AP Racing Essex Kit quick review
08-20-2012, 06:46 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
AP Racing Essex Kit quick review
Just wanted to post a quick review and pictures of my newly installed Essex BBK. In summary, if you're on the fence, do yourself a favor and purchase this kit. The feel, responsiveness and feedback puts the stock brakes to shame.
My setup: MY06, 275 NT01 square on 17x10, aero front/rear, 2900 lbs w/o driver, supercharged ~350 whp, Tein SRCs
The parts arrived on Friday, installed on Saturday and tracked at Buttonwillow on Sunday. The guys over at Urge made an effort to get me this kit before my event.
It was a very busy weekend, installing brakes and doing other stuff on the car. The installation of the kit was very easy and seamless. You really don't need the instructions, aside from getting the torque spec on the radial caliper nuts & caliper mounting bracket bolts. The Spiegler lines came with this nifty rubber cap which you install after removing the stock line from the flare fitting. It was a nice feature to prevent making a mess and draining your reservoir while you install the new lines. The banjo fitting can also be clocked anyway you like, if need be.
The brake dust shield can be removed, with the hubs in place, despite Essex instructions saying it can't be done. You can undo the 3 screws with small vice grips. The dust shield itself will be loose and can literally be torn apart using channel lock pliers. Just work at it and bend the sheet metal back/forth until it comes off. The kit comes with red loctite for the brackets, which was a nice minor detail. Installing the brackets, caliper & brake lines are super easy. Make sure you're using a quality 10mm flare wrench to remove the brake line from the factory hardline. The bridge-bolt which holds the pads down uses a 5mm allen bolt up front and a 7mm nut in the back. I had to purchase new tools, as the 7mm isn’t something I had in my box. The bleed bolt is 7/16" in size and also an odd-ball. Do yourself a favor and get a 12-point wrench. The bleeder bolt on the outer side does not have much space for rotation. I used a pressure bleeder to get all the air out. Admittingly, it took me 2 attempts to bleed all the air out. First time I took the car for a spin the pedal travel was very long and didn’t stop until the pedal was almost all the way down. I re-bleed the system, using the manual method and was able to sneak a couple bubbles out (if that!). Maybe 3-4 pumps each bleeder bolt was all that it took. Pedal pressure came back and was rock solid. I also preloaded the brake pedal overnight to let any air out of the system.
Trackday Sunday. I'm running Ferodo DSUNO pads in the front and DS1.11 in the rear. I found the combination to be very balanced with my setup. The first session was used to bed in the brakes. Even with the brakes cold, I could tell the pads were working very well. It didn’t take much pedal to slow the car down. After cooling off the system and getting on the brakes for the next session, I was very pleased by the results. I found myself braking later and giving the pedal a quick tap to set up my target speed. The time I spent on the brakes was much shorter. The feedback is instant and felt very solid. I actually had to firm my grip on the steering wheel as I was braking harder. Brake fade...well it wasn't there. My first outlap was like the last. The AP rotor is significantly thicker compared to stock, not to mention the # of cooling vanes. The rotors never over-heated, even with my supercharged setup. With the brake situation resolved, I could spend my time worrying about other things.
If you can afford the kit, buy it. We all know AP Racing (and Brembo) makes awesome brakes. The quality in the metalwork is evident and is a true racing kit. I removed my spare front rotors from my tool box and relived that I don’t have to worry about cracking rotors trackside. I didn’t take a photo of the brake pads, but they are massively thick. With the cost savings between the pads & rotors, this is a no-brainer. I can see some people prefer the larger BBKs out there, perhaps for the visual appearance, but is really not necessary. If you can brake more efficiently using a smaller rotor, you’re going in the right direction. I also track motorcycles and they too are going towards smaller sized rotors.
When you’re ready to order, the guys over at URGE are great in communicating w/you throughout the order process. I’ve sent a couple dozen emails already before I settled on my pad selection.
Anyway, here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure.
You can see the rubber cap here:
Nicely machined brackets
My setup: MY06, 275 NT01 square on 17x10, aero front/rear, 2900 lbs w/o driver, supercharged ~350 whp, Tein SRCs
The parts arrived on Friday, installed on Saturday and tracked at Buttonwillow on Sunday. The guys over at Urge made an effort to get me this kit before my event.
It was a very busy weekend, installing brakes and doing other stuff on the car. The installation of the kit was very easy and seamless. You really don't need the instructions, aside from getting the torque spec on the radial caliper nuts & caliper mounting bracket bolts. The Spiegler lines came with this nifty rubber cap which you install after removing the stock line from the flare fitting. It was a nice feature to prevent making a mess and draining your reservoir while you install the new lines. The banjo fitting can also be clocked anyway you like, if need be.The brake dust shield can be removed, with the hubs in place, despite Essex instructions saying it can't be done. You can undo the 3 screws with small vice grips. The dust shield itself will be loose and can literally be torn apart using channel lock pliers. Just work at it and bend the sheet metal back/forth until it comes off. The kit comes with red loctite for the brackets, which was a nice minor detail. Installing the brackets, caliper & brake lines are super easy. Make sure you're using a quality 10mm flare wrench to remove the brake line from the factory hardline. The bridge-bolt which holds the pads down uses a 5mm allen bolt up front and a 7mm nut in the back. I had to purchase new tools, as the 7mm isn’t something I had in my box. The bleed bolt is 7/16" in size and also an odd-ball. Do yourself a favor and get a 12-point wrench. The bleeder bolt on the outer side does not have much space for rotation. I used a pressure bleeder to get all the air out. Admittingly, it took me 2 attempts to bleed all the air out. First time I took the car for a spin the pedal travel was very long and didn’t stop until the pedal was almost all the way down. I re-bleed the system, using the manual method and was able to sneak a couple bubbles out (if that!). Maybe 3-4 pumps each bleeder bolt was all that it took. Pedal pressure came back and was rock solid. I also preloaded the brake pedal overnight to let any air out of the system.
