Project AE86 Upgrading the Brake with Techno Toy Tuning

For its time the AE86 had class-leading brakes.  This meant it had  4-wheel disc, the front with ventilated disc brakes in an era where some cars still came with 4-wheel drum brakes, and most cars had solid tiny front discs with rear drums! Having raced the AE86 in SCCA a lot in the 80s, I know the stock brakes were always an issue.  For the GT cars, TRD had a set of AP Lockheed 4-piston brakes that were a huge improvement.  If you were stuck with the stock brakes, you had a choice of Ferodo DS11 or Repco Metal Masters pads and that was it. The DS11 Pads worked ok but ate the rotors on the street and the Metal Masters were somewhat streetable but would fade and chunk on the track.  These days with a vast improvement in tire and suspension technology, not to mention engine stuff, the stock brakes that were barely adequate 35 years ago are now really outclassed.

Now Techno Toy Tuning or T3 has saved the day with their Big Daddy front brake kit. The Big Daddy kit is larger and has more capacity than the TRD GT AP system back in the day!  The T3 brakes require a 15″ wheel but if you want to run a smaller wheel, no fear, T3 has a smaller rotor version of this kit.

The T3 Big Daddy kit uses Wilwood-forged Superlite calipers.  The Superlites have been improved over the years from their first iterations.  This is a pretty big caliper for the size and weight of the AE86.

The Superlite calipers have pistons proportioned to be about equal to the OEM single-piston caliper.  This enables the use of the stock master cylinder.  The calipers have stainless steel abutments to prevent the brake pads’ backing plates from digging into the caliper body and a bridge bolt for additional stiffness. The forged aluminum body is hard anodized for a durable non-corroding finish.

The Big Daddy brake hit has a 300mm in diameter rotor.  This is up from the stock 234mm rotors. This is huge for a car the size of the AE86 and bigger than the old full-race TRD GT AP brakes back in the day.

11 comments

  1. Have you used the BP10 pads? How heavy is the AE86? Cause I’ve used the BP10’s on my NC with all of 150whp… I mean I guess they were useable, but they definitely did fade. And the pedal got super mushy cause the pads get really compressible with heat… and I went through half the pad thickness in one track day. Before you say it was brake fluid, I did the next track day with the same unflushed/unbled fluid in the car with some ST47 pads and the pedal never went soft. Unless the car is super light, like Ariel Atom light, the BP10 shouldn’t be used for anything more exciting than a spirited mountain drive.

    1. They didn’t do too good on my turbo SE-R on the track but it was 300 lbs heavier. The AE86 is lighter and has bigger brakes but I think I will end up running BP20 or BPQ pads. The BPQ works pretty good on our EP3 project.

  2. Weirdly, those parking brake calipers are a standard thing they make, but at least in the US they don’t seem to want to sell them outside of kits that are put together by some company like here. Part number 120-9463 and 120-9464 (solid vs vented rotor width) and 120-13517 if you want to try to hunt them down for something else; they’re available overseas of all things.

  3. It’s disappointing that Stoptech has been having so many supply issues due to the bankruptcy they went through. I’ve been using the 309 “Sport” compound on the front of my stock power NB Miata with a Superlite pattern caliper – the now discontinued Afco F88. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to design my own BBK around a $45 caliper. It’s been doing great for a year and many track days now.

    I believe Flyin’ Miata sells a similar rear handbrake Wilwood, not sure why this isn’t in their catalog. FM says it is much less effective than the stock handbrake and is best thought of as a way to satisfy racing class requirements that dictate a handbrake, not something strong enough to initiate a drift. Maybe the implementation is different here though.

    1. Stoptech got bought out by private equity and they proceeded to gut the company, divesting the assists and laying off all but one engineer who quit because of horrible working conditions. My dream would be that someone buys the company back and fixes it.

  4. Those handbrake kits for Wilwood calipers suck. I had them in a kit I brought from Flyin Miata for my ’16 ND back in 2017 for a Laguna Seca track day. They can’t even hold the car on the tiniest slope. I adjusted, adjusted, and adjusted again. They just aren’t strong enough. I started cranking the steering wheel all the way to one side and carrying a wheel chock in the trunk to keep the car in place when parked.

  5. Mike, any plans or upside for upgrading the master cylinder? I recall some Camry master cylinders will work.

    1. T3 says the brakes are designed to work with the stock master cylinder and I did some quick calcs and it seems so.

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