SCCA Enterprises TB 001-2018 SRF Wilwood Caliper/Weld Wheel

Information from SCCA Enterprises to help you keep your car in top shape!
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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2018 6:20 pm
Technical Bulletin 001-2018 SRF Wilwood Brake Caliper / Weld Wheels
Weld wheel / New Wilwood Caliper clearance, there may be a clearance issue with some types of wheel bolts.
Depending on the type of bolts / washers fitted on the Weld wheels there may be slight contact with the Wilwood Calipers when used with new Pads & Rotors.

The Fix
Replace the NAS style /12 point bolts with 1 ¼ X 5/16 - 24 Grade 8 or AN bolts, head of the bolt inside the wheel without a washer, washer and Jet Nut on the outside of the wheel. These parts can be sourced through Enterprises or with your own third-party supplier.
In some cases, just removing the washer under the head of the bolt will give enough clearance with new rotors and pads.
Wilwood caliper bleeder Wilwood Bleeder Valves should be torqued to 10-12 ft./lb. Do not over torque! Damage to Caliper body and or Bleeder valve can occur.
Wilwood Calipers may take few heat cycles or track sessions for the bleeder valves to seat in the calipers. You may notice seepage around the threads of the bleeders for the initial few heat cycles.
Mike Davies
SCCA Enterprises

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PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 3:31 am
Is this the first everyone is hearing/reading about Wilwood calipers?
When are they legal to use?
How much better are they than the current caliper?
Cost?

Thanks for anybody letting me know.
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Former Specracer National Champion
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Joined: Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:42 pm
Location: Denver, Co.
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247-1
PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 12:37 pm
The Wilwoood caliper has been a 3 year project, with many ups and downs, one of the changes from the Renault caliper, it's a universal design...meaning one caliper body will work on all 4 locations on the car.

Current & Future Supply of Renault brake parts were the reason for the new caliper. It is not meant to be a performance improvement, design & function are similar to a well maintained Renault caliper.

Wilwood Brake calipers are finally shipping to SCCA Enterprises slowly...

There are about 200 in the field, next batch of a 100 is due in June
and another 100 in July so forth and so on.

They are legal now and about $400 complete per wheel, must be used in pair's ie front or rear axle or all locations on the car.

Driver feedback: brakes feel a "little different" but over-all they are the same.
Mike Davies
SCCA Enterprises
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PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2018 10:33 am
The feedback I've heard from a driver recently putting them on for the first time, and the results I've seen in the pits, is that the new calipers effectively eliminate all brake drag (never did see the wheel stop spinning after coming in from a hot session.)

It appears that the design results in greater pull-back of the pads from the rotors. The impact on driving is a slightly longer brake pedal engagement. From the feedback of the driver, it took a few sessions to get comfortable with the longer pedal, but eventually it became a non-issue. BTW, this was on a new set of rotors and pads. Still need to see if the clearance remains for the useful life of the pads/rotors.

Perfomance improvement? You will need to be the judge depending on the condition of your calipers/backets/pistons/etc. As Mike noted, "well maintained" is the keyword when making the comparison between the two. Price is certainly high but, arguably, the cost may be somewhat offset over time by the potential of increasing the usable life of pads/rotors, if they can be used further down into the wear cycle without encountering the severe drag and uneven wear patterns typical of the older calipers/brackets. One comment I heard from someone else is that the difference in drag is maybe 1/2 ft-lb of torque. As they say, "your mileage (performance) may vary"... ;-)
Bob Breton - SRF 51 - San Francisco Region

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PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:40 am
My experience

I had really bad issues with brake drag that cost me a lot to try to reduce with frequent changing of pads - very frustrating.

New brakes have resolved the issue but they have a VERY different feel to them - longer travel and less distinct feel, takes a long time to get used to and trouble with travel issue. Was a problem at VIR for the major and could have had something to do with the big event at the start on sunday.

If you have little or no issues with brake drag I would not go to the expense of changing as probably not worth it.

If you have trouble - likely worth it. I did set the track record at summit two weeks ago but absolutely do not think it had anything to do with the new brakes, as I am still adjusting to them it likely cost me time. I just don't have the same confidence in these brakes as I had with the Renault's. Hope it will come.

As Mike and others have said - if you have brakes that function well - there is no advantage to the new ones and may be some disadvantages.

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PostPosted: Fri May 18, 2018 11:25 am
I just installed the Wilwood calipers and decided to swap the front and rear brake pads to maximize service life. This really aggravates the long brake pedal travel and the mushy feel.
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:21 pm
Has anyone run thru a couple sets of pads/rotors now and gotten used to the longer pedal. After that much use can you say the new calipers are better in terms of overall performance gain? Ignoring cost, is there a performance gain? Do they seem to hold their no drag benefit over time?

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:19 am
I sure would like to try the next size up in master cylinder bore. Sure this would increase the pedal effort but may supply the volume of fluid needed to bring the brake pads in contact with the rotors with less pedal travel.

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 2:02 pm
I have had the new calipers on my car since May. Yes, the long pedal was an issue. My foot would get hung up on the accelerator pedal because the depressed brake pedal wasn't lining up with the accelerator pedal. We adjusted the brake pedal height to fix the problem. There has been no change in brake drag throughout the pad/rotor life.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 28, 2019 11:48 am
BTT -

I'm considering changing over to the Wilwoods. Now that the new calipers have been in use for a while, does anyone have current feedback on life with the new calipers? Any back to back data re: top speeds or lap time before and after changing over to the Wilwoods? Per Mike's post these are not meant to be a benefit, but do they give better performance?

Folks in the business are saying they're worth a half a second a lap on a 2.5 mile track. Is that reasonable?

Thanks all,

Ron B.
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