from unbias un-jbt sponsored owner and user.

first i have to say the fit of the kit is very impressive. the install was completely straight forward with perfect fitment. no additional brackets. and everything fit without any issue perfectly. the OEM dust sheilds do either need to be cut out or removed, but then it's smooth sailing. the rotors fit perfect, the lines are the correct length and the pads load into the calipers easily. and you don't need massive 45lb 18" wheels to clear the kit. what you end up with is an install that is honestly as easy as doing pads, rotors and a brake line install. i switched my fluid to ATE superblue when bleeding the brakes. and as a bonus the calipers are much lighter then stock, i'd guess they were about 4-6lb lighter, which being un-sprung weight, particularly in the front, makes a nice difference.

brake performance: immediately after install i took the car to the local park and ride lot to seat the pads. it's a big empty lot so taking it up to speed then coming to a complete stop from 10-15-20-30-40- and then 50mph was not an issue. even with the freshly flushed and bleed brake lines things felt a bit squishy. i was worried that there may have been a slow leak in a brake line, little response until you got about 80% into the pedal and then it was like throwing an anchor out the window. but we were in the mist of storm that dropped over 4" of rain in the immediate area. i brought it back in and checked the lines, no leak. just a paranoid concern.

the next day the car saw about 300 miles, 250 of which was highway and the brakes kept feeling better and better as the day when on, the pads were seating and finding their bite. pedal feel had firmed up and the feel was consistant through the pedal range until to stuffed it to the floor. at that point it's check your rear view mirror to make sure nothing is going to shorten your wheelbase for you.

the day after that i had an autocross. i was confident in the brakes performance and pedal feel after the drive. the feel and response on course was great and with 8 long runs (50+ sec) and speeds getting over 60mph multiple times on each run there was NEVER any sign or feel of brake fade. with the pedal feel it was easy to control how much force was needed, whether to slow a few mph off entering a sweeper or open box turn, or to haul down from 60 into a tight hairpin or closing radius box turn. the setup had excelled at autocross, that combined with the perfect fitment and ease of install impressed me. i hadn't read any review on the kits before purchase from anyone that actually drives their car hard, so i was a little bit skeptical, thinking it might be more of a show kit then a go kit. but it performed very well. would i install the kit just for auto-x and take the bump in class from it by itself? not if i were trying to ever win my class i wouldn't. could the same results be recieved from upgraded pads, lines, rotors and fluid? possibly, i was coming from a bone stock setup. i'm a big fan of federo 2500 pads and they are available in fitment for the kit, so i jumped on it.

+'s
fitment, ease of install
additional brake pad manufacturers
pedal feel
no fade
unsprung weight
allows for 15" wheels (can shave even more unsprung weight)
wow factor

-'s
performance could possibly we recreated by upgraded pads/lines/rotors, i'm personally not sure as i haven't compared the 2.
overkill (not that it's ever a bad thing when it comes to braking performance)

 

Are you running 15"s right now? Do you have any pics with them on if so, I want to see how it fills up the wheel.

 

i'm running 16" wheels now, my 15" panasports will need longer wheel studs and a spacer (just 5mm) to clear. ironically i just found this out 30 min ago putting the car in the air to toss the 15" panasports back on, i'm on the phone pricing longers studs now.

i can take pics with the 16" on as of now though, sometime next week i can with the 15"s

 

ok pics with the 16"s as i'm waiting for hardware to slap the 15's back on







the rubbing/paint lose on the caliper is not from the 15"s either, they are from the previous owner, no rubbing issues here (and once my hardware comes it to space my 15"s out there won't be any rubbing issues with those either)

 

Wow those fill it up nicely! Be sure to get the "good" spacers I have the cheapy ones on and the contact surface leaves much to be desired!

 

i'm currently planning on picking up an H&R set, but some 365 place has a spacer/lug nut category on their site, but nothing under it

i might have to e-mail them

 

Yeah those would work, I think that place was updating the spacer section I bet if you sent them your info they could help out. In fact if you sent it to me I think I might have a contact over there

 

cost??/

 

i picked them up used, but i believe they retail for about $1100 new

 

my jbt kit is cracking and chipping too. i guess the paint they used on it is pretty cheap.

 

those are bad ___ breaks.. too bad to hear about the paint chipping off..

 

looks great