This past Friday, I stuck around the shop after hours to document the installation of Ryan@Forged’s Alcon Brake kit. We stay so busy these days, we just can’t squeeze our own vehicles in during normal business hours! One of the best things about working at Forged Performance is hanging out after hours with such a great group of guys (oh, and the cars are cool too). We have all heard great things about Alcon’s Super Kit but as soon as the system was unpacked and in our hands, the high quality craftsmanship was clearly evident. The massive 15.75 inch 2-piece floating rotors, that use Alcon’s bobbin drive system and crescent groove pattern, caused Ryan to start to twitch just a little at the sight of them! Once Ryan un-boxed the gigantic mono-block six piston calipers, jaws dropped through-out the shop and we realized that this brake kit really was the real deal and far from just “hype”. While the OEM GT-R brakes are VERY impressive, there is always room for improvement – Alcon knows this better than any of us. Alcon was able to use a thicker brake rotor with crescent slots that provide gas relief and pad cleaning, while minimizing the pedal pulsations; they also converted the rear four piston caliper set-up to a six piston to match the fronts. Most of you know all this though, after all, Alcon is not new to high end motorsports grade parts, these are the same guys that provide braking systems to IRL IndyCar Series, NASCAR, Daytona Prototypes, Australian V8 Super Car Series, Grand Am, WRC, and more! I would say they know their stuff!
The install was pretty straight forward and went as smoothly as we all expected from a brake kit of this caliber. We were able to get the brakes bled and shut down shop by 11pm. Unfortunately we have had a group of rain showers almost every night here in Atlanta for the past week; because of this, Ryan was not able to properly test his new found braking capabilities Friday night. Over the next few days, Ryan was able to find some dry patches and while the brakes still haven’t been used to their full potential, at proper operating temperatures with warm tires, he has already pulled over 1.3 G’s under braking! Stay tuned for additional tests as we get his car out on track and really push the Alcon Super Kit to the extreme.