Wilwood brake upgrade

[Adam205]

Hi All,

I have recently put together a brake kit for my Chimaera and have some brackets left over. I was going to sell the brackets off on their own but was wondering if there was any interest in me putting together 5 more kits?

The arrangement has been developed to fit under the standard 15" Estoril wheel using a 300mm disc and work with the standard rear brakes. The advantages are much improved pedal stiffness and massively increased fade resistence. I have now done over 3000miles on this arrangement, including over 1000miles of fast road / trackday driving using Mintex M1144 with no brake fade.

The kit would be as below and cost likely to be in the region of £700

2x Wilwood Midilite calipers
2x 7075-T6 Aluminium mounting brackets
2x Plastic coated, stainless braided hoses with stainless fittings
All, nuts bolts and fixings

You would need to add your preferred discs and pads (lots of options available) on top of this. This makes the cost comparable to the Wilwood Ford Sierra kit, but with a kit specified to suit the TVR application. Any questions ask away!

[hoofa]

Well having had the wiloods I dumped them in favour of a hispec six pot unpgrade that still fits under the
15 inch fronts, far better upgrade for not much more than the willwods , the wilwoods are old hat

[Adam205]

hoofa said:

Well having had the wiloods I dumped them in favour of a hispec six pot unpgrade that still fits under the
15 inch fronts, far better upgrade for not much more than the willwods , the wilwoods are old hat

Interesting, although not much in the way of useful information in that post. I've used dynalites / midilites on a few cars and had zero problems, in fact they are very good in this particular application!

[lwt]

FWIW I fitted Willwoods to my Chim many years ago and it was one of the best mods that I have done. I was offered a kit at a price that I could not resist and as I already had 16" fronts it was easy. The braking balance was transformed. It seems counter-intuitive but what you don't want under heavy braking or in the wet is for the rears to lock first as, unless you are really lucky/skilful, the result will be a spin. With the Willwoods if you over do it a bit a front will lock and the car will continue in a straight line until you can muster the ability to release pressure a bit or cadence brake. Never had any problems with fade, noise, excessive wear or anything else bad.

[Classic Chim]

lwt said:

FWIW I fitted Willwoods to my Chim many years ago and it was one of the best mods that I have done. I was offered a kit at a price that I could not resist and as I already had 16" fronts it was easy. The braking balance was transformed. It seems counter-intuitive but what you don't want under heavy braking or in the wet is for the rears to lock first as, unless you are really lucky/skilful, the result will be a spin. With the Willwoods if you over do it a bit a front will lock and the car will continue in a straight line until you can muster the ability to release pressure a bit or cadence brake. Never had any problems with fade, noise, excessive wear or anything else bad.

Very similar thoughts when upgraded to Brembo.

Willwoods were a decent quality option a few years back and that hasn’t changed.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Morning!

Bit of a bump, did anything come of this? I'd like to upgrade the brakes on my 450 Chimaera. Be interested to know the where and how.

For reference, whilst I do have a good mechanical knowledge, I would be handing all the bits to my local (and trusted) mechanic to fit.

[indigochim]

I upgraded mine shortly after buying as my brakes faded badly. I suspect fresh fluid may have sorted that but I bought a kit from a member on here hansdaal. I've no regrets with them at all they look great with the TVR etched logos and work brilliantly however having read some of the other posts on doing the Brembo upgrade using brakes off a 5 series I think I would have gone for that option and saved a few £ and have what could be arguable better callipers..

[indigochim]

Link to thread on the Brembo upgrade.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

I have 15" fronts, so the Brembo option, err, isn't an option.

My 400 Chim came with Wilwoods already fitted, so I'm familiar with them.