AP brakes soon - hooray!

[Simon Linton]

After years of prevarication, I have decided to get the AP stoppers that have so impressed me on other's cars.

Report coming after fitting - watch this space.

[Simon J]

Simon
Looking forward to your report as I've been a tad disappointed with my Volvo upgrade and it will be interesting to compare notes.

Simon

[basher]

Good Man,

you wont be dissapointed, you just can't compare them. I have drilled discs and greenstuff pads, But I would recommend the grooved version with Ferodo DS2500 Pads, I'm switching to these shortly.

Hedley

[Andy]

Yeah!!

You won't be disappointed :P

Hardest thing is running them in and not having a little 'test' too early.

Cool, is this ap brake discs and pads?

If you don't mind me asking, how much will it cost?

Thanks,

Neil

[Simon Linton]

£1240 for the kit, plus fitting - don't know how much that will be yet.

Best thing though - no insurance premium hike, if the chap I talked to at Norwich Union Direct is correct.

If so, at last I've found a logical insurer - making your car safer shouldn't be penalised by a higher premium!

[Simon J]

Actually you can compare them and that's why I'm looking forward to Simon's report. The Volvo performance brakes upgrade has more or less the same size discs (320 vs 325) and roughly the same effective piston area with the larger calipers. The only real difference is that Volvo retain the single piston caliper and the AP ones have four pistons. But the mechanical advantage is essentially the same in each case.

[Simon J]

Simon,

Here's an interesting fact about AP and Volvo performance brakes that I only heard today. I had asked Volvo to confirm the piston sizes in the standard and performance caliper and was stunned to be told that they were the same size, as I had previously been told that the performance caliper piston was significantly bigger than the standard one. And since the effective piston area of the AP set up is more or less the same as the Volvo one (in fact it's actually fractionally smaller)the only difference in braking torque over the standard setup is by virtue of the larger disc and different friction material in the pads. Yes, the bigger discs and pads will minimise fade but mechanically speaking the difference is only of the order of some 7% over the 302s and 15% over the 280s, plus an allowance for the higher friction coefficient of the different pads.

So if you're running 302s at the moment, a change of pads to Ferodo DS2500 which I believe is what AP now provide, should, in theory, be within 7% of the performance of the AP set up, at least in terms of braking torque if not in terms of fade resistance. Food for thought, eh? For sure if I had paid two grand for my Volvo set up I wouldn't be very happy.

I'll be very interested in your feedback so don't keep us waiting too long!!!

Rgds,
Simon

[rstrang]

Hi Simon,

How are you calculating the 7% and 15% figures?.

Richard

[sholtby]

Give us an honest report when you get the brakes. People so often like to rave about their upgrades when they are dissapointed. It just helps others from not making the same mistake.

Simon