Big Brake Kit for the Octavia? (Fits GTI MK5/6 and others)

[Mysticality]

It's ever so common for cracks to start from the drill holes...

Ahh, damn.
Looks like slotted it is!!

With these brakes, he will catch you in the next braking zone...

And with the intake and exhaust, he'll hear me trying to catch up again... But remap is happening soon, so maybe... Just maybe.

[Martin]

I'll get better photos and impressions over the weekend, but here is a teaser

Stock brakes:



HPA Big Brake Kit:



I have not done a big stop yet because:
-It was rush hour
-It's raining in Sydney
-The old calipers and rotors were in the boot
(Imagine them flying through the cabin and cracking my skull open)

Going back to my original reasons for getting a BBK

• I did not like the over powered feeling at slow speed versus having to hammer the peddle at high speed
  That's gone for sure, I have a lovely granular and progressive brake feel now, feels like it has authority at all pressure levels
  Only very light pressure needed at slow speed, much like stock, just feels better and more progressive
  Appears the master cylinder is easily up to operating these 6 pot calipers
• Being StageII things happen faster, wanted braking upgraded
• Track days, hate production brakes fading after 3~4 laps

For now I have to use the brakes normally for 5 days and let the rotors stress relieve themselves
Then there is a braking procedure to be executed for the benefit of both the rotors and the pads
After that I should see the true potential of these brakes

So street creed test - do you think they look:

• Stupid
• Just Ok
• Wicked
• Awesome
• Over done

[tigger73]

That's not a BBK it's a MBK!

[Weekend-Warrior]

They look good! Love big brakes.

Good to hear you're happy with the results.

I have some cheap LCR Brembos in transit. Purely for looks.

[dArK5HaD0w]

no room left inside there!!!!

looks nice.
can u take shot from a bit further back, so we can see how it looks, with respect to the rest of the car?

[brad]

looks great!

[Mysticality]

You need smaller spokes...

But seriously - holy bloody oh my wow. They look fantastic!!!

[cbay]

that looks awesome!

[Mysticality]

You need smaller spokes...

But seriously - holy bloody oh my wow. They look fantastic!!!

[Martin]

I have some cheap LCR Brembos in transit. Purely for looks.

I'm sure even cheap LCR Brembos will be wonderful

[Martin]

Thanks guys - they are awesome in looks and brake feel - more pictures to come

The calipers, brake pads, mounting plate and bolts weight 4.2kg (heavier than it feels)
The rotors weight 9.2kg (lighter than they look/feel)
That seems like a good weight for the rotors considering their diameter and thickness

Ok, brace yourself, here is the surprise of the day!!!

The original Skoda (VW) calipers, mounting bracket and pads weighted in at 6.5kg
Good grief Charlie brown - a huge 6 piston caliper is 65% of the weight of the stock single piston caliper!!
(Now I understand why everybody goes on about the weight penalty of using the R32 front calipers)

Now, the rotors:
Those massive HPA rotors are a fearsome lump of metal to hold (for a very short period of time!)
They are the sort of thing a Scott would lug around the moors on each arm when walking into battle (glup).
Drum roll please...
HPA two piece rotor 355mm 32mm thick weighting in at 9.2kg
Stock Skoda (VW) is 312mm diameter and 25mm thick weighting in at 8.5kg!!!

So the all up weight per side is 15kg for the Stock Skoda setup and 13.4kg for the HPA massive brake kit
Clearly the HPA caliper weight and the two piece HPA rotor is what achieved this result
(One piece rotors always have a large weight penalty)
I really did not expect that - it's quite astounding in my view

[Weekend-Warrior]

I'm sure even cheap LCR Brembos will be wonderful

It is a bit of a gamble. They look a bit rough, but hoping it's just cosmetic. Planning to rebuild them.

Not expecting to be able to notice any difference on the street. They may just not fade as quickly, but I haven't found the limits to the standard brakes and it's unlikely I never will. But that's what I was looking for since my wife drives the car most of the time, I didn't want to change the pedal feel or compromise the brakes in any way. I like the short travel and solid feel. It's just for looks and soothes my need to have something a bit different.

[fuzion]

It is a bit of a gamble. They look a bit rough, but hoping it's just cosmetic. Planning to rebuild them.

Not expecting to be able to notice any difference on the street. They may just not fade as quickly, but I haven't found the limits to the standard brakes and it's unlikely I never will. But that's what I was looking for since my wife drives the car most of the time, I didn't want to change the pedal feel or compromise the brakes in any way. I like the short travel and solid feel. It's just for looks and soothes my need to have something a bit different.

There are a few things people tend to forget.

Your brake master cylinder on a gti/v-rs/a3 tq is smaller than what is fitted to an S3, R32, R36, Golf R and Scirocco R. These cars have a slightly larger cylinder fitted to suit the OEM 345mm brake setup. So for anything larger than a 4 pot caliper you ideally would need to upgrade this as your "huge brakes" really are not suited for your OEM Setup - but we all know this right?

