Wilwood: Big Brake Install Honda Remix

When we were putting together our Remix Hondas, we had to rely on partners that would truly deliver on their promises. The product had to fit perfect, perform well and get here well ahead of schedule. For that reason, when it came to stopping our 300hp Remix Accord V6 Coupe, we opted to install Wilwood brakes. Since the Accord was a popular Honda product,we went to Fast Brakes in Phoenix, AZ to help us put some Wilwood Brakes on our Accord. International Automotive and Custom (IAC) in Woodbridge, Ontario, one of our Remix project partners was chosen to ensure the upgrade realized its potential with a proper installation.

When you buy a Fast Brakes Wilwood brake kit you can bet the track-tested kits will not only provide better street performance but will definitely make massive improvements over the OEM brakes on the track. Even if your car has upgraded pads, rotors and lines, it will not match the clamping power, reduced stopping distances or the fade-free performance of the Wilwoods. The Fast Brakes Wilwood brake kit was also lighter than stock, which leads to a reduction in rotating mass and frees up some torque for the already angry 3.5L V6 power the Remix Accord.

The kit features Wilwood’s popular 4-piston caliper to increase the brake force far beyond stock. The caliper can be ordered in red but we opted for black to fit with the high contrast theme of the Remix Hondas. The forged aluminium caliper is also very lightweight to reduce un-sprung mass and features and innovative design where you don’t have to remove the caliper to swap pads! The rotors are Wilwood’s 2-piece design featuring lightweight aluminum hats bolted to cast iron discs to resist warping. The compact 330mm rotors can be ordered in slotted but we went for the slotted and drilled that offer the look and the functionality we wanted. The kit comes with all of the hardware and instructions to make the install about as simple as a regular brake job. The kit we ordered was a Fast Brakes Wilwood kit for the Remix Accord.

First we removed the entire OEM front brake assembly and swapped in the Wilwood front rotors. Then we used the Fast Brakes billet bracket to fit the Wilwood calipers to the OEM bolt locations and dropped in the Wilwood BP-10 pads. After the bolts were torqued down, we could install the caliper over the rotor and get to work on the brake lines. Fast Brakes again helped out adapting this kit to the Remix Accord by providing a stainless steel line using the OE bracket locations. Since this required removing OEM lines, the whole system would need to be bled and after some super-fun pedal pumps we had adequate pressure.

We were almost out of the woods and it was time to bed-in the brakes. Naturally, this should be done on a closed circuit to not interfere with other motorists because it involved some extreme braking. We took the car up to 35mph and stood on the brakes until it hit 20mph and repeated this five times. Then we cranked it up a notch and went from 45mph down to 10mph but never coming to a full stop while stabbing the brakes. From there we cruised around for 15 minutes with no dragging the brakes and no stopping in order to cool them off. The rotors were removed of all their black coating and the gunmetal color of the rotor had a nice transfer film built up.

If you don’t properly bed-in your brakes, the pad can become glazed over and far less efficient. The Accord was now a beast in the braking department with a hard initial bite all the way down to zero. The pedal was stiffer and provided great feedback for some serious braking. Fast Brakes and Wilwood provides competent and capable braking for a fraction of the price of some of the other kits out there, plus they are are designed, engineered and built in the USA.

www.wilwood.com

www.fastbrakes.com

www.iactech.com