Subaru WRX Wagon - Two-Face

If you're looking to put together a badass brake setup for just a few greenbacks, scour for used equipment. We've seen front and rear Brembo STi caliper sets off of Group N rally car buildups go for $650, and have seen complete STi rotor sets go for $200 used. Just remember, with a R160 rear-end pumpkin and differential (STi uses a R180), WRX owners will find that there are very few ways to just "bolt on" a rear STi Brembo setup. There are vendors, such as TWR Racing, that sell bolt-on kits to fit the rear STi Brembo caliper to a WRX, but the $589 price tag was just too much for us. We could have run just the front Brembo upgrade, but with the front-to-rear brake bias and balance off, our front brakes would have wound up handling too much of the braking, reducing the work down by the rears, and increasing our braking distances. We needed something for the rears to help balance out the car again and bring our braking system back into check.

Powerslot, already infamous for their high-quality slotted brake rotor offerings, came to our rescue. Powerslot manufactures one of the most affordable big brake systems around, known as the Powerslot Plus system. Using larger-than-stock Powerslot brake rotors combined with adaptor brackets that move the stock calipers out farther, the Powerslot Plus system provides increased brake torque and heat capacity without sacrificing pedal feel or brake pad selection. The system is sold for such cars as the Acura RSX, Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Toyota Celica, and Scion tC. Larger diameter wheels are required to clear the larger brake rotors, but if you're looking at bigger brakes, we're sure you're not rolling on stock wheels anyways. For the Subaru WRX application, Powerslot upgrades the rear rotor from a 10.47-inch stock piece to a 12-inch slotted piece that retains all parking brake capability and uses any brake pad that will fit the stock caliper. The system was straightforward to install and only took about an hour to finish, which is about right since putting on the kit is only four bolts more work beyond a standard rear rotor change. We did however have to bleed the brakes after installation. For the WRX, Powerslot instructed us to remove the stock brake line and tilt its connection at the caliper in order to avoid stretching the line since the big brake system moves the caliper farther away from its original mounting position.

We could have reused our stock WRX brake lines to fit the Brembo and Powerslot kits, but stainless-steel braided brake lines always make for a worthwhile upgrade. Project Two-Face received a Hyperfirm brake line kit from Earl's Performance Plumbing, a company claiming that they only market improved brake line designs, not just some exact copy of the factory brake line. Factory brake lines are made of soft rubber, which will deflect and grow even softer under high heat track conditions. Earl's Hyperfirm kits are significantly stronger than factory lines, providing a much stiffer and more consistent brake pedal, even under heavy abuse. We especially liked Earl's use of high quality components, and proving that the results are in the details, Earl's made such improvements as a strut mounting bracket that will not bind and is movable up the entire brake line. This allows us to position the brake line wherever we want to avoid being rubbed by the tire, something our hybrid brake setup needs badly. Be sure to use a 10mm flare nut wrench when removing and installing the brake lines, and be sure not to bend or break one of the metal hard lines. You don't want to round off the flare nut with a standard crescent wrench, if you do, you'll be in a whole other world of hurt. Flare nut wrenches run five bucks at the most, and the flare nut is held on with very little torque, so it's very easy to damage the brake lines if you don't do it right.

Following a good brake bleed all around, making sure we had no fluid leaks, we took the car back out for a banzai run. Hawk Performance spec'd out the pads for our application, based on our demands of streetability and track durability. We decided to go with the High Performance Street (HPS) compound all around for street duty, combining a higher coefficient of friction and 20-40 percent more stopping power, but without sacrificing rotor wear or noise. The pads are squeal free, as quiet as stock pads, but provide eyeball ripping braking power when called upon. Once we arrived at the track, we pulled out the HPS pads up front and dropped in a set of Hawk HP Plus pads. The ferro-carbon HP Plus pad compound is designated as a autocross and track day compound, offering even more braking force and heat capacity than the HPS pads, yet remaining relatively streetable. The HP Plus pads will take a little bit of time to heat up before they can stop well, and there can be a few screeches during use, but we could see these pads being used in a daily driver.

Still on street tires, we found our Frankenstein braking setup to perform flawlessly. The system never failed and the Hawk pads never blasted beyond their heat capacity. If we ever move up to stickier R-compound tires, we might consider jumping up to something harsher, such as Hawk's Black compound racing pad. For now, the balance is struck. There is no excess dive or awkward pedal feel, but heat capacity has gone way up. With the Earl's brake lines giving the same firm pedal all day long, our Powerslot and Brembo setup just kept asking for more. Plus, at the end of the day, we just swap out front brake pads and drive home in full comfort. We're so close to dual duty street/track nirvana, we can almost taste it.