White Lightnin'

Get the part number off the calipers and cross reference their application... but, I am definitely in the "HELL YES" camp. I did the GTS upgrade on mine... but some have done the 996TT (or 993TT?) upgrade and haven't looked back.

Even in spirited street driving... overpowering the ABS and lockup is somewhat predictable and workable, but fluid boiling and fade is not.

I recall a 'S' shark ending up in the trees during one SITM because of total fade on one of the mountain twisties... and I'd bet he wasn't going faster than 45 mph -if even close to that.

Don't let it happen to you.

hacker-pschorr

I would, in fact I did on my 944S, my 79 has S4 calipers and I'm going larger than GTS brakes on my 81.

Why? Because I want to and I can

JHowell37

Make sure you get the mounting bolts for the front calipers.
You don't need 993TT rotors. Regular 993 rotors work just fine and are a fraction of the cost.

Contrary to what you may read, when you retrofit brembos onto an older car with adapters, you need to switch to 17 inch wheels. 16s won't clear the calipers on the front. Using 6mm or 7mm spacers on the front will allow a 16 inch wheel to fit, but believe me, you don't want to do this. If you do, you'll be changing front wheel bearings every 3K-5K miles, and after you do that 2 or 3 times, you'll be putting in your 4th set when you notice that you can no longer adjust the bearing preload because your spindles are shot. Get 17s.

Scotts87928

In my opinion I would rather change fluid, wash the car and go for a drive!

If you want an improved look, remove the wheels paint or sticker the current calipers, remove the current rotors and remove the rust and paint the nonbraking surface grey or a match to the car. If you really want to add suttle bling remove the dust shields and clean and paint them as well While your at it, clean the wheels really well. Then go for a drive! The time you spend on the change over will be time missed on driving!

Just my 2 cents worth.

Scott
'87 S4 Gemballa

hacker-pschorr

Read? How about photos........my car, no spacers.
Sill using the original 79 spindles, modified by "The Todd"
This was the day I bought the car, then the clean-up began......

Imo000

What was this modification? Corners were ground off?

White Lightnin'

IIRC:

Stock S4 calipers are made by Brembo, front & rear.

GTS calipers also by Brembo, but fronts are slightly larger? I think the GTS front rotors are larger also. Same rear calipers & rotors though as S4.

993TT calipers also by Brembo & larger still, rotors also (front & rear).

IcemanG17

There are two reasons for "big brakes"

1: More braking power
2: looks better

For street cars.......its 99.9% #2......for track cars (near stock power) its 98% #2

I have tracked 3 928s HARD....a bone stock 88 S4 automatic (full weight) with textar pads and super blue fluid.....never faded the brakes...no issues in 6 track days......my 1st race car had S4 rear and GTS front with 300whp in 2800lbs....great brakes...no issues...my current race 928 has "S" Brakes with full race pads-fluid-steel lines....BEST BRAKES by far of any race 928 I have driven....granted low power makes it easy to go deep into corners.....don't believe me....ask anyone who has driven my car....at least 4 other rennlist racers have....Mark Anderson, Mark Kibort, Sean Finn & Jeff Mohler....plus other non 928 racers

blown 87

On some of the roads around here where you can get fade, they are the kind of roads where you go miles and miles in first and second that are a few seconds at WOT, then brake, the WOT, brake, WOT, brake, do that for over 20 miles and you may get fade if you are really pushing hard.

It is not like most race tracks where the brakes actually have time to cool a bit, plus the speeds are low so you get very little in the way of air cooling.

risaac928

Going out to the salvage tomorrow and post a video of what I see...

Its supposed to rain out here tomorrow, if it does not, I wll make it out there in the a.m.

Dave928S

agree with that ... my S brakes let me down in exactly that situation, and yet high speed cool down in between applications they were OK.

jheis

First of all, does your car have "S" brakes?

If it does, you need the whole S4 front suspension (upper & lower control arms & steering knuckle, sway bar & drop links) to convert to four piston Brembos. The rears just bolt on with a couple of 5mm washers to center the caliper over the rotor.

You do not need 17" wheels. the 16s will clear, but you will need a S4 spare because the earlier spare will not clear.

Not an inexpensive proposition, but well worth it in my humble opinion. The difference in brake feel is amazing.

James

risaac928

How does one tell if my 928 is an S. I would think not, its an 82 its got the factory mounted front and rear spoiler.

If I remember my readings correctly the Competiton Package option did include those spoilers and S brakes.

But what do I know...I am still a NOOB...

Dave928S

You can do it that way if you want to, but you don't need to ... adaptors, early spindles, etc, etc as already noted works just as well.

Temekun

I switched from the adequate S brakes on my 86 to the 993TT. Since I track the car on occasion I've come to appreciate the bigger brakes. I go deep into 5 at Road America and Canada Corner too. If you know these turns you know this is where bigger brakes matter. The S brakes were good with fresh pads and fluid but I feel the greater margin for error does make it worth the upgrade.

I vote for Hell Yes!

Tim