Mov'it brakes finally installed!

After initially receiving the wrong parts from Mov'it brakes in Germany (the original parts were designed for the Ghibli ABS and later versions of the car), Mov'it manufactured a new kit for the series 1a Ghibli based on the measurements taken by myself and Jorrit at Auto Forza.


The new parts arrived last week and yesterday I returned with the car to Auto Forza to get them fitted. To the credit of Mov'it, the new parts are near perfect! Jorrit fitted the kit in about two hours... it was pretty much a straight swap of the original parts.

To recap, the new discs are 342mm in diameter and were purchased to fill the huge void left behind the 18" Compomotive wheels I fitted early in the year. However, the original brake discs were also starting to fade, so would have soon needed to be replaced anyway. Here's a picture of the original disc behind the Compomotive wheel... I think you'll agree they look a little bit weeny?

The new brake fits comfortably behind the Compomotive wheels and arguably an even larger kit could have been installed. However, I think this would have been completely overkill given that the Ghibli only weighs about 1360kg... I think once these brakes have bedded in then they'll be pretty damn impressive. Also, the internal diameter of the Compomotive wheel restricts the brake kit diamter such that the next largest size offered by Mov'it would not have fit inside the wheel.


So... I think these brakes look more like they were designed to fit behind the new wheels. First driving impression... well... my very first impression was... oh. However, I soon realised that this disappointment was very short lived, since after applying the brake a couple of times the increase in performance of the brake shot up incredibly. I therefore suspect that the brake needed to make initial contact and maybe burn off some manufacturing chemicals before it started to work properly. I'm going to have to be gentle on the brakes for the first 1000k or so to give them time to bed in properly before I can really try stepping on them, but already, even with light use, they seem to be responding better than the original system.

Looks like I'm going to have to be careful with braking then, since with no ABS fitted to the early Ghiblis, I suspect that it's going to be easy to lock up these brakes! I'll keep you informed of how I get on with them... if they turn out to be as good as I expect them to be, then I'll be very tempted to get some replacement rear brakes too!