Quote:
Quote:
but dont forget to get good tyres! tyres also give huge grip if bought right ones,,no point in having good brakes if you got s##t tyres
How true. I was told many years ago that the brakes only stop the wheels. The tyres stop the car. I have new Uniroyal Rain tyres on my 1850 and they are excellent. My brakes are all new standard components so I'm probably not going to change right now. They do stop the car pretty well, but need a good shove on the pedal when compared with a modern car. And no, its not a faulty servo. That was also reconditioned during the rebuild.
Its interesting to look at the front discs on the Dolomite and note how small they are. The MGB, an older design but with similar performance has huge disc brakes by comparison - a full 2 inches bigger in diameter giving a much larger swept area. I find it amazing that the manufacturer didn't specify better brakes for the Sprint at least.
The Sprint's front discs are quite literally limited by the size of the wheels, an MGB has bigger wheels 14 or 15". Even the TJ vents are only slightly larger discs by about 3/4" dia, this made possible by using the single piston caliper from Sierra/Ka/Fiesta etc. Jon found it needful to keep the conversion within the limits of the Sprint alloy wheel - or nobody would have bought it! It appears, as i've said before, that Sprint owners are more attached to their alloys than their firstborn!
I seem to be alone in this respect, for the Dolomega, i've made up an uprated TJ kit with 256mm (a shade over 10") discs and 1.7 Puma calipers. I figured the combo of automatic trans and my exuberant driving style demanded the best brakes I could come up with. But i've had to go to 14" wheels to do it. I've publicised the possibilities of this upgrade, but interest has been ZERO!
In fact the Sprint alloys are MORE restrictive than an 1850's steel wheels! Being designed and made in the infancy of alloys, they are inordinately thick in spots!
Steve