Wilwood brakes needed

The aluminium uprights they sell are lovely little items, but, the manufacture of them is really uneasy about them being used on GT40's says they are just not upto the job.

I'd love some feedback on them as they are super cheap (£195 retail) and i wanted to use them myself, but with reports of them breaking on 7's running with big brakes and the older style welded steering arms also breaking i've been very concerned about taking the plunge and going for them. Be great to know that someone has used them in earnest without issue.

D.

I know the set you mean. I asked about running them on a 40 replica and was told a categorical no. Would love to be told otherwise.
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Trevor

You would be best to purchase all of the parts through Tornado to make sure you get all of the correct items, that it will all fit together and pass the IVA.

We supply all of the parts, brackets, adapters and fixings all of the correct length and thread type.

Otherwise I would get on an engineering course and be prepared to buy a load of parts you can not use at the end of the day.

Thanks

Andy
 
Hi Andy,

Any comment on the front upright issue? Perhaps you missed the questions posed by a few people on the previous page of the thread.

Kind regards,
D
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
Darren

We do not use those uprights or those steering arms.
I have been told that they are manufactured in China.

Thanks

Andy
 

Tim Kay

Lifetime Supporter
Andy,

Where are these arms made?
 

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Tim Kay

Lifetime Supporter
Trevor,

Wilwood part description (2009):

Narrow Body SL6 Caliper (lug mount)
#120-6584FS (RH) $429 usd
#120-6585FS (LH) $429 usd

Rotor (11.75" dia x 1.25" wide)
#160-2902-B (RH) $193 usd
#160-2903-B (LH) $193 usd

Hat (1.22" offset, undrilled)
171-8976 $124

Bolt Kit $7.90 x2

The hat was ordered undrilled and I machined it to match the Tornado aluminum hub. The offset was calculated with that hub as well which gave me maybe 1\2" clearance from the caliper to the inside face surface of the wheel (if I were to do it over I may have used that space up thereby narrowing my front wheel base width).

The only other machining required was a caliper bracket that was pretty simple to make. I have the scaled drawing if you like.

Keep in mind this is all $usd (2009 prices), imperial measurements and some basic machine work. I'm pretty sure you can get the Wilwood catalog online, all their dimensions are documented there. From this you can decide if the savings, if any, is worth doing your own developement. It was for me.
 

Tim Kay

Lifetime Supporter
It looks like they have been chrome plated???

Not a good idea
Andy,

You could very well be right, I'll give you that.

The heat that takes place in the chrome process may have compromised the welds in this steering arm. But it doesn't excuse, under further examination, what was already a very poor quality weld and, IMHO, a very poor design to begin with. Had someone shown this picture and told me that it could occur "in earnest" (as Darren says) I would have opted for something more like what I now have (see below).

Chrome parts are not unusual, I may be wrong but don't you sell chrome a-arms? My Tornado has had chrome a-arms since the original owner built it (I am kinda drifting here, a-arms are a topic for another day). What I'm trying to say is if welding is correctly applied then the chrome process should have little if any affect on their integrity. Conversely the opposite would be true.

I've mentioned in other threads here that I drive offroad cars. Many of my parts on those cars are welded chrome items that hold up under way more abuse than my Tornado steering arm ever will, so I'm confident when I say chrome on a well made part does not compromise it's quality.

Tim
 

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Guys, I think this needs to go into a seperate topic as we are drifting away from the original topic of brakes. I'd be very interested in hearing about the chrome plating process and any weakness it causes in suspension components as I like many other Tornado owners have opted to have my A Arms etc chrome plated by Tornado.
 
I wouldnt worry about the chromeing process and welds. If the welding is done well it wont be a problem. And looking arround my garage at the various parts I have, I would say Andys welding is top notch.
I, personally, would be much more concerned about what your chromed parts will look like after a couple of years of use. They take an awful lot of looking after, and I remember what bike spokes used to look like after a couple of years.
 

Andy Sheldon

Tornado Sports Cars
GT40s Sponsor
If you are going to chrome suspension items you must be very very careful.

You must be sure that when the item is polished that welds are not ground down or over polished producing undercuts. Most platers automatically over work the welds in an attempt to smooth the items out.

When the items are tanked the must be throughly rinsed and cleaned afterwards.

And most importantly after plating they must be normalised to prevent embrittlement. Many people do not even know about this problem.

Any items we provide plated meet all of the above criteria.

Thanks

Andy
 

Jim Rosenthal

Supporter
I got my Wilwood brakes from Swartz Race Cars in Illinois, USA. They are a WW dealer and very competitive on prices. Ask for Audie Swartz. These guys build dirt-track and stock car chassis and complete cars. Prices and service were great. I am using AP rotors and bespoke hats bought in by Safir.
 
Thanks guys, trying to get my head around the brakes as it's again something completely new to me.

Trevor here is an intresting thread about braking systems

How did you set up Brake Bias?

This chart will help you choose the correct master/cylinder sizes, to give you a balanced braking system. Put your values in the yellow columns, and the blue colomn will tell you what you need

View attachment Claytons brakes.xls

Im sure you will find it very intresting

mick
 

Jim Rosenthal

Supporter
I forgot to mention, since this is a brake thread, that Ron designed and built a very good emergency brake system for my GT40, using mechanical calipers obtained from a Pantera supplier and the rest scratch built by him. If anyone needs particulars on this, I would be happy to give them. It uses an original Zephyr e-brake handle mounted under the dash, but everything else was purpose built for this car.
 

Tim Kay

Lifetime Supporter
Narrow Body SL6 Caliper (lug mount)
#120-6584FS (RH) $429 usd
#120-6585FS (LH) $429 usd

Rotor (11.75" dia x 1.25" wide)
#160-2902-B (RH) $193 usd
#160-2903-B (LH) $193 usd

In review I see two typo errors, corrected below:

Narrow Body SL6 Caliper (lug mount)
#120-6584RS (RH) $429 usd
#120-6585RS (LH) $429 usd

Rotor (11.75" dia x 1.25" wide)
#160-6902-B (RH) $193 usd
#160-6903-B (LH) $193 usd
 
Last edited:
Update on the Ally uprights.

These were originally made by Raceleda, with fabricated steering arms. All of the failures known/recorded were with the Raceleda items.

Rally Design report no failures of their ally upright, but, due to number of steering arm failures recorded on Raceleda versions they have now made all their steering arms as drop forged items.

They do supply the forged items for people with Raceleda/Tornado/MNR type uprights who are concerned.

The big issue i had with them originally was the number of weld repairs on the castings. The Rally Design ones i know go through a number of post casting processes/checks to ensure the quality of the casting. I guess that's the benefit of having them made on an industrial scale by industrial casting companies not little jobbing shops with old equipment.
 
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