[nkgneto]

So after over a year of talking about Racingbrake and their BBK I finally got a set on my R. Install consisted of the RB 330x30 kit front, Rear 256x22, ET300 street pads & stainless lines all around.
That's 10.76 lbs of total weight and +4.28 lbs of rotational mass per side for the front.. Based on the used rotor weight

Tons of pics, Enjoy!

I weighed the OEM Calipers to see what the difference is versus the RB calipers. Keep in mind no pads were weighed since I forgot them at home.

6.48 lb difference in caliper weight. I included the caliper carrier and line to keep the wights fair. Caliper alone is 3.14 lbs.

Piston Material: Made of stainless steel instead of aluminum commonly used by other caliper mfgrs which can substantially reduce the heat transfer (approx 1/10 of aluminum) from the pad to brake fluid. Pistons are vented to further reduce the heat contact area and improve air circulation thereby

RB BBK & OEM rear with RB's ET300 pads (street pad) So at first I ordered all this.

Then decided to go with the special order Blue.

Now keep in mind although this Two-Piece is 330x30 the pad width is about 51mm for the BBK application. The OEM sized Two-Piece 330x32 has the correct 66mm wide pad width for the OEM caliper. There is one dubber on here that is sitting on a pair and should have them on soon.

RB's One_Piece Rear 256x22mm (10.1" x 0.9") MK4 GOLF GTI & R32 REAR

Now I weighed my OEM setup but these are used rotor weights so not 100% accurate.
I asked about weights in this thread

Results were these but without pics they can be arguable.
Front:
OEM = 9.715 kg (= 21.3 lbs)
Rear:
OEM = 4.245 kg (= 9.3 lbs)

I had time to go for a drive after the install to bed them and I drove to work this morning it's stops FAST! more updates will be posted.


Big Thanks to Warren & Mike @RB for everything, Boudah for buying my OEM front calipers (his funds made this happen), Osbornsm (The Brake Whore) for assisting me with the install. Jez for the deal on the Neuspeed RS10's and the Koni install. And all my Midwest R pals and Vortex buddies I've consulted.:wave:

This VW community is like no other. :heart:

 

[nkgneto]

*Review coming soon......

 

[Ryan E.]

Looks good, nice work as always!

 

[abeR]

:thumbup::thumbup:
its nice to see this car coming together

 

[Cspence]

What was the cost on this setup? Lot of unsprung weight savings there....:thumbup:

 

[BOUDAH]

please dont plastidip those wheels, lol they look so good

 

[nkgneto]

Thanks guys!

What was the cost on this setup? Lot of unsprung weight savings there....:thumbup:

BBK (2pc Front /1pc Rear) - MK4 $2k

please dont plastidip those wheels, lol they look so good

From far away in bright light they look good. :laugh:

 

[DasTeknoViking]

ooo ya, the car looks better with these wheels on that it did on mine... I like it so much I am getting a set of them for my TR GTi Brakes looks killah Luis. Glad the car is coming together nicely, great all around performance. The helping of NA goodies under the hood, good suspension and big brakes with proper wheels and tires - one awesome lil car.

I don't think the RS10s would look good on a silver R.... :wave:

 

[jerd]

Lookin good Luis!

 

[BOUDAH]

i would describe your car as lookin Sexy, Like a Fine Wine. meaning im digging the wheel gap and lack of tire stretch and LOW.

 

[osbornsm]

Oh yeah, and add some tire pressure :laugh:

Looks awesome, SO GLAD you went with the Blue!!

 

[BOUDAH]

Blue deff looks better than the Black or the Red for sure.:thumbup:

 

[jmh2002]

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: Great work.

I knew that the RB callipers were extra light, but the RB front rotor is lighter than I expected. Its really surprising. Bonus

I have only 2 questions, some of which may have been covered in other threads so apologies if my memory fails me.

- Why is the rear still a 256 like oem and not bigger (300ish like most rear upgrades)?

- What is the new front brake torque with the RB callipers & reduced pad area compared to OEM?
(maybe with your close ties you can easily get this number from RB - they must have calculated it)

Awesome upgrade. For the money it seems like the best all round kit available at the moment

 

[nkgneto]

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: Great work.

I knew that the RB callipers were extra light, but the RB front rotor is lighter than I expected. Its really surprising. Bonus

I have only 2 questions, some of which may have been covered in other threads so apologies if my memory fails me.

- Why is the rear still a 256 like oem and not bigger (300ish like most rear upgrades)?

- What is the new front brake torque with the RB callipers & reduced pad area compared to OEM?
(maybe with your close ties you can easily get this number from RB - they must have calculated it)

Awesome upgrade. For the money it seems like the best all round kit available at the moment

In this setup why make the rear larger if the front remains 330? It's not like the front is a 355.

I know I saw some torque numbers comparing RB rotors vs the competition but I can't locate them right now.

In my specific case I can't compare it to stock since I had small 11.3" front brake setup here is the reason why. for having the front setup on the car for a year and half it had tons of life still.

