Thread: Lightweight small / drag brakes

I'm exploring lighter, but not necessarily bigger front brakes for my RallyCross car. Think autocross on dirt. Speeds are lower and heat management is not an issue, but weight reduction would be a real asset. My class allows alternate brake components.

Given my budget, keeping the stock rear brakes/e-brake would be mandatory, as would the stock master cylinder (or an OEM MC from another Nissan). They would have to fit under the stock 14x5.5 wheels, as I have a pretty big commitment to that rolling stock. Just the front calipers and rotors, basically.

Most people around here would probably know them as lightweight "drag racing" brakes. Fastbrakes makes small single-piston front "drag" brake kits for a few Honda products, but only the big brake kits for our Nissans. Any ideas? Anyone researched this direction before?

I'm a little fuzzy on the rules as I ran mod and it's been a few years, but if you can ditch the bumper beams, DO IT. Brake-wise, there are lots of generic options, but you will probably need to have an adapter plate of some sort machined. I'm not aware of anyone making a lightweight kit for our cars.

vector is right

find the caliper you want to run

find the rotor you want to run

get the appropriate caliper bracket made up.

I run the car in Prepared. Brakes are open, but body work is not. Most of my weight savings left will have to come from front seats, exhaust, and brakes. The stock AD18's and rotors are total anchors, though, and situated a place that could stand to get lighter.

Most aftermarket lightweight calipers are multi-piston affairs and are physically large. Ideally, I want a light caliper with a single piston bore similar to stock that will work with an off-the-shelf diameter rotor. The less custom work, the better. If someone has gone this route before, that would save me effort of reinventing the wheel.

The solid OEM 258mm rotors as used with the Altima/Maxima rear brake upgrade might be usable up front. They're cheap, already drilled for 4x100, and hubcentric. They are apparently two pounds per corner lighter than the AD18 rotors. Aftermarket two-piece options would offer some real savings, but are silly expensive.

It seems like those could be matched with Wilwood Dynapro single calipers for .38in wide rotors. They are around $100 each and weight under two pounds per corner. I don't know what the AD18 calipers weight, but the AD22's are pushing 11 pounds each per forum post.

Caliper brackets could be a pain, as would the front lines. Totally custom. Saving around 10 pounds of unsprung weight per corner at would be awfully nice, though.

b12 front brakes? grind the caliper down nicey nice maybe even get them ceramic coated for heat shedding if cash isn't a issue. i believe the rotors aren't vented

im pretty sure the caliper bracket bolts up....i might google that myself