I am going to be upgrading my brakes and i am weighing the options. Do the brembo's actually work better i was checking out the wcf site and it looks like a good set up. I was on the phone with them going over it and they seemed to prefer the brembo's for stopping power and balance of bias. Is the 12 inch vette setup really that front biased or is it a significant upgrade. How much different is it then the 11.25 inch Lebarron Seville set up or the Camaro Seville set up sold by archie. The more i look into the different set up the more confused i get. I would like to use vented and cross drilled rotors which i can find for the Lebaron swap, but how long will these be available is a question i keep asking myself. I need the opinions of those who have done these swaps and would like to know what they think.

What year Fiero?

quote Originally posted by IXSLR8: What year Fiero?

based on his screen name, I guess 86 GT.

I have the 12 inch Wilwood rotor and Dynalite II caliper setup on an 85. I do like it. There are many pad options and with the bias valve, I was able to get it dialed in to the way I like.
I am not familiar with the brembo calipers, but I am familiar with the Vette and most -12 inch setups.

-Dave

[This message has been edited by IFLYR22 (edited 07-13-2010).]

It's and 86 gt lol forgot to mention that. what kit did you use or parts and where did you get the adjustable proportioning valve? My biggest concern is a lack of performance upgrades or such with the Camaro Lebarron, or seville swapps. I have heard about the bias problems with the 12 inch vette brakes, and i've never used brembo before. I was looking at some of the wcf kits and i would rather keep the fiero spindles and such i know some of the ht motorsports stuff requires new spindles/hubs.

[This message has been edited by Macs86GT (edited 07-13-2010).]

Do a search for the $100 brake upgrade. You might want to consider this first and if you still don't have enough braking power then consider the other brake upgrade.

Looks like a good idea , but i doubt it will help with brake fade on hard runs.

I was also wondering about the 12" vette vs 11.25 Lebaron/caddy upgrade. Is the difference in size worth the increase in unsprung weight and increase in expense. I want 16 or 17 inch wheels, no larger than 225 front and 255 rear.
Any resource that shows increase stopping power of 11.25 disc vs 12 inch disc? Can't find it on search. even better would be a post or website that compares stock vs all the available upgrades (GA, 11.25, 12 and 13 inch vette). Want to spend less than a thousand even if I later buy aluminum calipers. Are any of the OEM calipers aluminum? Which ones can I buy aluminum calipers for.

I was initially considering 11.25 with cold air ducts. Future upgrade is 3800SC or turbo 3500/3900 with RWH 300 to 450. Spirited mountain road and maybe autocross later. Just don't want fade to be an issue.

Edit: 86SE Auto

[This message has been edited by Knight (edited 07-18-2011).]

Folks:

Just remember that while the Brembos are the best caliper out there for our cars (in my opinion), you will not get a real ebrake with the Willwood spot caliper that some of us are using - it is worthless, but may satisfy some state laws.

I also had the vette 12" setup from WCF and upgraded to the vette caliper/ 13" viper rotor setup on 17" wheels (very tight). The vette ebrake works well on the other hand.



Presently, I am running Porsche Brembo calipers and 13" Viper rotors from WCF with the Wilwood spot "gocart" ebrake calipers.





Thi setup is on 18" wheels.



Regards,

David

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Metallic Blue/Silver 1987 Fiero GT - 2006 3800 Series III Drive by Wire; Ported & Polished by TrippleEdge; 1.7 Yella Terra Full Roller Rockers; VS Cam; Tuning by Darth; WCF CAI & 1 5/8 Stainless Headers, 3" Exhaust, Power Steering & Much More; MSD Coils & Wires; Porsche (Brembo) Calipers on 13" Viper Rotors; 18X8 TSW Indy Wheels; Paint by Phoenix Auto in California City.

[This message has been edited by MountainHiBlue87GT (edited 07-18-2011).]

I've been going back and forth too. I was starting to like the lebaron cause you can run on the stock GT 15"s if you want to- but you have to remove a good amount of metal from the knuckle and one/both of the pads on each side in the front... So every time you change pads you have to cut a portion of them off? Lame. I don't know what the hell to do lol.

My 85 has the Wilwood 12 inch setup from Ryan/Held (now HT) Motorsports. It is about 10 years old now. Has a dash mounted adjustable proportioning valve. 3800 engine.
My 86 has the 11.25" Le Baron / Cadillac setup. I did this swap about 2 months ago. Uses the stock combination valve. Awaiting an engine now.
Both have 16" wheels. Both have SS braided brakes lines.

Stopping distance with the Wilwood setup is better, but not enough to really care. It is mostly due to different pad combinations as well as the adjustable proportioning valve.
I get about 15-20K miles out of pads for the Wilwood's, but they are easy to change. Don't know about Le Baron setup pad life span.

The Wilwood's are aluminum hats and calipers. The rotors are steel. The un-sprung weight is similar to the Le Baron system with Cadillac calipers. There are aluminum GM Metric calipers that replace the Cadillac calipers for less weight.

Either of these systems will reduce fade simply by their nature of a dual disc vented rotor, compared to the stock pre-88 rotors.

-Dave

I do not remember cutting anything off the Knuckle, but we did add an ajustable stop to keep the corvette calipers from hitting the shock and the stops have remained inplace for the next two setups.

[This message has been edited by MountainHiBlue87GT (edited 07-18-2011).]

quote Originally posted by MountainHiBlue87GT: I do not remember cutting anything off the Knuckle, but we did add an ajustable stop to keep the corvette calipers from hitting the shock and the stops have remained inplace for the next two setups.

The lower protrusion from knuckle that extends out into the area where the rotor is, at the bottom of caliper mounting area, near the lower caliper mount threaded hole. That has to be removed for rotors bigger than stock.




-Dave

[This message has been edited by IFLYR22 (edited 07-18-2011).]

lots of options here depending on your situation. lebaron, camaro, grand am, vette, viper, etc are all good options with not alot of cost in comparson to brembos. depends on wheel sizes, back spacing, your fabrication abilities, etc... brembo's are in a league of their own, performance and price wise. it boils down to what you will be doing with the car and how much you want to spend.