car on a steep slope in front of the garage, and I'm not too happy with the stock handbrake performance.

If it's going to come down to cost then using the brembos on the back is going to be a no go - see Nobby's earlier post.

Tarox do a bigger rear disc conversion that uses the standard caliper, and compbrake to a solid rear disc conversion using a better single pot caliper.