REVIEW of Forge Motorsport Big Brake Kit Lotz of pics!

[sum41kid861]

Said car with Forge BBK:



So a while back I was speaking with Mike@Forge about the new Forge BBK. I saw a sneak peak of them last Waterfest and I knew I had to have them (not to mention I would be neededing a brake job soon). So I waited...and waited...and waited for production and finaliation to be done BUT, it was well worth the wait. After talking with Mike we both decided that it would better to go with the small of the 2 rotor sizes, the 13 inch . At the time I was running my winter setup which were 17" S4 wheels. My new summer set (pics below) was not going to be ready in time so I took the risk.







As you can see, the rotors and calipers just make it into the wheels, no rubbing or scraping.

The install was very straight forward (though I did not do it because of time and location restraints but could have if I had both to my advantage) (I also wanted to get them done before SoWo which was only a couple days away at the time) take off old calipers and rotors, take off dust shield, take out old lines, install in reverse order with supplied hardware, bleed lines, bed brakes, re-bleed/re-bed till no mo' bubbles.

After install:

Please do not be alarmed (my adapters are still bolted on)


Same shot (no adapters)


New Forge manufactured SS lines (I went with red as you can see)


you can see the ECB red stuff pads in there nice nice (install day)


a couple months of driving




I was in such a rush and so excited to install these that I forgot to take comparason weights. (sorry)

But what I can say is how awsome these are. Now, I daily drive my car...daily...annnnnd I like to drive fast, (REVO stg2 with other supporting Forge Mods) so I need to stop fast just incase ::knocks on wood:: WOW. My very first impression of these.

Now if you live on Long Island you know where Ocean Parkway is (if you dont, Google map it). Its a long stretch of straigh road by the water. It is where most people go to race and speed and get pulled over etc etc. But this is the place to go to bed your brakes. I have never stopped so fast so hard before in my life. Now I knew this was coming so I braced myself to not smash my face into the steering whell but forgot about the stuff in my trunk (my seats were down and all of it ended up in my front seat). I was very excited to finally Have a good set of brakes on my car. Now with any slotted and drilled rotor you get some noise when braking. I have only experienced this noise when braking harder than normal. (ex: spirited highway drive and being so into your drive you forget your exit and have to get over quick but then reaize your exit ramp is only a 20mph circle ccurve ramp). These are great for a dily driver as they are not COMPLETE overkill. I dont have to brace myself when braking going up to my local 7-11. Nor do I need to go to the dentist when coming to a short red light. (for you slower people: I dont smash my face into the steering wheel when stopping short).

Now some of you Auto-Xers out there might be asking..."Well what about me?!" "How are they on the track?!" WELL ILL TELL YOU! (I know its not a TRUE track course BUT!!!...) these performed flawlessly in the mountains of Helen, Georgia under some pretty harsh conditions. Going about 60mph into a 30mph turn, braking out of that turn because of a hold up in the cruise, braking hard around a hairpin turn towards the end of the cruise because some guy decided to stop in the middle of it, and constant braking and turning into and out of sharp turns and after a long straight away. I felt no slop in the brakes the entire time. They were working like the day after the final bleed, even after the cruise driving back to the town I was still impressed how well the kit performed.

I have: (some info taken from Forge Brake Spec Sheet)

13 inch rotors, front only. (330mm Min. 18” wheels required, may fit under some 17” wheels designed for big brakes)
2-piece floating rotorsCNC machined lightweight forged billet aluminium rotor hats/bells
Proprietary iron alloy rotor discs with directional curved vanes for optimized rotor cooling
Slotted and drilled rotors for dust and gas evacuation adds long term durability
CNC machined forged billet aluminum calipers
High strength to weight ratio at 3.46 kg (7.6 lbs)
Custom CNC machined forged billet aluminum caliper mounting bracket
Radial mounted caliper for maximum rigidity
6 pistons per caliper with staggered piston sizes for even pad wear (30mm, 36.5mm. 38.5mm)
Uses standard pad profile available from many popular pad manufacturers
Hard anodized finish on caliper, mounting brackets, and rotor hats
Pad retaining grooves, pins and clips reduce pad noise and allow for easy pad changes

Custom stainless braided brake lines, red (front and rear *rear per request by me*)
Disclaimer: "Every brake line included with each Forge big brake kit is manufactured in-house using only the highest quality
95PVC coated stainless steel braided Teflon hoses and custom machined stainless steel end fittings which
results in a brake line that will perform under the most extreme conditions whilst still looking good. They have
exceptional resistance to expansion under brake fluid pressure and heat, providing the driver with much needed
braking confidence in every driving situation. All of our brake hoses are street legal for any vehicle worldwide
and carry DOT, TUV, FMVSS-106, ADR, and LTSA approvals."

EBC Red Stuff pads (front and rear *rear per request by me*)
Super Blue Fliud (sold separately)

Summer set up:

So since I knew the 17" S4 wheels worked fine, I knew the new wheels ere going to be fine as well.

