Hello all,
Before I try and cram the very largest brakes under the front end of my 13" wheeled mini, what do I actually need, using standard sierra stuff, I have the option of 240mm vented discs, 260mm vented discs (which I think will fit) or would solid discs 240mm or 253mm do the job. What ever I fit I will use the wilwood midlite 4 pot alloy calipers in vented or solid disc configuration and a quality performance pad to suit

The mini is mostly spaceframed but all steel panels, not sure on engine yet, it could be bike engined or car engined, I estimate it will weigh approx 550kg~ 575kg with a large bike engine and approx 650kg~700kg with a car engine

Intended use would be mainly road and occasional trackday/hillclimb/sprint as funds allow

Cheers
David

low weight and maybe 150 bhp or so, dont think you need to go daft on size. if your goin to tracks id fit vented though.

You will get less air flow and cooling with a mini compared to a se7en. I have 260mm solids I think and have no over heating problems on track days and I drive quite hard and do 40 lap stints at brands.

Personally I would go for the biggest vented you can get. Unless you are really watching the weight and going into serious competition. What's the worst case by going big and vented?!?

I've got standard 240mm vented discs with drums on the rear. The only mods to mine are Yellow stuff pads for £35 and a 19mm master cylinder for £20.

I've done several track days and I can't drive fast enought to even make the brakes smell. Unless you are 200+ BHP standard brakes will be fine.

Stu

[Edited on 6/5/12 by whitestu]

I guess it depends on what you want them to do.

Heavy car that really needs to stop in short distances so it can trundle around corners is a vastly different proposition to a light car that, due to its agility, doesn't need to slow down quite as much is going to have hugely different requirements.

I don't have the nads for proper high speed circuit driving and have no concept of what a proper braking point is at say into the hairpin at Knockhill. I'll brake much earlier than soemone who's good at it and can exercise a proper do or die braking manouvre where an awful lot of energy is getting chucked away in a hurry..
You could argue then that I don't need as much heat dissipation capacity, because I really don't have the balls to use it.

Touring cars at the same corner can get daylight under the back wheels in a straight line.

From my small view of the world, braking offends me. Momentum is hard won and braking just throws it away.
This is equally applicable on the road where we're just getting around worrying about the cost of fuel or on a track where slowing down is only by necessity.
Take into account the grippiness of the tyres you'll be using and it further adds into how much heat dissipation you need.

Based on your proposed use, I would have vented disks with a choice of pads. Soft pads to get up to temp for hills and sprints. Harder pads for circuits.
Then consider how you vent them to get them working properly on the day.
If the vented disks prove difficult to warm up on occasion, you can get to work with the tank tape.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I have come to a decision, I'm going for 240mm vented discs if I decide on the bike engine or 260mm vented discs for the car engine. If I can't make my mind up whether to go bike or car engine soon I will just go with the 260mm discs

Cheers
David