Highway8

iTrader: (11)

Classic. Someone says someone else is wrong when in fact they are the one who is incorrect.

To clerify, Racing Brake makes 3 caliper kits for the the RX8. All kits use the same 4 piston calipers.

Kit 1 is the stock rotor size (12.7") with aluminum calipers. This is a great way to loose some unsprung weight and increase brake cooling effeciency while not braking the bank. Can be used with most 17"+ wheels including the OE wheels. Will not fit Enkei RPF-1 wheels without spacers. If you have an offset of less then maybe 30 or 20 they might fit.

Kit 2 is the BBK with 13.1" rotors and uses the same rotor offset as the stock rotors. Stock wheels and most 17 and 18" rotors will work with the kit. Same as above. Enkei rpf1 wheels in the popular offsets 35, 38 and 45 will not work with this kit. The issue is the spoke and dish design of the rpf1 wheel gives very little spoke clearance.

Kit 3 is the same as kit 2 but has a different offset rotor design and caliper mounting location (moves caliper away from wheel spokes) This kit should work with any 17"+ wheel including the stock wheels. However there is no reason to get this kit unless you plan on running the RPF1 wheels. It cost more and there seems to be an occasional problem with rotor to lower ball joint clearance issue.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Yes, I was the person who worked with RB on the Enkei wheel offset BBK kit back in 2006. I never had any rotor rubbing so there must be some manufacturer tolerances at play.

Voodoo has several options.

1. Mock up the RB kit and check the minimum clearance between the spokes and RB caliper. If it's less than 10mm you will need spacers for those wheels to clear the standard kit.

2. I believe RB has a dimensional diagram for the kit on their website. You can possibly determine clearance using it.

3. Goodwin Racing sells both the RB kits and this wheel for the RX-8 application. If you contact Brian Goodwin he may be able to advise you on clearance.

However, the RPF1 was the wheel the Enkei offset BBK was designed for. I suspect you will either have to use the offset kit with clearancing or the standard kit with spacers and longer wheel studs. It would make more sense IMO to keep what you have and clearance the arm area. It shouldn't take much.

This time around I went with the RB OE rotor size kit (Kit #1 above) using SSR Comp wheels, plenty of clearance.


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Highway8

iTrader: (11)

No clearance issues for me but I am getting that low speed clunk others had mentioned. I have not pulled the wheels to tripple check everything yet.

My initial 60-0MPH brake testing indicates the front kit by itself has extended my stopping distance from 75ft to 85ft. It feels like I am getting more noise dive then before. Which would be consistant with an unbalanced brake bias. However my front pads are HPS and my rear are ceramic, so that could be part of the problem. If I were to run the front BBK and no rear kit, I would consider using a higher torque rear pad then the front pads to help with the brake bias.

However I will be installing the TCE rear kit wih 13" rotors and relocated stock calipers.

VOODOO8

Thanks Team! I am going the route of cutting down the dust shields but leaving them in place to retain factory geometries there and will grind some 'meat' off the lower ball joint mounts to open up some space to the rotor surface. I don't think enough metal will need to be removed to actually weaken the ball joint assembly (something like 2-3 mm I'm thinking right now), but in the end only time/use will tell...

renesisking

iTrader: (1)

I am curious, those of you that run the BBKs, I've been doing some research and it seems as if BBKs alter the braking of the car, mainly the bias and can ruin the balance of the car. I don't know if this is true or not and I am not very well versed on this topic so if some one could explain it would be great. I want to track my car and I've heard that upgrading to a BBK may not be such a bad idea, even though the stock brakes are very capable. I found that with my stock brakes that they get very hot after some hard driving.

Highway8

iTrader: (11)

My answer is basically in my last post but I will sum it up and add a little.

Yes going with a bbk in the front and stock brakes in the back will tend to shift the brake bias forward. You can counteract the effect by using a higher torque rear pad or install a bbk in the rear, like the tce kit that uses 13" rotors and a caliper relocation bracket.

If you track the car hard, you should already be using a sport or race brake pad. Stock spec pads can easily overheat and fail. You can get a lot out of the stock calipers when you use a quality pad, rotor and fluid.

Another good option is install the racing brake 2-piece rotors on all corners which will remove a good amount of weight, and then up front install the stock sized racing brake aluminum caliper kit. The aluminum calipers will remove even more weight and will help dissipate heat faster. Lastly use a good street/sport pad and clean brake fluid and you should have no issues with over cooking your brakes.