A friend and I are looking to make a custom brake setup for his car (there isn't too much available for his car, plus, he's preferential to Alcon). We're wondering what things need to be considered and how to address them.
From what I know, there are 3 main things to keep in mind:

1. Front to Rear brake bias/balance
2. Pedal travel (want to retain stock)
3. Proper caliper (piston) sizing to master cylinder

To address them, I've found the following:

1. F-R brake balance can be addressed by:

1.1. Piston area should equal as closely to OEM piston area as possible, either for the front only (if keeping rear stock), or for the front to rear piston area ratio (if changing both front and rear). However, I've read 2 variations on how to calculate equal piston area:
1.1.1. The piston area from one side of an opposing caliper (i.e. 2 pistons for a 4 piston caliper) should equal the piston area of the single large OEM piston.
1.1.2. The total piston area of all pistons of an opposing caliper (i.e. all 4 pistons) should equal to the piston area of the single large OEM piston.
Q: so which is right? and why?

1.2. Rotor diameter affects brake torque leverage. How do you calculate how much additional tq is on there due to the additional length of the lever arm?

2. Pedal travel seems it would be addressed by the piston area situation, so if 1.1 is resolved, this should knock out item 2 also.

3. M/C sizing would also seem to be related to piston area, so if 1.1 and 2 are resolved, item 3 should be resolved also.

So, am I missing any other items to consider? If so, what? What are the answers to my questions from 1.1 and 1.2?

Also, a couple of other questions:

- Who/where can we get to machine the caliper brackets?
- Is it easier and/or more cost effective to have a caliper bracket machined for a radial caliper or getting a blank lug caliper and machining the lugs to fit the oem caliper mounting points?

Thanks for any advice, information, and assistance provided.

 

This FAQ may help answer some of your questions:

http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=123981

 

This is where the library is your friend. My local public library has several good books about designing and building racecars. Yours probably does too.

 

Thanks! I completely forgot about that thread (I actually read it when it was started!). Maybe I'll ask some Q's in there. Thanks again!