Braking Kit

Back in 2010/11 I was looking for an appropriate brake upgrade. We had done the rounds with most on the market.

Quite frankly, nothing struck me and I was convinced there was nothing better out there than the original OE genuine Land Rover pad and caliper. At the end of the day, those brakes have got to pass a test to tow 3 and a half ton. We tried the obvious brands, and if anything they got worse.

When I ran the off road driving centre, we were driving for hours through thick mud and would go through brake pads in at least 2 working days. We were not changing discs too regularly but that was expected really.

Very quickly we’d wear the pad out and add more wear to the disc and when youkeep replacing it, it just becomes a vicious cycle really.

I actually found that the non genuine pads would last less than half of the time. Having done that for 10 years, I had
gone through a lot of brake pads and tried a lot of brands on the market.

We had to make sure our brakes felt good on the pedal and could withstand the higher speed of the V8 engine, and something which would remain cool under heavy braking. In the end, we had a combination of systems as without
designing an entire brake set up, we wanted to work with the car it was designed for.

We got in touch with Alcon, a British company based in Leicester, producing an incredible race setup which is proven on the track.

They put together a package of six pot front and later a 4 pot rear setup. The calipers are stock which are a cast aluminium one piece caliper. The pad compound wears really well, super efficient and a good bite. Albeit, we learnt later that the compound could be changed where the bite from cold is much better.

Instead of regular brakes, they are totally over engineered for the vehicle, never going to overheat. They do need servicing as they are a race brake which needs looking after.

Ultimately, it is a brake that is more than capable of handling a V8 engine under the bonnet, and they don’t half look good too through the wheel.