73T brake upgrades?

[911hillclimber]

Sorry to bring this up again, but torn between rebuilding the 3.2 in my 73T or upgrading the brakes.

Sometimes the engine will blow out a little blue smoke after a long stand (ie 4 weeks +) but used the car yesterday after 3 weeks, no smoke at all, ran so so well for 140 K mile old engine but the brakes in modern West Midlands traffic can be a bit demanding, so feel brakes are a better spend than the full engine rebuild.

The car has 3.5" front Bilstein struts and A type calipers, stock M type at the rear with drill stock discs all round, and Carbone squeeeeeky pads at each corner, they pull up straight smoothly.

Have been looking at various packages from expensive to much cheaper, but only the expensive ones are a complete bolt-on kit with calipers (only the front), mounting brackets, hardware, pipes and pads.

I have a few questions:
1
Who in the UK sell a decent package for the fronts? Design911 seem 2 x more expensive than some.
2
4 pot calipers (ie early Boxster) with stock boxster pads: will these be in balance with the M rear calipers?
3
What master cylinder to use? I have the stock 73T size (19mm?). Will this work (pedal travel esp) with 4 pots Fr / 2 pot rear?
4
Should I simply convert the existing system to a servo hidden in the smugglers box?

I would like to do this for around £1200 max.

[Gary71]

What are you trying to achieve with the brakes? Better pedal, fade resistance or stopping power v pedal effort?

[Nine One One]

You are probably never going to get the compromise you want. You drive three modern cars, the Citigo, Superb, and Boxster, all fitted with modern servo brakes. The 911 is fitted with Carbone pads, which are more designed for ‘spirited’ driving, so are never going to be at their best in traffic, which I assume you mean town driving, 30-40mph limits?
Why not just try another set of pads in the first instance, to see if that improves what you are seeking?

[911hillclimber]

Gary:
The latter I think. All the 'give n take' that is driving today and the more sudden slow-downs make the car more tiring to drive.
Never had fade, the feel 'feels' good imho.
I suppose I want to try to make the car more appealing to drive (as I get older).
Nine One One:
The pads work really well at cold slow speeds, i find it more killing sudden (not emergency) stops from the 50's to 30's range.
Over my 35 years driving this car on the road, roughly 80,000 miles, I've tried about 6 different pads, several Textar sets, Mintex and EBC and a few others I've forgotten about, and the Carbone are miles better, the Textar's were easily the worst, the EBC a close second.
I've tried vented stock discs and the drilled on the car now that are possibly getting a bit groovy now.
I've always on cars changed pads and discs at the same time.

I'm beginning to think a servo added would be the best call and that is what Porsche did on the SC and the 3.2.
The engine has the factory vacuum take off so an install would be not too hard. I have a used factory unit too in the shed, been there for a decade or longer, but not the pedal for the push rod.

[Mick Cliff]

Boxster brake conversion works really well. I had these on a 911T

There are 6-pot conversions available - again, I had these on a 911 3 litre hot rod

[Gary71]

Sounds like it’s more about the response, so a servo would be the way forward for that immediacy without the step increase in pedal effort it currently demands at the higher speeds.

A remote servo could work to avoid bulkhead mods to fit the later set up.

Something like this:

[911hillclimber]

Indeed, that is the unit That sparked this question Gary.
About £450.
Would need a lot of new solid lines run to fit, less so with the SC unit.
Going to make a card model to see if I can get it into the smugglers box tomorrow.

Thanks for the info Mick.

[rhd racer]

The Boxster conversion is good but you would want to upgrade the m/c to 21mm or even the Merc 23mm one to maintain the pedal as you are pushing more fluid. It sounds like a servo would be better for you

I went another way with the 914/6, and used the aforementioned 23mm m/c and Wilwood calipers which were bolt on at the front without needing adaptor blocks, but just needed the mounting holes drilled out by 0.5mm because of those crazy Americans using imperial sizes. I did match to equivocal rears, but that needed more work. Would struggle to do it all on budget.

Also, most Boxster calipers will be tired and need a rebuild- worth factoring in


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[911hillclimber]

Thanks Wayne for the details, excellent.
The servo above is too long to fit into the smugglers box without cutting/thumping inside the box, it would need about 30/40mm more relief to fit, so not looking good if i want to conceal it in the frunk.
Maybe could fit it if I butcher the smuggler lid (a lot).

Not sure which way to go now.

Take your point of the Boxster caliper rebuilds etc, more messing.
The Wilwoods look good and used extensively on many cars.

Think I will make an accurate card template of the servo and see just what is needed. Puttting a big hump in the lid may not to too bad.

The servo route is the best option.

[coomo]

Ive never really noticed the "issues" with early cars.Not saying they dont exist,just never been apparent to me.However,Im not a 400 miles over the weekend driver either!
I rebuilt a set of boxster calipers for a build.IIRC correctly S type do not work.Suffice to say, after considering the amount of faffing to make them fit, (adaptors, grinding etc)I sold them on.
Ive always been suitably impressed with later (SC onward ) brakes.They lock up if you want them too,and ive never lost faith in them.If you can find a suitable fix, id
upgrade to SC spec.Or buy Willwoods all singing dancing kit, but I ll bet daily driving you wont notice much difference,apart from your wallet.

[911hillclimber]

I think you are correct.
Servo route is out unless I use an SC bulkhead unit I have but mods to that area needed.
Contemplating a full calliper rebuild, fresh discs and pad and live with that.t

[Trevi1]

You can buy the brembos, fit perfect.