Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Review: Alpha Omega Racing Evo 350mm Brembo Rear Brake Adapter Kit - WTAC Edition

Hey all, decided to put a review together for the Alpha Omega Racing Evo 350mm Brembo rear brake kit (WTAC edition). This is a new version of the rear adaptor kit developed by Alpha Omega Racing, designed with the intention to meet World Time Attack Challenge clubsprint rules. I have been running the original rear kit for the last 6 months (?? maybe longer lol) so this review will be more so related to the comparison when installing.

Company/Product:
Alpha Omega Racing / Evo 350mm Brembo Rear Brake Adaptor Kit - WTAC Edition
20160928_184048.jpg

Price:
$400 plus postage

Link:
http://alphaomegaracing.com/p/149/c/72/Z32/ALPHA-OMEGA/Evo-350mm-Brembo-Rear-Brake-Adapter-Kit-WTAC-Edition.html

Purpose:
This kit allows you to fit rear Brembo calipers from an Evo 5-9 (all the same) with Nissan 370Z rear rotors (350mm diameter) to your R32/R33/R34/S13 (5 stud)/S14/S15/Z32/Z33.

What's included:
- Left and right adapters made out of one piece of 7075-T6 billet aerospace alloy
- Various high tensile bolts and high tensile washers
- Full installation instructions with pictures

What else you'll need:
- Mitsubishi Evo 5/6/7/8/9 Brembo rear calipers and brake pads
- Nissan 370Z rear rotors (350mmx20mm)
- Custom brake lines

Alpha Omega Racing is able to provide all of the above parts as well as parts and services (labour) for rebuilding calipers and even fitting if you are not comfortable doing so yourself. I personally opted to get the parts from Alpha Omega Racing for the rear kit for the convenience factor at the time.

The kit makes use of the Nissan 370Z rear 350mm rotors for better brake bias and heat dispersion. When using the front and rear kits designed by Alpha Omega Racing the brake bias is calculated to be a ratio of 69:31.

I have chosen to continue running Intima Performance Brake Pads and am using their Type SR pads in this application.

Test vehicle:
1998 Nissan Skyline R34 GTT - originally factory rotors and calipers, then upgraded to the original rear kit designed by Alpha Omega Racing
13119973_1004578986278691_68652270707203

Unboxing the kit:
The new WTAC edition kit arrived quickly and was well packaged. Much like their other adaptors, these new adaptors are very light as you'd expect being made from billet alloy and appear to be of good quality. Alpha Omega Racing is etched on one side, whilst 'Made in Australia' is etched on the other. All bolts and washers were included along with installation instructions. I already had all other parts required as I previously had the original rear kit installed and was changing purely to meet WTAC clubsprint rules.

Installation:
Installation was pretty straight forward. The most painful part was actually removing the old kit due to the use of the hub spacer. Once this was removed and the factory parts were all bolted back up, the adaptor kit bolted straight on without issue. Normally I would have been required to trim the dust shield/back plate, but I had already done this when installing the original kit.

20160928_184211.jpg

The calipers are required to be 'shaved' a little for fitment with this kit, my trusty angle grinder helped out here and made for easy work. The place that requires shaving has no effect on the performance of the caliper and is very minimal (see photo below). Once the calipers were sorted, I was able to put the rear rotors back on and bolt the calipers straight up! Fitment looks just as good as it did before with the original rear kit.

20160928_182555.jpg

Performance:
In terms of performance, I have not had the car back on track after installing the WTAC edition rear kit. However having had the original rear kit on the car for some time now I feel performance will be similar. Will report back soon with an update though.

The original rear kit created a much better braking bias for the car. ABS is disconnected in my car so took a little bit to get used to how hard I could jump on the brakes, but once I adjusted I was definitely impressed with the increase in braking ability. Will provide an update on this once I've had the car back on track (after WTAC).

Overall Opinion:
Overall I would say I'm very happy with the kit. The quality of the new kit matched that of the front kit and I found the install to be fairly easy. The flexibility to either source parts yourself of purchase from Alpha Omega Racing is great, if you have the time to source your own parts you might save a few dollars, but if you want to buy everything together it makes the process quicker, and you essentially have a ready to go kit.

As mentioned, I will add some updates after WTAC, but if anyone has any questions regarding the kit, its install, or any other particulars, please feel free to ask me either in this thread or by sending me a PM. You can also read more into my car by checking out my build thread here:
http://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/421419-timmys-r34-gtt/

  • Like 2

What do you mean by WTAC compliant? I thought you had to use std mounting points...isnt that anything that bolts to the std hub?

 

Curious to see how these go, from memory you still have the ABS so intersting to see how the ABS reacts

On 10/2/2016 at 0:32 PM, Roy said:

What do you mean by WTAC compliant? I thought you had to use std mounting points...isnt that anything that bolts to the std hub?

 

Curious to see how these go, from memory you still have the ABS so intersting to see how the ABS reacts

 

The reason the previous rear kit wasn't compliant was because of the rule  “Original hub location must be retained”

With the install of the spacer it technically breaks this rule, hence the new kit.

Looks good except for the part on having to grind the calipers, especially so close to the mount.

Did the original non-WTAC kit require that or was it a completely different design?

12 hours ago, V28VX37 said:

Looks good except for the part on having to grind the calipers, especially so close to the mount.

Did the original non-WTAC kit require that or was it a completely different design?

The original kit did not require this, it used a slightly different offset adaptor and a hub spacer to avoid this.

I too was a bit weary on grinding the caliper originally but found it to be very minimal when I actually did it. There is zero impact on performance from doing so.

