What brakes / front end for my R project ?

[e72phil]

Need some help deciding what to do on the front end of my R project car. Donor was a 66 car with solid discs all round and the A arm on one side is terrible.

I want to have ventilated discs up front and possibly bigger callipers. I am not so concerned about being totally "correct" for a real R. I just want to stop well.

Has been suggested I use a later SC front end complete. I plan to use the original 2 1/2/ turn stering rack though as I am sure I will need to ability to apply opposite lock quickly

Any advice or experiences on front end upgrades on any early car would be appreciated.

have posted a couple of pics of progress so far. This is definitely not one of those "weekend" projects for your early 911.

[Eric911S]

hello: What engine are you going to run in it? If you are going to use a little engine 2.0- 2.7 the sc brakes will work great for a track car. If you are going to put a bigger engine than those use Boxster or converted 944 turbo calipers. With the Boxster calipers or 944 calipers use the Carrara rotor. I would get air to the rotors as well. The struts for the bigger brakes either the Koni S , Bilstein or the Boge all with 3.5" bolt spacing for the caliper. I just sold a 69 T with a 3.0 twin plug, Weber carbed car with boxster front calipers and 944 Turbo rear calipers on a none flared car. Those brakes never faded on the track at all. Good luck in your project, hopefully I will get to do my 911R copy soon. Thanks Eric

[e72phil]

Eric,


just running a 2.0 litre for the moment until its all back on the road and then we can start playing with it some more.

Think I will go with the SC front end setup and see how that goes. what about the master cylinder ? I am told to upgrade to a bigger ATE unit.

[GreenT]

I've done this conversion and the the SC generation suspension and brakes are great under an early car, you'll love it. The SC brakes are beefier than the alloy 'S' calipers and will flex less under track conditions. I kept my original master cylinder and it's fine, but don't know if a '70 is the same as a '66. Do the rear with the aluminum trailing arms and adjustable spring plates and rear calipers too if you can. Use the SC factory sway bars on both ends. The picture here shows the Junkmeister sway bar still in the front, but when I did the rear over to SC as well I changed to the SC swaybars front and rear and the whole conversion makes for a very balanced car for both braking and handling. The factory sizes are fine on an early car. Hopefully you can find everything front and rear off the same donor car. The conversion is straightforward, especially in the front. In the back you have to be careful on the sway bar mounting points and be sure and go with the later gusseted type sway bar mounting plates. Don't know if you have Ace Hardware stores down under, but their John Deere spray can paint is an exact match for Bilstein green on the struts. Have fun, you'll like the end result -

[e72phil]

hi John,

thanks for all the advice and pics. Sounds like I will go the SC front end however, remember my '66 is a SWBcar so I have tracked down a set of steel rear arms and adjustable spring plates (as the car was originally converted to a LWB car with an IROC body kit when acquired it

Will decide if I need to change to vented rear discs as the car is ging to be very lightweight. It as all the right 'glass panels and we have cut off just about every tab, bracket etc that wont be needed. it will have plexiglass in most windows except frontscreen. I'm a bit worried about how light the front end will be because in its present state you can lift the front with one hand.

I guess a gas tank , gas and a battery will add to that though.

My car currently has a through body sway bar which I thought I would retain but will investigate your thoughts about the SC bars.

This is a fun project because you dont really have to chase down every little detail (the jewellry as some refer to it) to make it look right. After all these were race cars and meant to be a little rough.

For those interested, here's a pic of the car before we started work on it. beleive it or not there's a SWB '66 911 under there !

[Chuck Miller]

Phil,

Looks like you have quite a project ahead of you ... very cool

I switched to SC brakes years ago and love'm.... plus you'll probably be stopping about 400lbs less car.

Steel lines and agressive pads help as well.


Oh'yeah we took a ride awhile back... we stopped OK ae' mate?

Cheers,