They are perfect for street driven cars with low noise and less dust than your average pad. They are not intended for track use, but will maintain their friction characteristics from cold to over 800 degrees. They give an aggressive initial bite, but smooth moderate overall friction. The Wilwood ProMatrix brake pad is designed to be a performance replacement for stock pads on cars/trucks that are primarily driven on the street. Both are performance pads, but they are very different. The proprietary friction materials of these Wilwood pads are applied to D8 shape brake backing plates for GM calipers, or the Wilwood D8 replacement upgrades. Wilwood also has performance replacement brake pads as an upgrade for the stock C2 and C3 Corvette brakes. Wilwood has better than stock rotors and pads that go right on, with or without the Wilwood D8 calipers. Piston sizes were engineered to work with the stock Corvette master cylinder or Wilwood replacements, so no other parts need to be changed or adjusted. Both four and six piston calipers work with the factory, or aftermarket stock replacement, rotors and pads. The rear brake caliper uses four 1.38-inch pistons, to give the same front to rear bias as the factory brakes. The front uses four 1.88-inch diameter pistons. Wilwood D8-4 calipers come in two different sizes. The body of the caliper is lightweight aluminum, but designed for added rigidity, and forged for an extra measure of strength. The surface area of the piston's matches the factory master cylinder, but they use the same seals and stainless steel pistons developed for racing. The result of combining years of experience on race tracks with GM's original design is the Wilwood D8-4 caliper. Wilwood took into account the factory mounting points, rotor size, and even brake pad shape, then designed a caliper within those constraints. Though the C4 Corvettes were advanced in many aspects of power and handling, they moved backwards somewhat by going to a more pedestrian sliding two piston caliper. In 1965, from the minute they introduced disc brakes to their already excellent sports car, GM blessed the Corvette with four piston calipers. If you don't want to go this route, Wilwood also has complete conversion kits using the factory drum brake front spindle and keeping the rear drums. Any 1965-82 Corvette parts can be used, but the hubs and spindles need to match, as the wheel bearings were made bigger and stronger in 1969. If you have one of these classics, they can easily be updated and converted to disc by using spindles (front and rear), hubs, rear trailing arms, and bump stops from a later car. You can upgrade your Corvette to Wilwood brakes all at once, or one component at a time.Ī note about 19 Corvettes: Early C2 Corvettes still used drum brakes front and rear. Because the factory brakes were so well engineered, and in production for so long, instead of starting with a clean sheet, Wilwood designed direct upgrades based on the stock part shapes. If you want to keep using stock 15-inch diameter wheels, it is hard to beat the factory brake system, but Wilwood did. The second generation (C2) Chevrolet Corvette was so advanced when it debuted that virtually the same platform lasted until the last third generation (C3) car in 1982.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |