gtracer

Am I understanding that the price will be between $1500 - $4000?

afzan

3500-4000

Urge

Correct.

The same parts on other kits is $3500 List. However, sometimes something unique needs to be done from the brackets or calipers vs other cars due the high S2000 Offsets. Also long term volume will be less than other cars so, again a potential small mark up there.

It wont be more than $4000, my hope is that this is an simple redesign to fit the S2000, get a little volume and get list at $3500.

From there, Essex is strict on List pricing and only allows sub list during launches. Our last last kit we were able to go $300 off List, So I would ask a little more this time.

I hope that helps.

ipeefreely

How would this kit compare to a kit like the Stoptech BBK? I'm completely new to this forum / platform and have been searching for the right brake kit to satisfy my needs. But it seems like for almost double the price, you get (unncessarily) powerful brakes and a little difference in savings.

gtracer

You would have to compare this to the Trophy kit from Stoptech and even then the AP has it beat. Stoptech offers a 355mm disc but thats about it, doesnt mean its needed.

AP is a much smaller caliper, higher quality but the price comes along.

Depends on your budget but AP is a better piece than Stoptech.

TsukubaCody

AP supplies multiple Formula One teams with brake calipers.

Stoptech does not.

Urge

Great Question and I am glad you asked..

Just like any other part available for the S2000, you will probably find a wide range of cost for the same parts. There are $400 headers and there are $4000 headers, <$1000 wheels and >$4000 wheels and <$1000 shocks >$5000 Shocks. The simple answer is there are different levels of quality, materials, weight reduction and performance. The S2000 is so good, that in most situations the cheaper parts are as step back in most areas vs the OEM. As you compare some of the mid priced options vs the higher cost options, you tend to get the absolute best in performance, weight, quality, R&D for double the money of a mid priced part.

Below I will compare Stoptech Kits vs our Essex/AP Racing kits..

The Stoptech kits are excellent brake kits and have quite a bit of value based upon their cost. They provide an improvement in brake capacity vs OEM which is what the S2000 desperately needs as the S2000 is known to fade on track as well as easily crack OEM disc. Their kits focus on brake capacity while maintaining a good price and may not be optimized for weight, cooling the caliper/pistons or stiffness.

Our base URGE BBK kit cost $2400 and uses the same AP Racing parts used in Tier 2/3 level racing. They are optimized for brake cooling, with out increasing weight. We chose the 299mm rotor to keep brake biased the same and to reduce rotor replacement costs to less than $200, which is the lowest cost 2 piece rotor pricing. Additionally, pads are a few mm thicker so they last longer and lower cost to replace. Based upon the rotor design, number of vanes and gap thickness, our 299mm rotors move as much or more air than 320-300mm rotors with less weight, cost and no change to brake bias. So for 40% more cost, reduced unsprung weight and rotational weight vs Stoptech and lower maintenance costs.

This new kit is on another level and for about 80-90% increase in cost vs the base Stoptech, we increased our braking capacity via areo cooled calipers and pistons and an increase in rotor size vs the Stoptech kit while maintaining a lower weight than both OEM and the Stoptech kits. Those design goals are typically compromises and this kit will improve braking capacity over our existing kit which while maintaining the same or less weight.

The other main design goal for brakes is to be as stiff as possible. Large increases in stiffness will provide a noticeable benefit in brake modulation, which is all about control. Can you get your car to do exactly what you are wanting it to do with out locking up? Just touching the brakes in this situation or applying the maximum force in another situation with minimal brake deflection. Based upon the Radical Design Philosophy, this kit will be the stiffest caliper on the market, I dont think anything else will be comparable.

In summary..

1. Our Halo kit will have greater braking capacity than the base Stoptech kit and on par with the larger Trophy Kit
2. Will be lighter than the base Stoptech kit and considerably lighter than the Trophy Kit
3. Will have the stiffest caliper on the market providing the best modulation and control in a variety of braking situations

Finally, as others have noted AP Racing makes kits for Tier 1 Racing such as Formula 1, Lemans, NASCAR, Rally Car, Super GT, etc. These 4 piston Radical calipers are the same calipers used in several of those series either as a rear caliper on heavier cars or a front caliper on lighter cars. The quality on Radical Calipers are 2nd to none which points to longer lifecycle and value.

I hope this answers some of your questions. This Halo kit will be low volume and not for everyone, but if you value performance, quality, control while saving weight, this will be the best kit on the market.

Welcome to 2K community. Check out our site URGE designs | An S2000 Enthusiast Company. We offer custom parts exclusively for the S2000 that each fill a niche or void that we recognized in the community. In their own way, each part represents a best in class part in performance, weight or both.

If you are looking for more value vs performance in a BBK, check out our current kit. It is more expensive than the stoptechs up front, but our pads are thicker, last longer, lower cost and the rotors are 30-50% lower cost vs the stoptechs so in the long run, we will eventually have a lower cost kit. Also, as noted our kit is lighter and doesnt change brake bias which is important for control.

Thank you for reading..

andrewhake

It would not.

Zivman

I have some feedback in regards to where this kit lies....

in the grand scheme of things, brembo is 'THE' best brake manufacturer. you can debate and argue with me till your blue in the face, but they still are. Don't confuse oem brembo with aftermarket GT and race spec brembo.
What is being offered here is somewhere between Stoptech and brembo. The Urge setup is composed of AP components. They are no doubt good, but not brembo quality. I would argue that they are at least as good as stoptech, but again, they are no brembo (and yes, I know brembo owns AP).

I shopped Essex's (Urge's) previous kit for quite some time before deciding on the stoptech setup....

why?

I felt the kit that essex put out was really just parts pulled from the existing parts bin with a fabbed up bracket for the honda. argument could be made that is how all the kits are, and I wouldn't put up too much of a debate, but you can look at their site (essex) and see that same caliper, same set of discs used for all sorts of applications without much, if any differences... I know, I shopped them for my evo and the S2000. What I personally didn't like about the essex setup was it really was setup for heavy track use, doesn't have the dust seals and proper painted calipers that you will find on stoptech setups. If your car is a heavy track car, the Essex/Urge setup does make a lot of sense. Consumables add up fast. for a mixed use or street driven car I didn't see the value in what was being offered. You can find a standard stoptech setup for half of what this kit will run you (1650 bucks). You can get your choice of caliper colors, rotor setup (slotted, drilled) and have it be more street friendly with dust seals. IMHO the essex/urge is priced too comparably to brembo without being brembo.

one last thing to note is that on the previous kit, wheel/caliper clearance was not as forgiving as the stoptech setup. It sounds like this revision is addressing that. That was another turn off for me in regards to the previous setup

All this is my opinion. I have Stoptechs on my s2000 and Evo IX and I run a brembo 355 GT kit on my 350Z. I don't have hands on experience with the kit, but I also have shopped many brake setups throughout my yrs. If you are looking at 3000-4000 your money, IMHO is better spent on a brembo setup, or save a bunch and get the stoptech. The real appeal of the urge/essex kit is for heavy track use. if that is you, then I would consider it, if that isn't you, I think you can do better with another setup

Urge

I appreciate the opinion and it is valuable input for all to read so everyone can see multiple sides of the coin.

Lets start with the the "AP Components are pulled from an existing parts bin"
Yes, all of the Essex kits use AP calipers and Rotors from the SAME AP Racing Catalogue used in Professional racing.
Yes, Essex standardized on 5-6 Calipers an 8-10 rotors that meet the needs of dozens of cars. That is smart business and Essex buys in volume to provide racing class quality and performance at an affordable price. Each kit uses custom piston sizes to match the OEM piston sizes to ensure proper ABS application and pedal travel per car.
If you check out Stoptech, Brembos and Endless site, they share 5-10 calipers and 8-10 rotor sizes across their entire product lines spanning dozes or hundreds of cars. Each of which use a unique bracket for each car. No One offers a unique or exclusive caliper and rotor per car.

Yes, AP Racing Competition calipers dont use dust boots because they melt. The Sales Manager at AP Racing came from Stoptech and that was the number one issue with Stoptech calipers was melted dust boots. 60 S2000 AP Racing Kits sold and no-one has had a stuck piston due to debris from the street. If the tolerances are good, dust wont be an issue. I would imagine dust boots are needed with cast or lower precision parts.

As far as choosing your colors. Yes, our kits are not vanity kits. We have offered to custom paint calipers for customer and no one has taken us up on that. Lightweight, Stiff and Reliable Calipers seem to be the focus. My other car has yellow painted factory calipers and they dont stay yellow for more than a few days and washing calipers seems like a waste of time. All of the AP Racing calipers are a dark anodized metal color which dont look as dirty when they are covered in brake dust. Seems to be much more practical than a shiny, bright brake calipers.

So a quick trip to Brembos site and it notes "Motorsports Derived" Calipers on their GT Kits. I also see that the 305Z Brembo GT Kit is $3400.
This Halo Kit uses "Actual Motorsports" Calipers and Rotors for about the same price. Lighter weight, Stiffer, more racing features (scalloped pistons, asymmetrical design increasing stiffness, 3D milling shaving unnecessary weight, anti knock back spring, internal brake lines, etc). So I dont see one benefit to the GT Kit other shiny calipers and dust boots that will probably melt. To make a claim on quality would mean that there is a high or known failure rate with the AP Racing calipers and I dont see any threads on any sites with Essex AP Racing Competition Calipers having issues. Also, these are "Actual Motorsports" and not "Motorsports Derived" meaning they have to stand up to abuse on track for hours at a time, which is well beyond 95% of S2000 customers that do multiple 20 min session. If they are design to withstand extended track abuse beyond 20 min sessions, I can easily argue they are high, if not the highest quality.

As far as being too track focused. Our AP Racing Kits are using parts designed for the track use. But that is why everyone buys BBK to race safely on the track? You dont need a BBK if you drive primarily on the street. The Stoptech Kit and Brembo GT kit are "motorsports derived". Wouldn't you want a kit with Actual Track Designed components to drive on the track? The only street complaints with our kit were rotors that rattled, which we quickly listened to feedback and added anti rattle clips. People complain about pad squeal, but that is more about the pad choice than kit. So putting hybrid or street pads solve that problem. Again, no-one has had a stuck piston from lack of dust boots so I dont feel there is a street compromise with our kits.

Finally, if we are going to compare a Stoptech Kit or Brembo GT kit with an AP Kit, it should be our current kit. Our current kit is about the same price as the "motorsports derived" Brembo GT kit and 50% more than the Stoptech kit. In either case, our current AP Kit is lighter, has lower operating costs, actual track focused features, similar braking capacity and does not change brake bias. Also, I can argue our kit is higher quality as it was designed to be run in endurance races.

The Halo kit we are gauging interest in should be compared to the Brembo GT-R Kit. Which I looked up at and starts at $8,000+. If you notice their design (http://www.brembo.com/en/car/sportin...braking-system) they have the same symmetrical caliper shape they used the Competech S2000 Car in the September 2003 issue of Car and Driver. Timeless 13 year old design for double the cost. They still have exposed brake lines for $8,000. Symmetrical calipers simply were not designed to handle the shearing forces that opposing pistons put on the caliper and thus they are no where near as stiff as the asymmetrical Radical Kit. Additionally, the Brembo GT-R Kits are not milled as much as the Radical so they have more weight and less surface area for cooling. The Brembo GT-R do have some piston cooling features like the Radical Kit as well as Nickel Plating. Again, no failures or leaking on the Radical Kits sold by Essex and again and the Radical kits are designed to withstand Endurance racing for 6-24 hours so no advantage on quality.

So our kit is half the price as a comparable GT-R kit, lighter weight, stiffer, hidden brake lines but no nickel plating.

I hope we can get a little more interested in this kit so we can offer the pinnacle of calipers for the S2000.

If you are interested in more affordable kit comparable to the base Stoptech or "Motorsports Derived" Brembo GT Kit, please see our current kit. Again, similarly priced, lower operating costs, lighter and designed to hours on track as it is made from "Actual Motorsports" parts and catalogue.