EASY BOLT-ON ALTERNATIVE TO 944 FRONT DISK BRAKES
Probably the best name in brakes today is Brembo, followed by Wilwood (pronounced "will-wood," not "wild-wood"). Wilwood has a significant price
advantage over Brembo, and is the caliper of choice for nose-heavy, high-powered dirt and circle track V8's. In short, affordable brakes made for
severe duty.
Back in the day, if VW drivers wanted better brakes, the big, finned aluminum drums from the 356 Porsches were direct bolt-ons. That was when the
VW wheel and the Porsche wheel even had the same bolt pattern. We call those "wide-5" now.
But in 1964, The Porsche 356 went to small-pattern five lug wheels, four-wheel ATE double-piston disk brakes, and in 1967, VW introduced front-wheel
ATE caliper disks on the Karmann Ghias and Type 3's.
After that, to improve braking beyond stock, today the air-cooled VW high performance people have a selection of aftermarket bolt-on four-wheel disk
kits using simple, single-piston VW or Ford rear calipers and two 40mm piston VARGA or TRW-made (ATE copy) front calipers. And, especially for Super
Beetles, Porsche 924 and 944 calipers have been made to fit the McPherson strut front end, as well as the rear end on IRS suspensions.
THE CLONE
Reportedly made in Taiwan, maybe even by the same factory that produces the official Wilwood calipers, comes the Wilwood clone at a lower cost. The
clones are a joint Latest Rage and California Import Parts project, and both companies resist much disclosure. This is often the case with special sales
agreements.
The lightweight aluminum clone caliper has four 44mm pistons, no dust boots (racing style) and four bleeders, two on top and two on bottom.
An 1/8-inch NPT threaded port on one side provides for brake line fittings.
THE ADAPTER
A caliper needs to be mounted, and while CIP1.COM sells clone calipers, they do not offer mounting brackets. This is where http://www.vdubengineering.com
enters. We sent a caliper to Lanner Kahn, and he made a custom set of brackets for us that are a direct bolt-on for drum brake Super Beetles and
drum brake, ball joint Bugs. You can now buy these brackets on Lanner's web site. We're mounting these clones on our 1973 Super Beetle, a Chump and
LeMons competitor.
BRAKE PADS
The clone uses pads that have double the contact area of the ATE-style calipers. At the least, this means longer pad life, at the most better heat dispersion
and fade resistance. More pistons and bigger pads do not in themselves guarantee better braking. The main thing is tire adhesion.
BRAKE LINE ADAPTER
An important detail is the brass brake line adapter Lanner offers. The adapter fitting is metric M10-1.0, with the tubing terminated in a bubble-flare,
opposite of most US brake lines, which uses the inverted flare.
The adapter accepts the M10-1.0 fitting and screws into the caliper with its 1/8th NPT tapered end. Use Teflon tape.
PRESSURE GAUGE
As a rule, brake pressure gauges are not part of the average mechanics tool kit. But they are useful and inexpensive. A pressure gauge will tell you if
you really are not getting the same pressure to one brake as another, or if a bad hose is causing slow pressure release.
For racing purposes, you want to know exactly what pressure each brake caliper is receiving, and how different are your front to rear pressures.
This enables intelligent brake tuning.
We plan to run a 14-hour LeMons enduro at Barber Motorsports Parkway on the 1st and 2nd of February, on Porterfield R4-S pads. We'll keep you informed.
FJC
