This Wally’s World GTO project update is all about Whoa! Stopping that is, which is no easy task in a 4000lb hot rod that spends a lot of its time jamming along at triple digit speeds. You’ve already seen our Wally’s World GTO Front and Rear Suspension installations, along with video of it making big power, and we’ve told you all about the improvements we were making elsewhere on the car. Well this week we’re giving you another update, as we have tons more stuff to show you in the coming weeks. And trust me, the list of mods and parts is pretty damn cool.

This Wilwood Disc Brake upgrade was done on Wally’s GTO so that the big beast can stop from high speeds over and over again without issue. The truth is, these cars come with pretty good brakes. They are PBR Calipers and a one piece rotor that do a fine job stopping these cars in day to day traffic and on the occasional autocross. The problem though is the fact that this car weighs close to 4000 lbs in street trim. That’s HEAVY, and means those same brakes that are perfectly happy in regular driving get really really unhappy once you start hammering on them with a full day of autocross or road course action. And once you add more horsepower under the hood, and more grip through suspension and tires, those brakes become a weak point when trying to haul the GTO down from triple digit speeds. Try it more than once in a short period of time and they can become downright scary.

Fortunately for Wally, Wilwood Disc Brakes has a solution. One that is so simple to install, we’re not even going to give you step by step instructions because there are literally two more bolts to install compared to doing a factory brake job up front, but what you end up with is 13″ discs being squeezed by 6 Piston Calipers! The average hot rodder will be able to install this setup after work on Friday, and be able to go run their car on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are the parts you get with Wilwood’s Forged Narrow Superlite 6R Big Brake Front Brake Kit #140-8753.

On the Wally’s World GTO, you will notice a couple changes compared to the standard kit, including Wilwood’s new Quicksilver nickel plated calipers, new Thermock pistons, and the addition of knock back springs since Wally plans on using the GTO at track days a lot. All of Wilwood’s kits come complete, but a variety of options are available to get the look and performance your specific application needs. Wally’s GTO is using Wilwood’s new BP-20 pads as well, which are suitable for street and weekend track duty.

And here is a schematic of how they all fit together. Note that the Wilwood Caliper Brackets use your factory hardware to mount where you factory PBR Caliper was located originally. Your new Wilwood 6 Piston Calipers then bolt onto these brackets.

Once all the parts are installed correctly yours should look something like this. Note the before photo below this finished installation photo on the Wally’s World GTO. It’s a really impressive looking package that improves the stopping ability of this car dramatically.

Notice the Quicksilver nickel plating we mentioned earlier. Sexy.

Not sexy.

There are two things we want to mention when talking about these Wilwood Brakes and new brakes in general. The first is proper brake bleeding, and while the procedure is technically the same as any other disc brake system, there are a couple tips that will make your life easy. One is to always remember to bleed the brakes with the bleeders that are facing up. Air doesn’t like to go down, so make sure you are using the bleeders that are facing up. Also, remember that these Superlite Calipers have INSIDE and OUTSIDE bleeders. Always bleed the outside first and then the inside and then come back to the outside one more time just to check. If you do not bleed BOTH the inside and outside you will have less than perfect performance, and where’s the fun in that?

The second thing is bedding your brakes. Regardless of your brand or size of brake system, you must bed the brakes. Bedding the brakes is breaking them in and getting the pads and rotors acquainted. Doing this properly will make the binders in the brake pads hot enough to transfer to the rotor, which is what we want them to do. Most people never do this properly and it will affect your brake systems ability to stop as effectively and shorten the life of your consumable brake system components. ie. pads and rotors.

So here is how you bed the brakes properly on a hot street car. After installing and bleeding your new system, and insuring that your brakes are working by stopping at very low speed in your driveway, you are going to drive your car in a safe traffic free area at 45 miles per hour. Do this with your windows down, because once you reach 45 you are going to get on the brakes hard (like a child you love just ran out in front of you) until you slow to 20 mph. You are going to do this 5-7 times (depending on the size of the brakes, weight of the car, etc.) until you start to smell brakes. After you smell the brakes, do two more hard stops from 45-0.

At this point your brakes should be pretty hot, and it’s time to cool them off. Drive for 10-15 minutes, using the brakes gently, to bring the temp back down. Ideally you want the brakes to get below 200 degrees before parking the car and allowing them to cool to ambient air temperature.

The next time you get in the car and drive it you are going to notice a dramatic difference in how well your vehicle stops. And don’t be alarmed if you see some slight coloring on the rotor. That means you got them hot and in this case hot is a good thing. Your brakes will thank you for it later.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE BRAKES INSTALLED ON THE WALLY’S WORLD GTO, OR FOR ANY PROJECT YOU HAVE, VISIT WWW.WILWOOD.COM