Re: Ford Capri brakes

Something from a Cosworth? Does the 2.9 or 3.0 Capri have bigger brakes? Maybe them? Failing that, anything from a newer ford match up? Mondeo ST

Weren't 4-pot Princess calipers a 'bolt-on' upgrade ? (dredging into the recesses of my memory)

Back in the V6 Capri hay day in production saloon racing they use to get run out of brakes after 5 laps of the tighter tracks only to get cuffed by the the Hillman Hunters/Avengers and 2.3 Vauxhall Viva/Firenzas

Problem is lack of airflow inside the front wheel arch, Ford never really solved it on the Escort or Capri, even with the 2.8i vented discs and wider rear drums. I had some contact back in the 1970s with an ex Jochen Mass works R2600 racer and even it had lousy brakes. I know there was a works "Group 4" disc conversion available for the Escort/Capri but it wasn't much improvement over the 2.8i setup. Williamwood do a similar very fancy disc conversion mainly aimed at Ford based kit cars but in terms of bang per buck you are awful paying a lot for a marginal gain.

I am told Princess calipers aren't the improvement some will have you believe and are now as rare as rocking horse droppings. One poster reported some years back he had fitted early Granada Sorpio floating calipers to his and these bolt straight on and were much better than the Princess ones they replaced -- but I can't vouch for this info but apparently according to the op only early Granada Sorpio calipers fit.. Best you can do is fit better quality pads, give it fresh fluid and try and get some airflow around the disc by removing the shield and ducting air to the discs.

The Capri owners club sell brake upgrades - discs, pads and calipers. Not too expensive either IIRC. ISTR Red Dot discs, EBC Pads .. I'll see if I can find the url again

I was thinking Pricess/Volvo brakes myself.

THey were in Classic Ford mag a few months ago but they're like gold dust to get. If I can find some I will.

I'm signing up to the club and AFAIK they send a catalogue out anyway. Cheers.

Thanks for that.

You'll find all you need in the Classic Ford mag or at Burton Power. The 440 Volvo is (so I'm told) a better fit than the Princess 4 pots, which need a spacing kit (Burton Power £30.00).

I've the same problem, only I have some 4 pots, but no spacing kit.....yet ;-)

HTH

Nigel

I've used EBC's kit exclusively for about 5 years now, and it's excellent. Get yourself some Redstuff pads.

Weren't they the ones off the old 240 series?

Are they sufficiently similar to later 700 and 800 series Volvos? All the scrappies round my way are full to bursting with 800 (normally 840 GL and DL estates), and a few Saab 9k's, no bloody 900's when I could use one though.

Ah right, wasn't sure which Volvo. In another branch of the thread I suggested 7/800 series which are all over the scrappies. Guess I was completley wrong there then.

Google begs to differ, it appears to be the name the 850 was sold under in some other countries.

Oh, and there's also this Volvo 840 but it's quite possibly not the one that he means :)

lmao, about right.

Must've been. No 840.

Hmmm, maybe some countries got a 4-pot early in the model's life?

LOL!