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I have always been a big fan of big brakes on performance cars. The bigger the discs and calipers are the better. It just makes the car look faster. When you get to the point that your car is making a lot more power than the standard form it is always a good idea to upgrade the brakes. What does it help if you have all this power and you can’t stop your car when you need to.
Fitting a big brake kit on my Golf 5 GTI was on my radar. I started to look at all the kits that were available, I also read a lot of reviews on all the kits I could find. I would have like to go with a name brand like Brembo, AP Racing, or Wilwood. The issue I had with these brands were they were way too expensive. I know you get what you pay for but these kits were just out of reach for me.
I started thinking, maybe it is time I give another brand a try. Doing some research I come across a company called D2 Racing. I also found that we had a local dealer for D2 racing. I got in contact with them and they told me that they have a few cars running the D2 Racing brake kits and it was good a quality product. You don’t have to modify anything to fit the brakes. They supply everything you need to fit the kit.
So what did I decide?
The local supplier sent me some templates that I could print and cut out to see what size disc and caliper I could run with the 18″ Vossen replicas I had on the golf.
It turned out the only disc and caliper combo that would fit the Vossen rim was the 330mm disc and matching 8 pot caliper. What was nice about the disc it was a 2 piece disc. The disc had an anodized aluminum center had bolted to the cross-drilled steel disc. This helped with the sprung weight of the discs. The discs had low weight for there size.
Placing the order…
I got in contact with the local supplier for the brake kit, Formula Friction. There were a few questions I had to answer. The first question was what disc size I wanted from the list they supplied me with. The second question was what color I wanted the calipers to be. When you order the kit, The kit gets made up to your order. I went with the 330mm Disc and 8 pot caliper combo for street use. They have another setup for race use that they supply you with a disc that is slotted instead of cross-drilled.
The color, of course, was red, it had to match the red calipers that the Golf 5 GTI came out with on the back, I placed the order and now I had to wait.
There was one thing I noticed when I did my clearance check with the template. The caliper was touching the spokes of the rims. This just meant that I would have to run a wheel spacer. I didn’t need much. While I was waiting for the brake kit to arrive I got some spacers laser cut.
Because I was going to run wheel spacers I also had to get a slightly longer wheel bolt for the golf. The last thing I wanted was a wheel come off because the bolts were too short.
Receiving and unboxing the D2 Racing Big Brake kit.
I got home from work one day and the brake kit arrived during the day. It was a big heavy box. It looked like a very professional kit they way the kit was boxed up.
I opened the kit like it was a birthday present. I felt like a child. Every part of the kit was in its own individual box with its own protective wrapping. I was amazed by the quality of the parts. This kit was up there with all the big brands. All the parts needed to install the kit was there. Everything from bolts brackets and even proper braided brake line hoses.
Installing the D2 Racing Big Brake kit!
With the kit, you get a step by step manual on how to install the kit. Everything is straight forward. There was one modification I had to make though. You have to remove the old rubber brake hose from its mounting and fit the new braided brake line. The standard fitting has a flat on the one side. The fitting is also called a D fitting. The new braided hose supplied by D2 Racing has a round fitting without the flat. This meant I had to file out the flat section on the mounting on the car to make the new hose fit.
After this, the installation was a breeze. I had to double up on the wheel spacers to have the recommended wheel to caliper gap of 3mm to 4mm. Luckily I did get long enough wheel bolts to cater to the thicker spacer.
I was extremely happy with the installation of the brake kit. You don’t always get kits that just fits. I wasn’t even bothered that I had to modify the mounting for the hose.
First Drive, Conclusion and thoughts of this kit.
With the brakes bled and everything bolted back up together it was time to take the car for a drive. They tell you in the manual that for the first 1000km you must nit do hard braking as the disc and pad need to bed in. By not doing the proper bed in cycle you could get hot spots on the discs which could cause vibrations or shudders.
I took the car for its first drive and I just smelled hot brakes. My first thoughts were a caliper must have seized. I got home and jacked the car up, the front wheels were free turning. Looking at the discs I realized that the surface of the discs is a lathe-turned rough surface. This would help with the bed in process of the pads to the discs. This is the reason the brakes were so hot. It also generated a lot of brake dust.
I took the car for a proper drive and the brakes got better. They were not heating up so much as the first drive. The more I drove with the golf the sharper the brakes got. This brake kit was amazing, this was money well spent.
I would recommend this brake kit to anyone that wants to get their cars to stop faster and in a shorter distance without standing on the brakes. I could no run higher speeds and stop in a shorter distance without any brake fade. The car didn’t just stop fast but it also looked great with that big brakes.
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