16v brake upgrade?Custom aiirbox..

[NZ16v]

As part of a bit of a freshen up of the old girl i am about to undertake, i would love to upgrade my brakes to a larger diameter rotor, and bigger calipers.Was thinking Xantia or XM, as i am running 17s, which should give me a bit more room, and they have the abs sensors too. Anyone seen this done?? Also, i am gonna make up a cold airbox for her to- basically make up a working buck, and mold em at work i think, possibly in carbonfibre. Has anyone made one up before? I will post some pics as it progresses,and if possible, do a run for folk if theyre interested.
Have got a 306 GTI-6 manifold on its way over here, and will be getting Peter Taylor to do me up some Stage 2 cams, which with a bit of a head skim and decked liners, along with complete engine rebuild, and chip, should net a fair few extra ponies hopefully!!!

[Simran]

The brake upgrade is really easy and a very cheap way to improve performance. Ive got xantia activa calipers on mine, they come in two diameters, phase1 283mm and phase2 288mm. all will fit, just make sure you get a full set of 4 calipers to keep the balance similar to how it was before. ive got the 283mm set and the only modification needed was about 8mm of spacing on the caliper bolts as the xantia hubs have a different offset in relation to the caliper. I just used thick washers from B&Q and that did the job. The cable and hydraulic hose fit straight on in pretty much the same position they do on the 16v calipers. I bought a full second hand set off ebay for £80 including discs, avoid the estate cars, the rears are larger and may upset the bias front and rear as they are set up to handle more weight on the rear. I have a chart somewhere of what xantias use which size discs and pad compination, i'll have a look for it later. All the ssizes including the 288 discs should fit under 15s because the xantia never came with whels larger than 15in, so long as they're 7in wide, otherwise minimum of 16in to get them over but if you're running 17's you'll be fine.

[Simran]

and these are the pads the codes refer to so you know what they look like






the columns are Year - front or rear - vented or solid - disc part no - diameter - thickness - min thickness(i think) - pad part no.
The pics are from a black diamond catalogue but helps you see which models use the same parts once you've picked what size you want to go for.

hope that helps

[NZ16v]

Champion. Thanks a bunch, will try that. Do you have full specs on your ride-bhp, brakes etc? Would love to see the difference your throttlebodies made....

[Toddman]

The brake upgrade is definitely going to improve the stopping power but it is not really a necessary mod, but as the parts are cheap enought not too big an outlay.
The racer was running well over 200BHP and was on standard brakes albeit with a weight reduction and the ABS removed.
The standard brakes do vary quite a bit though depending on choice of discs and pads, I have found one of the sharpest combinations without spending a fortune is the genuine Bendix discs and Tekstar pads.
Never been in a valver weit the big brakes though so may well be proven wrong LOL!

Cheers
Luke

[Simran]

I completely agree with you luke, ive yet to drive another car with brakes i trust as much as the BX's, the brake upgrade often works out cheaper than good pads and discs for the car and also there is less chance of them over heating due to the extra metal in the larger discs so you can rely on them more. In terms of power, even though the standard brakes take much less effort at the pedal compared to standard non hydro cars as they are, the upgrade requires even less effort again which means you dont really feel how hard you are really braking, so you feel less scared in an emergency or when a corner jumps out on you. Ive still not really tried mine out in anger, very annoying now that the tyres are brand new and the car is ready to take some proper abuse and im stuck at uni and wont get to tough it for aaaaaages!