On 05/10/2016 at 10:32 AM, timmy_89 said:

 

The reason the previous rear kit wasn't compliant was because of the rule  “Original hub location must be retained”

With the install of the spacer it technically breaks this rule, hence the new kit.

I still dont get it. Dont you still have a spacer. Anyway. 

8 minutes ago, Roy said:

I still dont get it. Dont you still have a spacer. Anyway. 

There is a dogbone adaptor for the caliper to fit, but there is no spacer on the hub.

  • 4 weeks later...
14 hours ago, sneakey pete said:

until the caliper mount snaps off :P

I would say I had to shave off maybe 5% off the 'leg', if something is putting enough force on the caliper to snap the leg something else it going on lol.

you've also created a stress concentration (looking at the one at the back of your picture), plus mounted them further out than stock thus increasing the torque acting on it.

Could be right but given the caliper is designed to minimize weight, therefor optimize for stress with a nice curve that reduces stress concentrations, i'd personally be very, very hesitant to do this mod.

16 hours ago, sneakey pete said:

you've also created a stress concentration (looking at the one at the back of your picture)

No sure if you're referring to the mark that I left on it with permanent marker?

16 hours ago, sneakey pete said:

i'd personally be very, very hesitant to do this mod.

I guess it's a personal choice, like all mods on a car. If someone is concerned about doing this then there is always the other kit that uses the hub spacer as an option :)

  • Like 1
  • 4 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Surely somebody has one in VIC. Have you asked at any shops?  Is this the yearly inspection or did you get a canary?
    • This is where I share pain with you, @Duncan. The move to change so many cooling system pieces to plastic is a killer! Plastic end tanks and a few plastic hose flanges on my car's fail after so little time.  Curious about the need for a bigger rad, is that just for long sessions in the summer or because the car generally needs more cooling?
    • So, that is it! It is a pretty expensive process with the ATF costing 50-100 per 5 litres, and a mechanic will probably charge plenty because they don't want to do it. Still, considering how dirty my fluid was at 120,000klm I think it would be worth doing more like every 80,000 to keep the trans happy, they are very expensive to replace. The job is not that hard if you have the specialist tools so you can save a bit of money and do it yourself!
    • OK, onto filling. So I don't really have any pics, but will describe the process as best I can. The USDM workshop manual also covers it from TM-285 onwards. First, make sure the drain plug (17mm) is snug. Not too tight yet because it is coming off again. Note it does have a copper washer that you could replace or anneal (heat up with a blow torch) to seal nicely. Remove the fill plug, which has an inhex (I think it was 6mm but didn't check). Then, screw in the fill fitting, making sure it has a suitable o-ring (mine came without but I think it is meant to be supplied). It is important that you only screw it in hand tight. I didn't get a good pic of it, but the fill plug leads to a tube about 70mm long inside the transmission. This sets the factory level for fluid in the trans (above the join line for the pan!) and will take about 3l to fill. You then need to connect your fluid pump to the fitting via a hose, and pump in whatever amount of fluid you removed (maybe 3 litres, in my case 7 litres). If you put in more than 3l, it will spill out when you remove the fitting, so do quickly and with a drain pan underneath. Once you have pumped in the required amount of clean ATF, you start the engine and run it for 3 minutes to let the fluid circulate. Don't run it longer and if possible check the fluid temp is under 40oC (Ecutek shows Auto Trans Fluid temp now, or you could use an infrared temp gun on the bottom of the pan). The manual stresses the bit about fluid temperature because it expands when hot an might result in an underfil. So from here, the factory manual says to do the "spill and fill" again, and I did. That is, put an oil pan under the drain plug and undo it with a 17mm spanner, then watch your expensive fluid fall back out again, you should get about 3 litres.  Then, put the drain plug back in, pump 3 litres back in through the fill plug with the fitting and pump, disconnect the fill fitting and replace the fill plug, start the car and run for another 3 minutes (making sure the temp is still under 40oC). The manual then asks for a 3rd "spill and fill" just like above. I also did that and so had put 13l in by now.  This time they want you to keep the engine running and run the transmission through R and D (I hope the wheels are still off the ground!) for a while, and allow the trans temp to get to 40oC, then engine off. Finally, back under the car and undo the fill plug to let the overfill drain out; it will stop running when fluid is at the top of the levelling tube. According to the factory, that is job done! Post that, I reconnected the fill fitting and pumped in an extra 0.5l. AMS says 1.5l overfill is safe, but I started with less to see how it goes, I will add another 1.0 litres later if I'm still not happy with the hot shifts.
    • OK, so regardless of whether you did Step 1 - Spill Step 2 - Trans pan removal Step 3 - TCM removal we are on to the clean and refill. First, have a good look at the oil pan. While you might see dirty oil and some carbony build up (I did), what you don't want to see is any metal particles on the magnets, or sparkles in the oil (thankfully not). Give it all a good clean, particularly the magnets, and put the new gasket on if you have one (or, just cross your fingers) Replacement of the Valve body (if you removed it) is the "reverse of assembly". Thread the electrical socket back up through the trans case, hold the valve body up and put in the bolts you removed, with the correct lengths in the correct locations Torque for the bolts in 8Nm only so I hope you have that torque wrench handy (it feels really loose). Plug the output speed sensor back in and clip the wiring into the 2 clips, replace the spring clip on the TCM socket and plug it back into the car loom. For the pan, the workshop manual states the following order: Again, the torque is 8Nm only.
×
×
  • Create New...