Big Brake Kit - UUC Direct Fit caliper, 11.75" rotor, FRONT '84-'91 E30 325/320/318 (all incl. iX)
$949.00 -- Big Brake Kit - UUC Direct Fit caliper, 11.75" rotor, FRONT '84-'91 E30 325/320/318 (all models incl. iX)
SPECIAL
PRICING IN EFFECT!
ALL NEW PRODUCT FOR 2010!
Revolutionary "Direct Fit" big brake kit is the only one of it's kind
for your 1984-1991 E30 325/318. The Direct Fit BBK is not a
generic caliper adapted to your car; it is a purpose-built caliper that
bolts to the wheel hub just like the original brake system without an
intermediate bracket. As an added component of this specialized
design, the caliper has been specially shaped for maximum compatibility
with E30 wheels to minimize and often eliminate the need for wheel
spacers.
This caliper is made by UUC in Alpharetta, GA and is not a Wilwood
product.
Incorporating the real-world needs
of racers
and street car enthusiasts, UUC's "rationalized" brake package
that uses a 4-piston caliper designed specifically as a "direct fit"
for the E30 3-series for better braking, lighter
weight, and idealized front/rear brake bias, all in an affordable
package with a large offering of performance street and race pads.
Our front kit features a 2-piece 11.75" rotor with our own UUC Direct
Fit 4-piston calipers. Requires 15" or larger wheels.
Special features that make this kit unique:
- Direct Fit caliper built as a bolt-on for E30, no intermediate bracket.
- Ultra-low clearance means no spacers for some of the most popular 15" race wheels such as the D-Force LTW 15x7.
- Staggered piston sizes for progressive pad engagement and reduced tapered pad wear.
- All consummable parts easily available; uses a standard Wilwood pad shape (7212) or other-brand equivalent and standard Wilwood 11.75" rotor.
All kits include stainless steel brake lines
(including rear lines), Hawk Performance Ceramic street pads, and all
brackets and hardware required for installation.
This kit part number fits the front of these vehicles:
1984-1991 E30 325, 323, 320, 318 (all variants including iX)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Are the pistons sized to prevent too much forward brake bias?
Yes, they certainly are. We keep a comprehensive database of all of the factors of the OE BMW brake systems (pad/piston/rotor dimensions, brake line pressure, etc.) for which we develop brake kits.
With the E30, we're within approximately 1% of perfect mechanical bias match. The term "mechanical" bias is used when examining all of the attributes with assumptions about identical pad material.
Keep in mind that bias is significantly affected by pad material choice, the difference in coefficient of friction (cF) of a pad material has an even greater effect. For example, switching between two different but similar street compounds (specific examples: Wilwood BP-10 vs. BP-20) will have a 3X greater effect, literally almost 4% shift in whichever direction, front or back, that has the higher-cF pad.
Are the pistons all the same size or staggered sizes?
We use a staggered piston sizing - that means the leading piston is smaller than the trailing, designed to minimize the effect of tapered pad wear that results from any brake pad's normal tendency to lift it's trailing edge while the leading edge is pressed into the rotor. Using a this form of staggered pistons results in better (firmer) pedal feel, better (and more even) pad wear, and has a corrective effect on the bias when comparing a single-piston caliper (the rear) with a multi-piston caliper (the front).
Is this kit legal for BMW CCA Club Racing?
The 4-piston UUC Direct Fit caliper is legal for various SCCA and BMW CCA classes that limit piston count.
Is this kit a good deal? I thought I saw kits online for around $100 less.
It's really a good deal when you consider what you get from similarly priced kits elsewhere. "Similarly-priced kits" for about $90 less come with 1-piece rotors, weigh substantially more. For about $150 less, you can buy used RX-7 calipers with the same heavy 1-piece rotors. Both of those options require a custom-modified rotor each time you need to replace it - so you're spending over $200 each time you need rotors! The UUC kit uses an easily-available standard Wilwood rotor at around $40 apiece.
Is there a wheel fitment template available?
Yes - please [CLICK HERE ] (or right-click and choose "Save as..." to save on your computer). To use this template, print it with your printer settings set to life-size or 1:1. Then, glue the template to a piece of cardboard, cut out the profile, and fit into the hub of your wheel to determine clearance.
Any plans for a matching rear kit?
Yes and no. This is the entire scenario of a matching rear kit:
Our front kit is designed to be correctly balanced (as to brake bias) with the original rear brakes. No change to the rear brakes (other than matching or similar pads, and the SS lines which we automatically include) is necessary to retain proper bias. A good brake upgrade is not just going "huge"... in fact, if you review all of our competition brake packages for other BMW models, our rotor and piston sizes are "appropriate".
The problem with doing a rear brake kit is the expense; as you can see on any E30, the rear rotor's central hat is very deep. To build this as a 2-piece rotor like our fronts would require a large piece of aluminum with much of the interior machined away... which would make it substantially more expensive than the front kit.
Knowing the frugality of the typical E30 enthusiast, the necessary price to build the rear kit would likely deter many potential customers.
We're not saying we absolutely will never do a rear kit - just not at this time.
Another thing to realize is that from a true performance perspective, especially with engines that are not gifted with an overabundance of torque, keeping the rotating mass of the drive wheels low is beneficial. Adding large rear rotors has the same effect as heavy wheels, your car will accelerate slower.
