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I have heard people say “Once a Petrol Head always a Petrol Head”. You always look at what can you do better and what can you make better. As my Polo was a bit faster than a standard Polo I decided it was time to look at brakes. The most common things the guys would do are Power Brake discs and Endless pads. This is a pricey option but the car stops better and the discs last longer.
Me, I am different. I like to look at the options and do what other people have not done. Sometimes I would do what was not commonly done. I found a set of rear disc brake calipers of a Golf 3 GTI. All I had to get was the actual axle shafts and a set of discs and pads and the handbrake cables. A few hours later the brakes were fitted. I had to do a slight modification to the handbrake cables. The cables did not fit directly. It was an easy enough mod to make it work. I also had to get the brake master cylinder off a 1.6 liter Polo. This master cylinder had a bigger size piston and was suited for the brake setup I had on. At this stage, I thought I was done with the brakes.
The car looked “too standard”
My Volkswagen Polo now looked standard and was a true sleeper. Apart from the big wheels, exhaust tip showing at the back, and being 40mm lower the car still looked like a standard 1.4-liter Polo. I thought I would let the car look a bit better. I got a set of clear indicator lenses for the front and also a new set of rear lights with clear Indicators. This on its own transformed the look of the car. I also got an aftermarket wing sprayed and fitted that on the boot. For a finishing touch, I bought an Audi S3 badge. I fitted that with the later model 2.0 badge on the back so that says S2.0 in the back.
Fit what braked on the Polo?
The Polo now had the look to go with what it actually was. It wasn’t overdone but it was different. I still wasn’t too happy with the brakes on the car. Looking at upgrading discs and pads was still on the “to do” list. I then stumbled across big brake kits. This was very interesting but also very expensive, the makes available were Brembo and Wilwood. They have been doing this for years, but it was just too expensive to go that route. I was about to give up my search for a big brake kit. I found a local company importing JSP 4 pot calipers. They do a combo set for the application and I ended up ordering the brake calipers with discs and pads.
What I was supplied with was 2 off 4 pot JSP Calipers and 2 off 310mm cross-drilled and slotted brake rotors (Discs belonging to Mercedes S600) with anodized disc centers. I got the kit very quickly after ordering it, as they had stock of all the parts. I didn’t want to take the hub on the car apart to make the mounting brackets. So I ended up going to the scrapyard and buy another front stub axle. Now I could work out how to make this kit fit.
How to mount these brakes.
Ended up designing a set of mounting brackets on 3D CAD. I asked a friend of mine just to do an FEA Analysis on the mounting. Brakes are not something you play with if something brakes…well you have an expensive break. It ended up that I could make the mounting bracket from Aluminium. It had to be 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum. The material was a bit pricey. Luckily I could machine the mountings myself on the milling machine we had at work. Now I had the brake kit and the mountings. I just had to sort out the piping from the hard lines to the calipers.
What brake pipes to use?
I did some research on flexible brake pipes. The best flexible brake piping to use for a performance application was to use a braided Teflon tube. It eliminated the spongy feeling on the brakes. I found a supplier that sells Goodridge products. He could help me with everything I need to make up the hoses myself. All the fitting was reusable fittings.
There was one thing that was bothering me. The fact that the caliber was so wide. I didn’t know if the standard space-saver spare wheel will fit over the calipers. I did a dummy assembly and found that the spare wheel does not fit over the caliper. The easiest fix was to get a full-size 17″ mag and tire and use that as a spare. Now I was happy and could do the upgrade. The next weekend I took the front hubs apart on the Polo. I stripped off the standard calipers and disc rotors.
As I already did a dummy assemble of the setup everything just fitted together perfectly. I made up the Goodridge hoses fitted them and bled the brakes. The brake pads that were fitted to the setup were EBC Yellow stuff. When I looked on the box the pads came in, it said it was meant for an Aston Martin DB7. I fitted the wheel back on the car and this is how it looked:
Although I had to let the brakes, bed in first I could feel that there was a lot more stopping power. This was a really good upgrade. The brakes were a little bit of a giveaway, but only true petrol heads really noticed the brakes.
So what now?
Now that the brakes were sorted on the car the next phase in upgrading the power could begin…
Here is some performance brake kits
HPA Front Big Brake Kit – Slotted Rotors (355x32mm) – With Red Calipers« Everything comes together nicely. | More Boost, More Power? »
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