TORANA BRAKE UPGRADE

> FITTING HOPPERS STOPPERS’ ALL-NEW, ALL-AUSSIE SIX-POT ANCHORS TO A TORANA

Watch and learn as we bolt a set of Hoppers Stoppers’ beaut new six-pot anchors to a Torana

IT’S no secret that Aussie cars didn’t have great brakes back in the 60s and 70s. But as we keep jamming horsepower into cars of this era – which we drive on crowded roads full of dingbat drivers – the need for heavy-duty braking artillery has never been more important.

Victoria’s Hoppers Stoppers has been providing street machiners with the whoa needed to match their go for decades, and the company has just launched schmick new four- and six-piston caliper offerings for LC-UC Toranas.

Designed around a fat 330x32mm ventilated rotor and with a modern slide-on hub carrier, the new Hoppers kits require a 17-inch (or larger) wheel for clearance. The kits are Adr-compliant and still use Aussie-designed components that are of original manufacturer specs. This benefits the end user who needs to get their project approved for road use.

“We can give customers all the info they need to take to an engineer and tick the job off, because we use production components where feasible and suitable,” says Hoppers’ Duncan Benn. “The testing has already been done by the OE manufacturer, and the data is there for engineers to see and reference.”

The calipers are a similar design to an AP Racing unit, but they are Australian designed and made. “And we have pad-mounted it with a new bracket design to also suit better, bigger rotors,” explains Duncan. “The more pistons you have in a caliper, the more even clamping force you have on the pad itself. If you tried to match our six-pot’s clamp force with a single-piston caliper, you’d have one big pressure point in the middle with the outsides of the caliper flexing out.

“Similarly, opposed-piston layout calipers make them more rigid, which gives more consistent pedal feel compared to a sliding-piston caliper, which can flex. This isn’t normally a factor in most regular street driving, but at nine-tenths it is crucial.”

While this top-spec six-piston kit will run you up to $4500, Hoppers has Torana brake kits starting from $1500 (290mm discs, two-pot calipers). The big kits are available now in limited colours, with more colours available by order.

We followed along as the Hoppers Stoppers team fitted their new kit to a tidy LX Torana sedan packing an injected 5.0litre.

STEP

Don’t heave on the nut when tightening it; it should be tightened to the recommended preload. For tapered-roller bearings, this means you should allow a small amount of end float, as you’ll destroy the bearings if they are too tight. Reinsert the split washer and tap the dust cap on. With the bleed nipple at the top of the caliper and pointing upwards, fit the caliper to the bracket using two washers on each bolt – one under the head of the bolt and one between the caliper and the bracket. Spin the rotor on the hub to check it runs centrally in the bracket, as there can be variances in stub axles that can cause the rotor to sit off-centre. This requires shims or shortening the spacers to correct. Slide the new rotor onto the hub and use a wheel nut or two to hold it in place. The wheel nuts are only required to hold the disc in situ until the wheel is ready to be bolted on. The hose can then be fitted to the caliper, with a copper crush washer used on both sides of each banjo fitting. Fit the new hose to the existing hardline and replace the horseshoe clip to secure it.