The curious case of the Atom 4 brakes

[Charlie]

Hi Reg

Good account on whats happening with your braking set up, im due to just have the springs fitted to mine in a few weeks but now im wondering if my might get the same issues on track when im next out a few weeks later!

Last thing anyone wants is lock up and loss of confidence in the car, how much were the AP5000R calipers for the set!

Cheers

Daz

You’ll be ok with just springs and pads, I think the challenge is when you start to play with the master cylinders? It’s not the case for every car as mine is setup as per quite a few others. Could be some air trapped still, could be another larger rear mc is the fix. Either way I just wanted to draw a line under the OE calipers. It’s not like there’s much support for them when you do have issues and it’s a day to return the car each time to Ariel. Smaller rear pistons to me makes sense as do calipers made specially for non servoed lightweight cars, rather than big brake kits for road cars. The only factory option is to go with carbon, I’m not keen on the cost of those or for a car used mostly on the road.

Regarding the carbon option I am pretty sure these still use the same calliper just different pads and discs.?

[Charlie]

Yes we designed everything from the ground up on the brake kit including the rear brackets to allow for the new mounting centres, it was a unique approach as we didn’t want to modify anything on the rear uprights.

Thanks are you able to re-produce the brackets on their own to sell?

[Corten-Miller]

We offer 2 different caliper brackets depending on the disc size you are using.

[plip1953]

Regarding the carbon option I am pretty sure these still use the same calliper just different pads and discs.?

Correct.

[reg]

Brief update. RS14's are now out and shortly off to their new owner. When removing them it was very obvious that the springs do actually work, probably a couple of thou either way on the pistons but very little drag.

Next weekend might take it out as is just to see, before the new calipers

[Luckky]

Afternoon all, I find this a really interesting thread. I’d say I’m an intermediate driver with a few track days under my belt. I’m now in to my third year owning the Atom 4 with the standard AP’S (not 2 piece).

I went out for a spin for the first time this year, amazing to be out again and not too cold.

I paid motor attention to my break travel after all this conversation and I can estimate that under very hard breaking, my pedal travels about 2cm, maybe 3cm max. For those struggling with their brakes, how far is yours travelling please as I don’t find mine a problem with this much range?

I guess I’m asking for some help quantifying what ‘too much brake travel’ really means to some of you?

[plip1953]

Afternoon all, I find this a really interesting thread. I’d say I’m an intermediate driver with a few track days under my belt. I’m now in to my third year owning the Atom 4 with the standard AP’S (not 2 piece).

I went out for a spin for the first time this year, amazing to be out again and not too cold.

I paid motor attention to my break travel after all this conversation and I can estimate that under very hard breaking, my pedal travels about 2cm, maybe 3cm max. For those struggling with their brakes, how far is yours travelling please as I don’t find mine a problem with this much range?

I guess I’m asking for some help quantifying what ‘too much brake travel’ really means to some of you?

I have to say that doesn't sound at all excessive. Is your setup entirely as it left the factory?

[Luckky]

Yep, totally as is


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[plip1953]

Yep, totally as is


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Well it seems you should count yourself lucky. There's never been anything fundamentally wrong with the way the standard AP setup works (as in stopping the car), but quite a number of owners found the pedal feel and travel to be not to their liking - very much a personal thing. So if you feel happy just the way things are now, and the car stops as you would wish/expect, that's all good.

[reg]

Collection day today. Time for the new calipers to be fitted. Really looking forward to the new setup!



https://thumbsnap.com/VR2HaTtk

[reg]

Old vs new.

[speedmachine]

Thats a good looking caliper

[reg]

Both front and rear calipers are on the car now, had a video sent over of the installation and it looks fab. I have gone with 1144's for the time being then see how they do on the road and track before making any decisions.

[reg]

Front and rears installed. Master cylinders are now even as the piston diameters are smaller on the rear caliper. Optional anti-rattle springs as these are going to be road and track day use..easy enough to remove if this doesn't bother you? Knockback springs (4lbs IIRC) are fitted as standard.

Fitted to the factory 2 piece discs, in the future may change to a bigger more standard size disc....but we will see how they hold up. The 3.5 obviously never had any of these issues so I figure with these calipers and 1144's we can strike a balance between performance and longevity? A bonus is the 5000 calipers have loads of pad options.

[speedmachine]

These use/accept a thicker pad than the oem caliper?