In the pictures, it looks like the pads rub below the friction surface slightly. Is that normal?
With that particular rotor, yes. We're using a genuine Wilwood rotor, and it is the spec design for that pad shape. The fact is, the difference is about a millimeter or so and has no impact on the brake system performance, noise, or dust.
There are alternate rotors from Wilwood that are cut a little differently that have more material there, but not a worthwhile expense for the majority of users.
What exact type of rotor is used?
Wilwood brand Ultra-Light UL straight vane rotors provide high value performance and rugged durability for a wide range of competition, high performance, and sport driving applications. Don't confuse these rotors with bargain priced off-brand named parts. Wilwood's modern manufacturing capability, combined with large scale economies, make it possible to offer this level of quality and performance at such an affordable price.
Every Wilwood rotor is cast from premium grade, long grain carbon iron. This material exhibits long wear, high thermal stability, and excellent resistance to distortion in high heat. Modern foundry and machining
techniques hold close tolerances on face and vane thickness. Combining the correct face thickness with a 30 or 32 vane casting provides superior heat management and long service life with low rotating and unsprung weight. The straight vane design also makes it possible to use the same rotor on left or ight hand mounting locations.
We've got MOD-class racers using this rotor now for a few years, as we have been using this rotor with our previous Wilwood caliper kit.
If there is the desire to upgrade to a different Wilwood rotor, we will gladly make the swap. The great thing about the UL-32 is the replacement cost, about $40 each disk.
An upgrade to the Wilwood 160-7701 HD-36 "heavy duty" curved-vane rotor would be about $90 additional to the kit. If this is something a potential purchaser of the kit would like, we request that they call us for the substitution.
We also offer a drilled/lightened version of the UL-32 rotor. This rotor is .9lb lighter than the standard rotor, ideal for competitive auto-x and race use. Caution on drilled rotors: There is a common mis-perception that rotors are drilled to improve cooling. The reduced mass of a drilled rotor will dissipate its retained heat quicker, but it also builds up heat a much faster rate. The decision to use drilled rotors should be solely based on the merits of the lower rotating and unsprung weight, and not for improved cooling. It is not wise to use drilled rotors in sustained high heat on hard braking tracks unless the team budget affords a high frequency of rotor and brake pad replacement.
What kind of duty can the kit widthstand?
From what we have tested, potentially anything reasonable on street or track. We have had MOD racers using our previous kit with excellent results. No complaints, no issues... the only time we hear from these racers is when they are ordering replacement pads and rotors!
Our caliper is built to the highest racing standards with high-temp seals and stainless pistons, with a caliper body stiffness that equals or exceeds similar Wilwood calipers.
The best part about the caliper is the built-in mounting. Take a close look at some of the pics... there's a significant amount of material there, no issues with flexible brackets.
Is the kit using a fixed or floating discs system?
Our rotors are a 2-piece design, aluminum hat with iron rotor. Technically, this is not a floating rotor. The decision to omit the floating mechanism was based on a lack of actual need. With this relatively small diameter rotor, thermal expansion is minimal. Adding the cost, complexity, potential for rattling, and hardware wear factors into the mix do not present themselves are reasonable.
Again, our MOD racer example is the "proof in the pudding". We have yet to see an E30 in a motorsport exercise with greater speed or power, and this exact rotor configuration has been serving them well for years.
What are the pad thickness and area?
Wilwood 7212 pad shape, cross-reference to Hawk HB237:
We have chosen the .480" pad thickness variation to minimize caliper excursion beyond the wheel hub plane, in order to maximize wheel clearance.
One of the primary design goals of this bespoke caliper was to optimize wheel clearance. Thanks to trimming a few millimeters here, a few millimeters there, this design uses absolutely no spacers with some of the more popular race wheels, and the smallest of spacers with standard wheels, including the OE BMW 15" option.
One may make the point that a .480" pad is not very thick - yes, it is not, so it has to be changed more frequently. With this pad shape being so reasonably priced at around $55-$75 a set (depending on material), who cares? When you compare this to the typical Wilwood 7420 .800" pad costing $95-$160 for the same materials, you can see there is direct cost parity.
In all practical reality, it is preferable to replace race pads more often anyway. One issue we have seen with thicker race pads in our many years of track and race experience is that repeated heat cycling of a track pad will make it "cook out" - they lose effectiveness. We usually replace the thicker race pads before they have worn out simply because they do not work as well. From that perspective, the thicker pads are less of a value.
How stiff are the calipers?
As above, the equal or superior of any comparably-sized caliper. There is no reasonable cross-brand stiffness factor that is realistically measured, so the question itself has little objective value.
But from a cursory comparison to Superlite or Dynalite/pro calipers, it is clearly visible that ours have more "beef" in the important structural regions, especially the mounting lugs. Our mounting lugs are over 20% thicker than Wilwood (and steel hardware enforced), and fully 100% wider.
What material are the pistons?
100% Stainless steel.
How many pad compounds are available for that caliper?
Wilwood: A, B, E, Q, CM, BP-10, and BP-20.
Hawk: all major compounds, including DTC-70, DTC-60, DTC-30, DTC-05, Black, Blue, HT-10, HP-Plus, HPS.
EBC: Greenstuff, Redstuff, Yellowstuff.
Effectively any manufacturer that makes a Dyna-fitment pad will either have the exact shape, or a minor modification to the backing pate will allow their pads to fit.
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