What are the differences among all the Brembo calipers? I've heard of Lotus, Indy, F40, F50. I can't find anything on the Brembo site about this. Thanks.
Brembo calipers
- Thread starter PorknBeanz
- Start date
lotus is the ones that come with most Brembo "gran turismo" kit, it's the most "sucky" one. F40 is the one that was used on the F40; the F50 is the one that was used on the F50, duh; The Indy is the gold ones that Comptech uses on their big brake kit for the NSX. All of them are 4 piston calipers, the size compares like so: indy>F50>F40>lotus. I guess they were named by the application they were first used on, although I think the "lotus" might be an exception as most Lotus cars uses AP Lockhead brakes made in England. I believe the Lotus is OEM on many sporty cars including the Ferrari 360 Modena. Brembo makes many nice calipers for OEM uses like all the new Mercedes AMG BIG-ASS calipers(6,4 pistons), all Porsches(8,6,4,2 pistons), Skyline GTRs(4,2 pistons), Mitsu Evos(4,2 pistons), Japanese Integra type-R(4,2 pistons)etc, etc.
maomaonsx said:
this is true, but prior to a certain production date (which I can't recall) Lotus used the brembo caliper as OEM equip, but then later switched to AP.
Allen
Lotus Brembro
Lotus started fitting AP brakes on the 99 year Esprit. The OEM brembros on the early years are not that bad but the rotors need changing out. they are vented but small, narrow and not curved vented or drilled. They work great with Proterfield R-4 pads. I run them on my 97 Esprit on the track at www.thunderhill.com and have no problems and I am hard on brakes. If I did the upgrade It would be 6 pot AP's that the Lotus GT race cars run.
Lotus started fitting AP brakes on the 99 year Esprit. The OEM brembros on the early years are not that bad but the rotors need changing out. they are vented but small, narrow and not curved vented or drilled. They work great with Proterfield R-4 pads. I run them on my 97 Esprit on the track at www.thunderhill.com and have no problems and I am hard on brakes. If I did the upgrade It would be 6 pot AP's that the Lotus GT race cars run.
To clarify somthing.the Gold calipers that CT sells from brembo are f-40 calipers and the box they came in says "indy "on them,so I don't think that indy by itself says anything about the size.The indy line may include mutiple configurations,I could be wrong though so maybe I am declarifying
The lotus calipers fit up to 12.8 inch rotors and are made of a cast Al shell. These were stock on the Viper and lower end Porsches and do not offer any significant improvement over the stock NSX setup. The next size up is the F-40 (also cast shell), which can also be found on the 930 and 996 TT. These are made for bigger rotors, up to 328mm (13"). Next comes the "Indy" (Comptech) calipers, dimensionally identical in application as the "F40". The next step up is this HUGE 4 pot caliper which I have no idea what it is called, also billet and good for 355 mm rotors. Next after that are the 8 piston billet calipers good for 380 mm (15 inch) rotors. I have the 8 pistons in front.
lowellhigh79 said:
Actually I'm sure all the Brembo Porsche calipers are bespoke for Porsche. I know for a fact that the 996 TT calipers are different from the F40s. The 993 TT calipers is completely different from the 996TT but could be similar or identical to the F40s. Argh...who cares! I like my AP5200s.
Im really not trying to insult anyone but I just read this thread and it is filled with some incorrect information that I would like to correct.
Im not even sure where to start.....
docjohn = The gold caliper in the Comptech is not an F40 caliper.
The caliper used was nicknamed "Indy" because of the racing it was originally used for. The "Indy" caliper they use is a Billet Aluminum Race Version caliper. It has the same specs as the Lotus caliper in the Brembo kit but is much lighter due to the billet construction and titanium piston inserts.
lowellhigh79 = The Lotus caliper (and "indy" caliper) can accept a disc up to 13" overall diameter and 28mm thickness. The piston diameters are 36mm and 40 mm. This is much larger than stock calipers and DOES offer a significant improvment over stock. The Brake Torque on both kits, Brembo and Comptech/Brembo, is improved by as much as 30%.
The F40 caliper is NOT the same as Porsche's 930 or 996 caliper. Both the 930 and 996 calipers were specifically designed for those vehicles and only found on those vehicles. This is actually a pretty common mistake though. The bodies of thes calipers look very similar. The differences are in the piston sizes and mounting positions.
The Brembo 12.9" Lotus kit is an awesome upgrade. Especially when upgrading front and rear. It same alot of weight and increases braking by as much as 30%.
The Comptech kit is the same as Brembos except for the use of the Indy style caliper. There is more weight savings and slightly better pedal modulation and response.
Im not even sure where to start.....
docjohn = The gold caliper in the Comptech is not an F40 caliper.
The caliper used was nicknamed "Indy" because of the racing it was originally used for. The "Indy" caliper they use is a Billet Aluminum Race Version caliper. It has the same specs as the Lotus caliper in the Brembo kit but is much lighter due to the billet construction and titanium piston inserts.
lowellhigh79 = The Lotus caliper (and "indy" caliper) can accept a disc up to 13" overall diameter and 28mm thickness. The piston diameters are 36mm and 40 mm. This is much larger than stock calipers and DOES offer a significant improvment over stock. The Brake Torque on both kits, Brembo and Comptech/Brembo, is improved by as much as 30%.