All these people putting on these huge brakes expecting massive improvement genuinely isn't necessary.

Everyone is so worried about "weight". But are you on track day in day out, will you be corner balancing your suspension as well for setup to run on the track? Or are you not even going to the track and want it for aesthetics?

Calipers that do not carry a dust boot are also illegal for aussie roads, the reason being clearly they seize and can cause issues. The reason they do not have dust boots (certain types) is more so for track use, where they get rebuilt regularly due to the punishment they cop on the track.

312mm OEM Setup you can go a 4 Pot Caliper from Porsche which for the "right" driver can easily be more than suited for track or road use.

If you wanted more bite, new brake master cylinder with the TTRS 370mm setup is a cheaper and easier option.

Myself i run a 996TT caliper on a 350mm rotor on my S3. Why? Because oem is 345 with a single pot caliper, do you need to go bigger ? Not necessarily, and of course you want to keep that OEM brake feel always. Both cars of ours (mk6 gti/s3) run this setup with a huge improvement, but no difference to pedal feel. When they heat up, i do have to say they become very very sticky and even more responsive.

Grab yourself race tech magazine, as there is some great articles throughout the year related to brakes etc.

Just my 2psi on the subject. Don't always think bigger the better, theories and practise will tell you otherwise. Media and aesthetics make you want all .. Dont get me wrong, love 8 pot fronts, 4 pot rears.. but what for? (Yes they'd look nice lol)

[fuzion]

For a good read about lovely Skoda modding in general this might hit you guys up for a few hours vRSAlex's Octavia vRS Estate - R8 Calipers now on

[Martin]

Your brake master cylinder on a gti/v-rs/a3 tq is smaller than what is fitted to an S3, R32, R36, Golf R and Scirocco R. These cars have a slightly larger cylinder fitted to suit the OEM 345mm brake setup. So for anything larger than a 4 pot caliper you ideally would need to upgrade this as your "huge brakes" really are not suited for your OEM Setup - but we all know this right?

The Octavia VRS brake master cylinder has the same 23.8mm bore as the Audi S3

I can assure you the brake pedal feels great with my HPA 6 pot caliper
Purhaps there is a little more pedal travel
But it has heaps of progression and granular control
At all pressure levels it has heaps of authority - very reassuring

All these people putting on these huge brakes expecting massive improvement genuinely isn't necessary.

That does not really make sense but I think you mean braking distances won't be massively reduced - yes
Nobody here has the expectation of "massive braking distance improvements"
Published testing has showed that braking distances are reduced (even with R32 brakes)
BBK's are great for track days and avoiding brake fade
BBK's are also a presentation item - fine for those that choose to spend their money that way

Everyone is so worried about "weight". But are you on track day in day out, will you be corner balancing your suspension as well for setup to run on the track? Or are you not even going to the track and want it for aesthetics?

Yes, we are worried about weight because it makes a big difference to unsprung weight and suspension performance
We spend most of our time driving on some pretty poor roads with large wheel diameters and skinny tire profile banging through pot holes - we don't want to add a lot of weight to our wheel/brakes

Corner weighting is something you do to race cars - not often done on production road cars
(Unless you have adjustable coil overs there's not much you can do about corner weights on a production car)

Calipers that do not carry a dust boot are also illegal for aussie roads

You mean the piston dust boot??? (My stock calipers did not have a dust boot over the caliper)
These HPA calipers have pistons with dust boots...outwardly no different to the stock caliper configuration

312mm OEM Setup you can go a 4 Pot Caliper from Porsche which for the "right" driver can easily be more than suited for track or road use.

I looked into Porsche calipers - they are getting a little hard to get and that's pushing the price up somewhat
(I objected to spending $2k on a brake kit with 10 year old calipers that have already done heaps of km)
I didn't want to buy rotors/calipers/adaptors separately - a little risky
I wanted a complete plug and play kit

The Porsche calipers protrude further towards the wheel spokes than the HPA Calipers
This may force the use spacers (legality issue) or buy different wheels - adding to the cost

and of course you want to keep that OEM brake feel always

No - I didn't want to keep the OEM brake feel (detailed previously) - but that's a personal taste/preferance issue

Both cars of ours (mk6 gti/s3) run this setup with a huge improvement

A huge improvement...but above you were saying a huge BBK wont give a massive improvement...

Don't always think bigger the better, theories and practise will tell you otherwise. Media and aesthetics make you want all .. Dont get me wrong, love 8 pot fronts, 4 pot rears.. but what for? (Yes they'd look nice lol)

When I earlier referred to myself as a "nutter" that was an ackowledgement that this BBK was totally excessive and not required

There were numerous BBK available in the 2K price range, most of them had ~330mm rotors and 4 pot calipers
I choose the kit with the largest rotor and 6 pot calipers (trying to get the most/best/biggest for same money) from a company with a known reputation working on VW & Audi

I really like this kit - it's lighter than the stock brakes, looks awesome, brake pedal feels excellent
(The rotors are not bedded in yet so I have not done any big stops)