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Not to knock your setup, but what is wrong with the OEM brakes? With good pads and stainless lines, and MAYBE some power slots, the OEM brakes are good enough to lock up azenis. Are you looking to track this car? Even if you are, there are a lot of race cars, ITA comes to mind, that are running rear drums! I seriously think oversized brakes are more for the look than anything, and you are adding rotational inertia as well.

 

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The reason I was using locking the wheels up as an example is it shows that the braking power (friction) is overcoming the tire to road friction. If you can do that with top-end street tires, assuming this is for a street only car, it's more than adequate. Power slots would take care of the fade, as well as different pads. All I'm saying is, I don't think it's necessary to spend tons of money upgrading the brakes, and since we were talking about the lightest setup, I would think the smaller Si stock brakes are lighter, and they concentrate the mass toward the middle of the wheel. I've driven an EF hatch (not a CRX, but almost the same) with Si brakes, SS lines, HPS pads, and power slots, and that setup was by far the best I've felt on an EF.
As an aside, I DO think the stock brakes look a little funny, especially if you don't have 14" wheels any more. From a cosmetic standpoint, I think aftermarket brakes do look MUCH better.

 

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If you put 18s or 19s on a CRX your vision probably keeps you from driving.

 

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I don't know much about brake setups, I'm just going on what I know and what I can put togther logically. I don't understand how smaller brakes lock up faster, wouldn't it make sense that the larger ones do, since they have larger pads and a torque advantage? Are you saying that their design makes them clamp TOO hard, and ultimately tilts the pad and locks the rotor? I guess I'd like to see a nice tech write up about the benefits etc of larger brakes.

I will agree about the heat, I have driven both cars and motorcycles in mountains, and fade sucks (and it's scary!). Seriously though, for a street car, that kind of situation doesn't happen THAT much, and changing to different pads can help that too. I'd like to see a pic of the NSX brakes on a CRX, like I said, I love the look of the brakes filling the wheel.

Has anyone ever seen inverted discs? My friend has an Audi 200S Quattro Turbo 20Valve (that's what he calls it, I know the name is longer than a Koenigsegg, but afaik that's what it is) and it has weird inverted discs on the front. The idea is to make the brake as big as possible in a given wheel, keeping the caliper on the inside. Here's a link to what I'm talking about

 

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Thanks Seti, I have been looking at stoptech. I don't always like to get info from manufacturers, they are trying to sell product after all.
/offtopic
The reversed calipers are pretty cool, though I must say that Audi can't stop when you want it to. I help him work on it a lot, and the wheels frequently get stuck on the hubs, the only thing I can think of is the heat change must be greater closer to the center (it uses the center of the hub to line up the wheel, and uses bolts instead of studs to hold it on). My friend got the car for free in Kansas (where he's from), all he had to do was put in a new clutch to get it going. He couldn't get the wheels off at home, so he tried taking it to a shop, THEY couldn't either! So he drove it all the way back here, luckily not getting a flat all the way. We beat on the wheels for a couple of hours with all sorts of tools, didn't budge at all. We ended up loosening the bolts and doing some slow circles in the parking lot. It hasn't been that bad since, but it's still a bit of a chore to get them off. Still, it's a fun car, total sleeper, it's a big 4 door audi with no badges. There are switches on the dash to turn the ABS off and to lock the diffs, not to mention it's just plain fast, especially for a car that size.
/offtopic

What are the benefits of the inverted brakes other than the extra room you get?

 

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At Seti's suggestion, I read through the articles on stop tech's site. I would suggest them to everyone, they're very informative. There are also a lot of great posts on Honda-Tech, I was reading one the other night advocating the use of blanks over slotted or cross drilled, but of course I can't find it now.
Cross drilled rotors are unneccesary, even car manufacturers who use them admit they are for looks. Cross drilling was a solution to get rid of the gases produced by pads back in the day, materials have changed since then so they are unnecessary. They also eat away at the pads more, and lower the surface area. When you're stopped, with the brakes hot, you are also holding in pockets of hot air. That article on HT had a couple of pics of cracked cross drilled teg rotors (solid discs only though I imagine). Some companies, like power slot, make dimpled rotors for the look of cross drilled without compromising the integrity of the disc. Look at F1 cars, they don't use cross-drilled brakes, and if they don't, chances are street cars don't either.
Slotted rotors are supposed to keep the brakes cleaner by effectively scraping the pads, and they should cool better too since they have a little more surface area. Also, they allow air to flow to the pad while the car is stopped with the brakes on. Plus, IMO, slotted rotors look great, not flashy like Porche cross-drilled dinner plates, but subtle like a sporty Honda should look.

 

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I've talked to 2 guys who are very active with road racing/autoX and very knowledgeable.

Is Tyson the other? I haven't personally talken to Kam (Driven), but I make a point of reading every tech thing he posts, he's very serious about the car, and actually had experience, and tested stuff, unlike 90% of the posters on HT.

SETI20 wrote:
Yes, drilled rotors crack. But in the defense of the manufacturer, you're supposed to replace them more often anyway.

Holes in the discs are also there for weight purposes. I got that off some porsche perfornance page. I'm not sure how much of an advantage it gives the relatively small honda rotors.

LOL! yes, you save about as much weight as you would switching to titanium lug nuts...

Actually, this is the reason motorcycles have holes in the discs, it has to do with rotational inertia. I would imagine you aren't losing braking power because there is more than enough area already. I went through every page on stop tech last night and read them, again, I recommend it to anyone (thanks Bas). After you read all the stuff, go to the products section, they make cross drilled rotors, so there must be an advantage.
And what's wrong with racing lugnuts?!? I'm saving almost a pound with mine!

 

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I was kind of joking about the lugnuts. I have some but I only bought them for security.

 

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And here is an even bigger problem that happens... people with experience posting their opinions of a product... hehe.

Well i know of Driven and Tyson... i've seen some of their posts and what-not... neat guys.

But i'll take their words with a grain of salt as well, because i have a different experience with Wilwood products. Maybe they were too quick to bash? what about proper assembly of the items?

And then you can always fall back on the "well no one, even big companies are perfect" argument :lol:

So anyway, they can be on the anti-Wilwood bandwagon, and i'll be on the pro-wilwood bandwagon.

I'm quite positive that if all their crap leaked, then they likely wouldn't have been a braking components company for this long, and some very large racing teams wouldn't be using their braking systems... ya think? :wink:

I don't know if either one of those guys were for or against Wilwoods. I was just saying that thy have very informative posts. And I think they are advocates of just keeping your stock brakes, saying the Si brakes are good enough for the job. I remember Driven did have Wilwoods on his CRX at one point, though I don't remember what happened to them.