best brake on a light weight 3.2?

[tdw28210]

So having trouble determining the best front brake option for my slimmed down '77,3.2 project I am building. I want to keep it in the Porsche family. I've read turbo 944 and Boxster brakes are good options. But what about Carrera brakes? I am guesstimating the car will weigh around 2200 lbs and it won't be a track rat.. After weight reduction has been completed. Plug and play is important too.

Thanks in advance.

[PCA7GGR]

944T brakes are a great alternate.

[winders]

930 front and rear is the best combo of Porsche, period correctness, and performance.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by winders

930 front and rear is the best combo of Porsche, period correctness, and performance.

Agreed....buy not sure the budget can't cover $2500 for original turbo stoppers.

[sc_rufctr]

What about Boxter calipers? (not sure about disks)

I've never driven a car with them but apparently a good & economical upgrade.

[saxen]

Not a Track car- use the stock brakes. Rebuild the calipers. New rotors, pads, master cyl and lines. Even if you are tracking the car for your setup the 77 brakes are more then enough for your power to weight- you will bell item by tire grip over anything else

[Ferrino]

Originally Posted by saxen

Not a Track car- use the stock brakes. Rebuild the calipers. New rotors, pads, master cyl and lines. Even if you are tracking the car for your setup the 77 brakes are more then enough for your power to weight- you will bell item by tire grip over anything else

I am working on a similar project (lightweight '76 with 3.2) and this was the advice that was given to me by Eric at PMB, so I took it. Kept the stockers and had them zinc plated & rebuilt, new hard lines, new hoses, new m/c, new rotors, pads etc...

[javadog]

If you want to save a little more weight, a set of aluminum S calipers and a pair of Eric's lightweight rear calipers would work. Hopefully you have ditched the brake booster; there's a big weight savings there, too, and you don't need boosted brakes with a car that light.

JR

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by tdw28210

So having trouble determining the best front brake option for my slimmed down '77,3.2 project I am building. I want to keep it in the Porsche family. I've read turbo 944 and Boxster brakes are good options. But what about Carrera brakes? I am guesstimating the car will weigh around 2200 lbs and it won't be a track rat.. After weight reduction has been completed. Plug and play is important too.

Thanks in advance.

At 2200# and for street use stock brakes are going to be fine
M/M, S/M and A/M all use the same rotors. All develop the same brake torque +/-, their only shortcoming is in track use where they can't get rid of the heat and this is more of an issue on heavier stock cars than on a 2200# car. In street use unless coming down something like the Stelvio Pass any of them will be fine.

A fronts are generally preferred for their stiffness over S front, S front are generally preferred for their lighter weight, wide A are preferred for their thicker rotors which add thermal capacity. You decide whats most important to you.

All can be optimized by using better pads, fluid and cooling.

adding bigger calipers on the same stock rotors is a false improvement

the rotors are the heart of the system and determine the thermal capacity which is the limiting factor

the tiers of rotors in order of thermal calacity are
stock
282.5x20/290x20 use w/ M/M or A/M or S/M

3.2 Carrera front
282.5x24/290x20 use w/ wide A/M, there is no need to change the rears and if you do the bias is unfavorably(for most purposes) altered

930
304x32/309x28 use w/ 964 or 944 or 993 or 930 calipers

beyond that a lot of custom work is involved

[porschenut]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

At 2200# and for street use stock brakes are going to be fine

Even at full weight they're better than fine, they are more than any street driver would ever need.