18" Porsche 3 peice wheels custom powdercoated to satin flat black centers and gloss black lips
18x8.5 fronts
18x10 rears



you can see that even the 13inch disks will fill an 18" wheel very nicely (dirty car)









Bottom line on the Forge VAG Big Brake Kit:

Awesome stopping power but not overkill. Great for daily driver and even better for a track car.

Id like to thank Mike and all the guys at Forge US and Forge UK for this excellent kit as well as high quality durable products.

[BETOGLI]

Awesome! Congrats for that a nice BBK! And for Forge!

[HYDE16]

Wow, great review and pictures...

I plan on working with Forge to do the first install write-up on a 2011 MKVI GTI.

I'm going to write-up a full install guide and review similar to the other Forge product reviews I have created.

If you are ever in Northern NJ on a Wed night can you stop by our car meet to show the Forge BBK to the guys at my weekly Euro meet?
We'd love to have you and have everyone check out the Forge kit for their cars.

Link to my meet is in my signature.

[sum41kid861]

Wow, great review and pictures...

I plan on working with Forge to do the first install write-up on a 2011 MKVI GTI.

I'm going to write-up a full install guide and review similar to the other Forge product reviews I have created.

If you are ever in Northern NJ on a Wed night can you stop by our car meet to show the Forge BBK to the guys at my weekly Euro meet?
We'd love to have you and have everyone check out the Forge kit for their cars.

Link to my meet is in my signature.

hey thanks...post up some pictures and add it to here when you get it done!

im usually not in NJ on a wed night lol but if i ever am ill be sure to deff stop by!

[IJM]

Those look like Porsche 996 6-piston calipers. Is that what the Forge kit uses?

[HYDE16]

What offset are your 17's? I have the same wheels (replica) that are ET37 as per the stamp on the inside of the wheel. I want to make sure these fit since they are my winter wheels.

[sum41kid861]

oem et45

[MJM Autohaus]

Nice car!

[sum41kid861]

Nice car!

thank you MJM...

[kiserhd]

This might be a bit of an odd question but what did you do about the brake pad wear indicators?

[sum41kid861]

This might be a bit of an odd question but what did you do about the brake pad wear indicators?

u tuck the connector back or zip tie it to something and then disable it in VAGCOM

[Parademic]

Those brakes look so sexy!

[kiserhd]

u tuck the connector back or zip tie it to something and then disable it in VAGCOM

Any chance you can give me some pointers on the vagcom work? I just swapped to some 4 piston brembos and need to disable the brake sensor and would rather know exactly where to look then end up disabling something important in VCDS.

[sum41kid861]

Any chance you can give me some pointers on the vagcom work? I just swapped to some 4 piston brembos and need to disable the brake sensor and would rather know exactly where to look then end up disabling something important in VCDS.

im not 100% sure...

if you PM DanGSR (he did my vagcom work)...he should be able to tell you exactly where to look

[EngTech1]

It looks to be Necessary to run those 12mm spacer in order to get the Caliper to Clear
either of the Mags You uses , so is that the case ?

If Not how much Clearance was there @ Caliper - It looks tight ?

How thick were the Pads ? Surface Area would be Nice also ( Sq. Inches )
How thick are the Rotors ?
How much does Ring Replacement Cost ?
Pucks in the Calipers are those SS material ?

Thanks looking at Brakes .

Dan

[kiserhd]

im not 100% sure...

if you PM DanGSR (he did my vagcom work)...he should be able to tell you exactly where to look

Thanks.

[sum41kid861]

It looks to be Necessary to run those 12mm spacer in order to get the Caliper to Clear
either of the Mags You uses , so is that the case ?

no those are just adapters for my wheels. they are porsche fitment (5x130) so i need to run those adapters. it just so happens to be that the thickness of the adapters allow for perfect clearance. i do not run any spacers or adapters when i have the audi wheels on my car for winter.

If Not how much Clearance was there @ Caliper - It looks tight ?

when i run the 17in audi s4 wheels with an et45, there is about a credit card thickness between the face of the caliper and the back of the wheel. there is about a finger thickness from the side of the caliper to the inside of the wheel.

How thick were the Pads ? Surface Area would be Nice also ( Sq. Inches )

did not measure but if youd like to research they are ebc red stuff pads

How thick are the Rotors ?

again, no measurement on my part but i can take one for you when i switch wheels for the winter (in about a week)

How much does Ring Replacement Cost ?

ring replacement?

Pucks in the Calipers are those SS material ?

pucks?

Thanks looking at Brakes .

Dan

answers in bold...

[HYDE16]

Sum41kid861, thanks to you I went with the Forge Motorsport Front Brake Kit on my 2011 GTI.

-HYDE16 Reviews Forge Motorsport Front Brake Kit (MK5 & MK6 330mm Kit)-