The F40 caliper is NOT the same as Porsche's 930 or 996 caliper. Both the 930 and 996 calipers were specifically designed for those vehicles and only found on those vehicles. This is actually a pretty common mistake though. The bodies of thes calipers look very similar. The differences are in the piston sizes and mounting positions.
The Brembo 12.9" Lotus kit is an awesome upgrade. Especially when upgrading front and rear. It same alot of weight and increases braking by as much as 30%.
The Comptech kit is the same as Brembos except for the use of the Indy style caliper. There is more weight savings and slightly better pedal modulation and response.
Thankyou for responding.I guess what I was told by numerous knowledgible people is wrong
I would like to know what your qualification or level of brake expertice is ,and also why of all the great systems mentioned do you single out the lolus kit as being awesome? Please don't take my response as acusitory of anything!
I would like to know what your qualification or level of brake expertice is ,and also why of all the great systems mentioned do you single out the lolus kit as being awesome? Please don't take my response as acusitory of anything!Doc,
I work for a shop in West Los Angeles called Progressive Image. We specialize in Import Performance and also do some performance work for BMW's. We are a Brembo distributer as well as Comptech, Stillen and Stoptech.
I stated my opinion about the Lotus kit as being awesome because of my experience with this kit. I had the front and rear 12.9" Brembo kit w/ hand brake on my 99 NSX. I had the kit for 8 month before I upgraded to the "Indy Style Calipers". I ran those for 6 month before my car was stolen.
Besides having a good amount of experience with different brake systems on my own cars (wilwood on my civic, AP on my dads corvette, Stoptech that came on an M3 I recently bought)I get great feed back from my customers. I favor Brembo for alot of different reasons. Ease of installation, vairiety of pad choices, the special Mclaren Anti-rattle hardware and just overall quality of the complete kits. I now have Brembo Brakes on my Civic and we just took the Stoptechs off of the M3 to put on the New Brembo 14" front and 13.6" rear kit.
I know there are alot of people out there who draw their opinions from a single experience but I like to sample everything. Before we became a Brembo distributer I sold alot of Wilwood to my Import customers. When I bought my first Brembo kit I got to see how much better it really was. Then I sold a couple Stoptech kits because I had customers that requested them. Stoptech is another ?OK? company but after running Stoptech and Brembo side by side you get to see that the Stoptech doesn't even compare. I think Stoptech would be a great kit if it was less expensive. The Stoptech components are made in Taiwan and I didn't even notice some of there problems till I took them off of the M3.
Sorry for the long response. I just wanted to make it clear that it is not a one sided opinion.
Thanks for reading Guys!!! Take Care
I work for a shop in West Los Angeles called Progressive Image. We specialize in Import Performance and also do some performance work for BMW's. We are a Brembo distributer as well as Comptech, Stillen and Stoptech.
I stated my opinion about the Lotus kit as being awesome because of my experience with this kit. I had the front and rear 12.9" Brembo kit w/ hand brake on my 99 NSX. I had the kit for 8 month before I upgraded to the "Indy Style Calipers". I ran those for 6 month before my car was stolen.
Besides having a good amount of experience with different brake systems on my own cars (wilwood on my civic, AP on my dads corvette, Stoptech that came on an M3 I recently bought)I get great feed back from my customers. I favor Brembo for alot of different reasons. Ease of installation, vairiety of pad choices, the special Mclaren Anti-rattle hardware and just overall quality of the complete kits. I now have Brembo Brakes on my Civic and we just took the Stoptechs off of the M3 to put on the New Brembo 14" front and 13.6" rear kit.
I know there are alot of people out there who draw their opinions from a single experience but I like to sample everything. Before we became a Brembo distributer I sold alot of Wilwood to my Import customers. When I bought my first Brembo kit I got to see how much better it really was. Then I sold a couple Stoptech kits because I had customers that requested them. Stoptech is another ?OK? company but after running Stoptech and Brembo side by side you get to see that the Stoptech doesn't even compare. I think Stoptech would be a great kit if it was less expensive. The Stoptech components are made in Taiwan and I didn't even notice some of there problems till I took them off of the M3.
Sorry for the long response. I just wanted to make it clear that it is not a one sided opinion.
Thanks for reading Guys!!! Take Care
Where do the F50 calipers fit into the lineup?
They dont.
At least not when it comes to the NSX.
The F40 and F50 calipers are named after the Ferraris that they were designed for. They are used on alot of Brembos brake kits because of the narrow body and stream line design. The F40 caliper has 38mm and 44mm piston diameters and the F50 has 40mm and 44mm piston diameters. Both combinations are too large for the NSX's factory master cylinder. Either combination will result in a very soft pedal. The Lotus caliper was a home run for the NSX. Best fitment and best compatability with Master Cylinder and ABS.
At least not when it comes to the NSX.
The F40 and F50 calipers are named after the Ferraris that they were designed for. They are used on alot of Brembos brake kits because of the narrow body and stream line design. The F40 caliper has 38mm and 44mm piston diameters and the F50 has 40mm and 44mm piston diameters. Both combinations are too large for the NSX's factory master cylinder. Either combination will result in a very soft pedal. The Lotus caliper was a home run for the NSX. Best fitment and best compatability with Master Cylinder and ABS.
