I'm going to try and arrange them in a way that makes some sense and then if you've experienced some of them, it would be great to get your views.
#1 - The most basic way is to simply improve pads. We all know this and have been doing if for years. The basic premise is to use a standard disc (i count, drilled, grooved or any combinations there of as standard) with a 'performance' pad. options there are things like:
-Pagid RE14-29
-Carbone Lorraine CL5+ or CL6
-Performance Friction 97 or 01 compound
Take your pick, there are plenty of threads on here about it.
Total cost of improvement with plain discs £300
#2 Upgrade disks with bells, keep standard calipers and standard size discs (288mm), use one of the pads from #1. Bells avoid heat transfer from discs to hub and therefore heat up and cool much faster.
- Elise parts do a reasonably priced set (Full set £600, replacement disks £400)
http://www.eliseparts.com/products/show/21/1/aluminium-belled-discs/
- There seems to be a number of 295mm options, which must include spacers for front calipers. Costs are prohibitive
Total cost of improvement with decent set of pads. £800
#3 Upgrade the front calipers, to a 4 pistons set up, which means upgrading front discs to 308mm
-AP Racing, standard fit on exige cup and available on here at the moment for ~£500, and from a variety of other places in various forms it would seam, Seriously Lotus seem to offer a Caparo branded set for example with their own bell.
Can use these with a plain 308mm disk.
Total cost of upgrade (including plain rear discs and new rear pads): ~£800
#4 Upgrade the front calipers in #3 including bells
Seems to be a few options for the bells:
-AP do their own
-Nitron, Seriously lotus do some
http://www.seriouslylotus.com/index.php/braking/brake-discs/alcon-308mm-disc-with-nitron-fixed-bells.html
Total cost (including plain rear discs and new rear pads): ~£1650
#5 Upgrade the rear to keep up with the front, so its a combination of #4 and #2. Using front caliper on the rear.
Total cost including new front pads (the hand brake can have any old rubbish) and rear bells : £2k
My thoughts are that option 4 and 5 look expensive, especially as I'm really not convinced they address all the problems, namely that the slave just isn't specified correctly for such application. Therefore on the basis that anything is a compromise anyway but that some changes to the disk, pad system would be better than option 1, the advantage of 3 is that it can be upgraded to 4 and may be more future proof.
And then my thoughts turn to the similarly priced options 2 and 3. To me the science behind 2 seems better than 3. The idea of trying to address cooling, seems more appropriate for my application than the additional power of a 4 pot.
Your thoughts ladies and gentlemen.
though my feeling is that the bells would help a lot more.