 

[Yak Meat]

The brake torque is related to a lot of different things. Piston Size, Number, Pressures, Pad and Rotor size and heat generation... the list goes on.

How do you like the ET300 pad?

Im thinking of moving to the ET700 because im pretty sure i toasted them on the track this weekend.

ECS stage 1R for me out back personally.

 

[jmh2002]

In this setup why make the rear larger if the front remains 330? It's not like the front is a 355.

On one hand you are absolutely right, especially if the front brake torque is also less now. So it was more of a question than a criticism

On the other hand, as has been discussed in other threads, bigger rears and a bit more rear bias could also be advantageous in combination with common other mods (uprated suspension, etc).

I have it my car (with 330s & 4 pistons up front, 308 & oem calliper at rear) and the balance seems great. Definitely a little less front end pull under brakes. Its small, but noticeable, and feels nice when braking into a corner.

I know I saw some torque numbers comparing RB rotors vs the competition but I can't locate them right now.

The brake torque is related to a lot of different things. Piston Size, Number, Pressures, Pad and Rotor size and heat generation... the list goes on.

Yes agreed, and Im certain RB will have calculated as part of their process.

nkgneto: if you can come up with the numbers at some stage it would be great to add to the comparison/review.

(what I expect is that ultimately torque will be less compared to oem R32, but real use and feel will be improved, including the bonus of massively reduced unsprung weight)

But it would be nice to quantify it numerically. :thumbup::beer:

 

[Yak Meat]

It has more torque than the oem i can promise you that.

You are going from 2 pistons to 4 pistons up front. So you have legitimate pressure instead of the static side and 2 piston on one side. Also, the brakes have an aluminum center so heat is retained about 1/10th as much as the oem setup.

I noticed this even in daily driving. The brakes will behave differently when they are cold to when they are hot. and when i do some spirited driving i have noticed that if i use the brakes in short succession they grab better than when i use them hard once, then not for a while, then again. They cool off that much and it truly affects the braking performance.

Like at the track i never got fade, i actually boiled my fluid before i got fade.

 

[jmh2002]

It has more torque than the oem i can promise you that.

I doubt this Yak, given the characteristics of the the oem caliper with its very large pad area, but hey, Im willing to be proven wrong.

Most of the other factors you mentioned are good points, but unrelated to brake torque.

Ill see if I can dig out my ECS numbers for what its worth and post them up again for comparative purposes.

 

[jmh2002]

Sorry that this is all ECS data in an RB thread, but I havent seen these calculations from anyone else, so they make a useful comparison for torque, bias, etc. Of course, we can also only assume that this data is correct.

R32
* Also shows ECS 6 piston kit, and the 308mm rear upgrade - I believe they only offered the 6 piston upgrade for R32 because it was the only one (of their kits) that matched or exceeded the oem torque.

Here are also the MKIV numbers because they show the rest of the kits and like this you can see the various data changes between bigger rotors and/or callipers, which is quite interesting.

Other VWMKIV kits with OEM rear

The Stage2v2 is what I have fitted and its similar to this RB setup for comparison.

Most normal 4 piston brake callipers are of a similar size, with similar size pad area. Piston area may vary somewhat of course but its unlikely to be hugely different.

Other VWMKIV kits with ECS 308mm rear

So, to take an example, I now have a total brake torque of 4.8E+05.
This is quite close to the oem R32 brake total of 5.0E+05, but Ive saved weight and have better modulation with the 4 piston calliper and better cooling with the true 2 piece design.

However you can see that my 4 piston/332 combo only makes torque of 3.269E+05 compared to the R32 oem of 3.787E+05. And that R32 number is only surpassed by the huge 6 piston cayenne/352 combo - and thats by using a lot of extra area both in terms of pistons & rotor/pad size.

Im guessing that the RB combo makes more torque than my Porsche 4 piston combo, but thats really just an approximation from eyeballing the piston sizes, and the fact that they are newer technology.

Whether they make more torque than the oem R32, im not sure. Perhaps its close to equal though.

Id be really interested to hear comparative numbers from RB :thumbup::beer:


NB: Yak, remember you have the 308 rears, so you have gained some torque there.
0.280E+05 according to those numbers (1.498 vs 1.218).
So, thats approximately a 23% increase in rear brake torque.
And its approximately a 6% overall increase compared to oem R32 brakes.
Not bad from just a set of rotors.

Ngkneto. Sorry for the thread jack. I hope overall the data is useful and applicable to this discussion.

Either way I think this new RB 4 piston kit is fantastic :thumbup: and probably the best all round brake upgrade available for the money.

Bigger kits are probably a waste, dont save weight like this kit does, and probably dont make you stop any faster unless you have huge rubber to translate that extra stopping power to the road.

If I was buying now instead of a few years ago, I think this kit is what I would purchase :beer:

 

[nkgneto]

Thanks for all the info.

After the Konis, Rear sway, light wheels and new brakes I gotta say Wow this car handles so well from stock.
I need one of those ricer pillows for the seatbelt to avoid the bruises :laugh:
Seriously though it stops like a mutha!