Mixing and Matching Brake Setups
 

My car is getting close to being back on the road. The built motor should be done any day now, and then I will start putting everything back together.

Here is my question, right now I have stock 1.6 brakes on it. In my driveway I have an 01 SE with sport brakes, I was going to use these on my car. That is, until I saw the rotor replacement cost. I have access to a 99 that I can score the brakes off of fairly cheaply. I plan on doing the TSE Wildwood/Corrado upgrade as my track skills improve.

What would you guys do? Sell the Sport brakes, get the standard 1.8's and use them till I upgrade. Would keeping the sport rears give more of a balanced setup once I go with the TSE package? Everyone says that the miata is to heavily biased to the front, and I even read a thread from someone that said even with the FM proportioning valve, they had to much front bias. Would keeping the sport rears even this out a bit?

Of course money is a big part of the equation. I'll spend a little more now, to get a better set up, but I don't want pad taper and rotor cost to get in the way of future track days.

Let me know what you think.

Yes, bigger rotors and/or a more aggressive pad compound will provide more braking force, and shift the balance towards the back. You should at the very least have 1.8 sized brakes in the back, I wouldn't think the TSE kit in the front + stock 1.6 in the back would be terribly safe, even with a proportioning valve. Which you also should get. Ignoring the needs of your '01 (you're saying the 1.6 is your track car, right?) I'd put the sports from the '01 on the 1.6, along with a proportioning valve and the TSE kit.

My 01 is being parted out, I'm not getting offers of what I thought the sport brakes would be worth, so I'm toying with the idea of keeping them, but am worried about the long term cost of rotor replacement.

I can't remember the price off hand, but I think the sports are something like $60-70 a rotor, and the regular 1.8's are $20 each. I'm definitely getting rid of the 1.6 stuff, I was just wondering if a sport setup in the rear, was worth the extra money over regular 1.8's?

Pads will probably be hps for the street, the track pads will be decided later.

You should sell me your Sport rear calipers.

NAPA has Sport rotors for $45, which isn't awful, but yeah, they are pricier than stock 1.8 stuff. The ideal rear setup to complement our front BBK is the Sport brakes, although the 1.8 brakes work just as well. I have no trouble obtaining acceptable bias with 1.8 brakes in the back and equal pad compounds all around.

Our rental car has 1.6 brakes in the rear and Wilwoods in the front, and the bias is definitely less than optimal. The car came with 1.6 brakes so we left them for now, but it will be interesting to see if we can obtain a good bias balance with only XP12s and a prop valve. I have ~5 turns to play with on my turbo car using 1.8 brakes, so it may well be doable.

sell the 01 brake and get wilwood later save a little bit more and get something better later