Are caliper "upgrades" worth it? Wilwood makes a static 4-piston caliper to replace factory 1-piston sliding caliper, for my Honda Fit.

[IndyIan]

Going to have to disagree with you there. Your statement is only true in a full-power stop. And only for the first one.

I could cook the stock brakes on a Fit in 10 minutes, with stock tires, at the speed limit, on some twisty NC backroads.

I find I get at least two threshold/abs stops from 50mph with my crappy cars on the factory setup. Unfortunately there's no roads around here that could test the brakes on my cars at anywhere near legal speeds. All of them have been fine for autocross too.
Anyways, how many of your neighbors have upgraded the brakes in their DD? I suspect most just drive half sane and they get around with no brake fade.

 

[partspro]

The looks would be great, then paint them RED its a ton of money but if you took the Fit to a show !!!!

 

[HankHill]

Make sure you coat all the moving parts with 50 weight amsoil!

 

[Rhill]

These are the kits they make for the 2012 Honda Fit: https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/B...ke=Honda&model=Fit&option=Base&axle=Front+Kit

In particular, I'm looking at this one: https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/B...-R&year=2012&make=Honda&model=Fit&option=Base

It's just the 4-piston forged STATIC caliper and brake pad. It can be found at some vendors for about 400 dollars. That's about 2.5X to 3X the cost of stock replacement (sliding 1-piston, cast metal, not forged) caliper + pad kits found at RockAuto, so it's borderline worth it IF AND IF it offers superior performance.

What do you think?

Wilwood makes a "big brake kit" for my car, but those won't clear my wheels and are frankly more than I'd like to spend..

On the other hand, for superior performance, I might just replace the OEM ceramic pads with semi-metallics for only 30 dollars and call it a day. I hear that semi-metallic offer greatly superior stopping power but eats rotors. I honestly don't care, the rotors can be replaced every 2 years for 60 bucks.

Thoughts?

I used to modify Hondas a fair bit, and I now maintain my sisters Honda Fit 2013. I would say the Willwoods are a waste of money......not that the Fit can't be a fun car to drive, but I would go with either a Hawk HPS or something similar with a brake fluid swap. If the rears are drums, consider doing a conversion from a wrecked Honda....I think an older civic with rear rotors would work. That will give you more than enough stopping power. Many folks track their Hondas with stock calipers

 

[Trav]

We know this was you. Put better shoes on instead.