Seen any good brake calipers lately?

[jaybee]

Another site that I watch had the beginnings of what I thought was going to be an interesting conversation that didn't go too far.  Someone pointed out that the GM "metric" calipers and the earlier Chevelle/Malibu calipers that are commonly used in a lot of disk brake conversions have been out of production for years now.  They could start to become scarce in the near future and in any case OEM braking systems have advanced significantly over the last 30 years.  Unfortunately the topic didn't go anywhere because on that board the attitude was "why is this a problem, Baer, Wilwood, or SSBC will set you up."  True enough, but look at what their stuff costs.  Nice, but it won't fit into every budget or every build.  So, is scarcity going to become an issue with these calipers, and is anyone here using something else that's newer and OEM-based?  Any issues, considerations, obstacles?

[enjenjo]

I have been looking at some of the late model stuff just for this reason, Some of the later GM full size cars have a nice caliper and bracket that looks like it is adaptable.

[Pete]

This thread got me to thinking that I have a couple of NOS GM Delco Moraine calipers, new pucks and adaptors to early Ford spindles.
I haven't seen them for several years but I can find them if need be.
Email me for pics if interested.
tuspwrathughesdotnet
Pete

[1FATGMC]

   

I got GM metric style stuff for my back brake on my lakester from Speedway with no problems.  Looks like a lot of circle track guys use this stuff.  You can get different type pads and even the after market calipers from others aren't really that high priced.

More brake pictures (  HERE    ).

c ya, Sum

[jaybee]

Sum, you're right in that GM A/G bodies are the weapon of choice at bullrings around the country and in a lot of classes they're restricted to a stock-style caliper.  Plus of course they churned those things out by the millions.  I hear a lot more about brake feel these days and the contribution of things like brake line expansion and caliper flex.  Metric and Chevelle calipers are doing a fine job on a lot of cars, but once upon a time F1 brakes were the hot new setup, right?

By the way, I can't pass up the chance to mention the lakester pics and descriptions are too cool, I could study them for a long time.

[nzsimon]

not sure what your wrecking yards are full of but have a look at the mazda rx7 batman calipers they are a work of art all alloy multi piston meant to stop quickly cheap too!

[jaybee]

Simon that's great.  I don't know that RX7's are as common in the yards here but that's the sort of thing I'm looking for, or Frank's full-size GM calipers.  Are those front driver or rear drive GMs?  My thinking is that if there's something out there that's simple to adapt, works well, and looks good then why stick with something old (unless of course you're going old school)?