a thought on proportioning, brake size, et all:
braking is all about weight transfer - adding big brakes up front, but not doing the rear upsets that balance - most cars are set up with a slight front brake bias - this is to keep the average driver out of trouble - a little is fine, but a lot is worse than leaving it alone - nose dive is a very dangerous thing when driving fast, traction is lost, as well as control
the immediate reaction to the novice when installing big reds up front, without making other changes, is "wow - they really grab" - this is because they bite hard, and the nose drops quickly, giving you the sensation of big braking - this is not good braking - this is merely a huge weight transfer to the front - in a turn, this would be very bad - what you want is all 4 wheels grabbing evenly, with a slight bias to the front - not nose dive
changing the bias valve sets up more rear braking - this is a great thing in a performance car - it makes it much easier to set the car in a turn, and then power out without big shifts in weight front to rear - balance is everything
if you are doing big reds up front, do them in the rear, and set the bias to balance them - if you are only doing them in the front, you will need to set the bias much more heavily to the rear to compensate - in a setup like that though, you can expect to cook the rear rotors and pads fairly quickly on the track
besides trying to work out the balance of a brake setup intended for a rear engine car, i am not a big fan of big reds, because they add so much weight to the suspension - i love the idea of better brakes, but don't like that solution - in my perfect world, i'd like to see bigger aluminum hat rotors without changing the calipers
a really good pad, and cross-drilled rotors with stainless lines has made a huge improvement in braking in my car - not everything i want, and may not "feel" like it is braking all that much better, but there is a big improvement in braking distance
i still plan to have new rotors made though
