dan farmer

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/9549/stasis_side2.jpg">

Several months ago i went on a fun drive with a few of the forum regulars. After a half-hour of spirited driving, I noticed my brake pedal was feeling slightly spongier. Not a lot, but some. I've always hated the fact that the allroad gets wimpier rear brakes than the B5 S4, even though it's a 400-lb-heavier car. They also looks stupid inside 18's. NTTAWWT.

<img src="http://ftp.speakeasy.org/~danf/puny rears.jpg">

Looking around for 4-wheel upgrades was fruitless, until I found an AW tech article on putting A8 brakes on other cars. Moss and Stasis thought this meant that we could make the Stasis Track Sport kit work on the allroad. 12"&lt;EDIT: was 13"&gt; vented rotors and S4 calipers sounded adequate to me. Of course, I'd need fronts, too. Moss put fronts on when I was in LA for some intercooler work, and I'm glad to say 14.5" (370 mm) fit inside 18" Superleggeras. Barely. The wheel weights had to be relocated. The axial clearance is huge, with my ET20 wheel/spacer combo. Stasis put on the rear kit, and the only mod needed was moving the mounting holes on their bracket by 4 mm. Their next-door machine shop whipped the work out in an hour.

The kit works great, though I haven't tested its limits yet. Not by a long shot. For winter use with my dual-spoke wheels, I'll need to get a set of 13" rotors, which are a quick and simple swap-in. Shorter caliper-mounting bolts and no spacers move the calipers inboard. Cheaper than a new set of 18" wheels and snows, plus 245-wide snows are not so good. Here's the finished work.


&lt;img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/9549/stasis_fronts.jpg"&gt;

&lt;img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/9549/stasis_rears.jpg"&gt;

-df

yzf996fltri

very nice!

gragravar

I have been eyeing 03Indigo's brake upgrade for a while now. The goes one step better.

I likey!

srs

Is that right?

I've been considering whether to get the StopTech Stage 2 kit (4 wheel rotors; Axxis Ultimate pads; stainless lines - but keeping stock calipers) versus - getting the whole deal (like their Big Brake kit).

How do you think the stock calipers are working on your setup? I'm wondering if its worth the substantial extra cost for calipers since I'm really don't plan on tracking it more than a couple of times a year.

03Indigo

Andrew, when you are ready, I will totally help you go big break kit!!!!!

dan farmer

I've got the Stasis Track Sport rear kit and Motor Sport front kit. The rear kit uses S4 stock calipers, which I got used from vwparts.com. The front uses Alcon 6-pot calipers.

I wasn't aware that Stoptech had replacement rear rotors for our cars. The problem is that our rears are solid, not vented, so they are thinner and use a different caliper. Their thermal capacity is very low. I'm sure Stoptech or Stasis rotor/fluid/line/pad upgrades are the first step and probably enough upgrade for an occasional track day. The difficult balance is that the more aggressive pads used in the front will throw off brake bias. Correcting this with more aggressive pads in the rear might well cook the solid stock rotors. If you can find a front pad that's not too much more aggresssive than stock but can take the heat, that might work well. I thought about all this, found a rear brake upgrade that solved the balance issue, and then it was quickly down the slippery slope to the giantest front upgrade I could get. I really like Stasis stuff. Very well thought-out and beautifully made.

-df

2tuŽbos1mission

NICE

JRingham

Are you still going to swap wheels and now brakes each trip, or just at the beginning and end of the season?

dan farmer

Probably brakes once a season and wheels every trip.