Trackday Sunday. I'm running Ferodo DSUNO pads in the front and DS1.11 in the rear. I found the combination to be very balanced with my setup. The first session was used to bed in the brakes. Even with the brakes cold, I could tell the pads were working very well. It didn’t take much pedal to slow the car down. After cooling off the system and getting on the brakes for the next session, I was very pleased by the results. I found myself braking later and giving the pedal a quick tap to set up my target speed. The time I spent on the brakes was much shorter. The feedback is instant and felt very solid. I actually had to firm my grip on the steering wheel as I was braking harder. Brake fade...well it wasn't there. My first outlap was like the last. The AP rotor is significantly thicker compared to stock, not to mention the # of cooling vanes. The rotors never over-heated, even with my supercharged setup. With the brake situation resolved, I could spend my time worrying about other things.
If you can afford the kit, buy it. We all know AP Racing (and Brembo) makes awesome brakes. The quality in the metalwork is evident and is a true racing kit. I removed my spare front rotors from my tool box and relived that I don’t have to worry about cracking rotors trackside. I didn’t take a photo of the brake pads, but they are massively thick. With the cost savings between the pads & rotors, this is a no-brainer. I can see some people prefer the larger BBKs out there, perhaps for the visual appearance, but is really not necessary. If you can brake more efficiently using a smaller rotor, you’re going in the right direction. I also track motorcycles and they too are going towards smaller sized rotors.
When you’re ready to order, the guys over at URGE are great in communicating w/you throughout the order process. I’ve sent a couple dozen emails already before I settled on my pad selection.
Anyway, here are some random pictures for your viewing pleasure.
You can see the rubber cap here:
Nicely machined brackets
08-20-2012, 07:05 PM
#3
looks great. always been a fan of the ap kit... let see how this one holds up.. ive had 2 friends that had nothing but issues with the ap kits.. they would constantly leak.. and those were the only people i knew who had the kit. these 2 were the biggest reason why i didnt bother picking a kit up for myself.
08-20-2012, 09:49 PM
#5
Registered User
Hey do you have the white wing on solid mounts (look like bolted to the chassis or something) and ASM front bumper running in the Black group I think? Anyways the brakes look great! 
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08-21-2012, 01:48 PM
#8
99SH, thank you for the review.
I cant stress enough how different this kit is from the Stillen kit. Everything is made from the same parts used on 2800lbs 500hp late model racers and Essex has an amazing design team. Im glad I specified the 299mm rotors, only BBK that actually saves rotor weight and provides ample fade resistance. We have 3 kits left in this batch, will take another 8 weeks to get the next set in.
I cant offer the promo pricing but we have other things we can do to help out, please shoot us an email.
I cant stress enough how different this kit is from the Stillen kit. Everything is made from the same parts used on 2800lbs 500hp late model racers and Essex has an amazing design team. Im glad I specified the 299mm rotors, only BBK that actually saves rotor weight and provides ample fade resistance. We have 3 kits left in this batch, will take another 8 weeks to get the next set in.
I cant offer the promo pricing but we have other things we can do to help out, please shoot us an email.
__________________
08-21-2012, 07:08 PM
#9
Registered User
Thread Starter
Yes, I was in the GPW at Buttonwillow on Sunday. I was testing quite a few things with my new setup (e.g new pulley on blower). If anyone wants a closer look at the BBK, I'll be at Bwillow again on 9/15 w/NCRC. One glance at the setup and it's pretty obvious this stuff is top quality.
Also, I do switch out the pads for street duty. No issues putting around town. ABS works fine, as is the front/rear bias.
You know you want it
Also, I do switch out the pads for street duty. No issues putting around town. ABS works fine, as is the front/rear bias.
You know you want it
08-21-2012, 08:15 PM
#10
Registered User
Yes, I was in the GPW at Buttonwillow on Sunday. I was testing quite a few things with my new setup (e.g new pulley on blower). If anyone wants a closer look at the BBK, I'll be at Bwillow again on 9/15 w/NCRC. One glance at the setup and it's pretty obvious this stuff is top quality.
Also, I do switch out the pads for street duty. No issues putting around town. ABS works fine, as is the front/rear bias.
You know you want it
Also, I do switch out the pads for street duty. No issues putting around town. ABS works fine, as is the front/rear bias.
You know you want it