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Baer or Wildwood? Does it matter?

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GNRick

Retired member
Joined
Mar 21, 2004
Messages
5,485
Thinking of replacing my fronts. I think the Wildwoods are cheaper, last I checked. I like the red calipers. Besides price is there much of a difference?
 
a lot of Baer setups are based on parts that were put on cars at the factory- which gives them the edge in my book due to ease of getting a new rotor, caliper, or pads on a sunday afternoon..
 
I have Wilwoods on my race car. I bought it with them on the rear, and got a steal on the fronts so I bought them and installed them. After having them in my own hands, then looking at the Baers, I will more than likely go with Baer next time. The Wilwoods just seem so flimsy. I have not driven the car yet, am in process of putting the motor together, but I have also heard where people have run Wilwoods and removed them to go with Baer because the Wilwoods were no up to the task.
 
These are supposed to be direct bolt on and use OEM pads.....http://www.ebay.com/itm/270871122721?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 If you invested in Baer brakes you wouldn't want to be getting new calipers or rotors from the parts store on a Sunday afternoon. Only thing to replace would be the pads, hopefully. And maybe the rotors if you are like me and don't want to invest in name brand rotors.

a lot of Baer setups use calipers designed for C5/C6 Vettes- a 2 piston caliper for a C5 Vette is functionally the same whether you pay extra for the Baer logo to be cast into it or not..

Wilwood makes good stuff- if you pay for the good stuff.. they also make stuff that is barely adequate for a lightweight drag car that people think is a good idea to try to use on their fully dressed out street cars...
 
You need to research the Wilwood kits. Alot of them are designed to be lightweight, and lack proper moisture and dirt seals to be used on the street.
Baer kits are now almost all 4 piston or 6 piston, and designed for heavy duty/ street use.
 
You need to research the Wilwood kits. Alot of them are designed to be lightweight, and lack proper moisture and dirt seals to be used on the street.
Baer kits are now almost all 4 piston or 6 piston, and designed for heavy duty/ street use.

they make good race car stuff, but how many factory built cars have Wilwood brake calipers on them? you see a lot of PBR and Brembo calipers on factory built cars ranging from economy cars to world class super cars, but i can't think of anything with a Wilwood brake caliper on it right off the top of my head...
 
they make good race car stuff, but how many factory built cars have Wilwood brake calipers on them? you see a lot of PBR and Brembo calipers on factory built cars ranging from economy cars to world class super cars, but i can't think of anything with a Wilwood brake caliper on it right off the top of my head...
Good point!
 
Wilwoods if you are on a budget. They are decent, and much better then stock but, Baer if you want the best braking components possible on your car.
 
You need to research the Wilwood kits. Alot of them are designed to be lightweight, and lack proper moisture and dirt seals to be used on the street.
Baer kits are now almost all 4 piston or 6 piston, and designed for heavy duty/ street use.

This is the crux of the issue. Buy the right tool for the job.
 
My friend had baer 4 piston setup on his chevelle but he didnt really like the stopping power. He just switched to 6 piston wilwood and car will be onnroad soon sonwe will see...
 
I was just looking into this as well, and from what I can tell, in the Wilwood instructions, there are modifications and cutting that needs to be done to the spindles for them to fit. Not a huge deal, but I believe the Baer brakes are a direct bolt on design. If Im spending the money rather not do any cutting. Correct me if Im wrong, cause I could be.

The Nissan GTR in my showroom has Brembo :)
What dealership? Im looking for something fun.
 
I was just looking into this as well, and from what I can tell, in the Wilwood instructions, there are modifications and cutting that needs to be done to the spindles for them to fit. Not a huge deal, but I believe the Baer brakes are a direct bolt on design. If Im spending the money rather not do any cutting. Correct me if Im wrong, cause I could be.


What dealership? Im looking for something fun.

Nissan route 1

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I was just looking into this as well, and from what I can tell, in the Wilwood instructions, there are modifications and cutting that needs to be done to the spindles for them to fit. Not a huge deal, but I believe the Baer brakes are a direct bolt on design. If Im spending the money rather not do any cutting. Correct me if Im wrong, cause I could be.


What dealership? Im looking for something fun.

Baer you have to modify the spindle Best thing is to buy from Baer mounted to the spindle. Then it is a easy install too. You can modify your spindles but it is not worth it to me. I tried it and not worth the $200 vs time spent.
 
I like to stay out of these conversations as I am a little biased :)

The best thing is to talk to people that have used our products, we have been very lucky to have a great relationship with the TurboBuick community and have a number of amazing cars that use our brakes. One thing to note is Baer is a supporting vendor of the site, and Buick events. We have a number of great vendors on the board, so even though we are a paid advertiser you will see we don't advertise on the board as we support our Buick vendors. (had to throw that in here :))

To clear up a couple of the things that have been said. For years Baer was the US distributor for Alcon and PBR brakes. PBR was a very large brake manufacture based out of Australia that had OE contracts with a number of vehicle manufacturers. At the time we were more of a system integrator using their calipers. This is no longer true as PBR was bought by Bosch a number of years ago and was basically swallowed up. We still use some PBR based products, but nothing like we used to. Baer now manufactures a entire family of calipers in house in PHX Arizona. From start to finish these are built in AZ, from US sourced material. The one nice thing we do with many of our calipers (well the T4, and the 6P) is these are modeled to take an OE pad, so pad replacments are not only easy to get they are realistically priced.

All G-body systems require spindle modifications due to the cast in caliper mounts (ears on the spindles).. well other than the stock replacement D52 type caliper upgrades. We have always offered systems built on the spindles so this is easier to install for the end user. We install these spindles in a fixture and machine them, we then will build the entire system on the spindle to make sure everything is shimmed correctly. If anybody has done this in the past, they noticed that everybody uses the dust shield bosses, which are very small and not always machined very nicely. We actually machine into the spindle/boss deeper for a better mounting surface (also changes less track width), and we use 12mm hardware instead of the common 3/8" bolts.

If you really want to learn more on what we do, you can check out this link... http://www.baer.com/products/brake-systems/general-overview This really goes into more detail. There are so many little difference that add up, more than just the number of pistons and color of calipers.

Just one example we only use SKF or Timken bearings and seals in our hubs, all packed with Redline Synthetic grease. Do some research and ask questions, you will find differences.

Thanks for the support guys.. we really appreciate it. We just try to build the best product we can, to go on the cars we all love.

Thx!
 
So if I'm just interested in replacing my stock calipers with pretty red ones, I can just bolt on a set of Baer D52 replacement calipers and be on my way? Would there be any decrease in stopping distance? What if I splurged and also bought the Baer slotted rotors? I'm not interested in autocrossing, just want to stop shorter in an emergency. BTW I have a Hydratech hydroboost set up if that matters. Thanks White T.
 
Hey GNRick,
Baer does not offer any stock type replacement calipers, at this time everything we currently offer requires modified spindles.

We have looked into the stock replacement calipers, but since we would want to build all the pieces in the US it would be very difficult to compete with the current offshore offerings on more of an level product. I cant say we won't ever attempt this, but it is currently not on the list of things to do.

Thx!
Rick

P.S. Hydratech builds a nice hydroboost unit, good start there!
 
Hey GNRick,
Baer does not offer any stock type replacement calipers, at this time everything we currently offer requires modified spindles.

We have looked into the stock replacement calipers, but since we would want to build all the pieces in the US it would be very difficult to compete with the current offshore offerings on more of an level product. I cant say we won't ever attempt this, but it is currently not on the list of things to do.

Thx!
Rick

P.S. Hydratech builds a nice hydroboost unit, good start there!
Ok thanks for your reply!
 
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