brakes Rear Disc Options

[DB]

I am after rear disc for my 02 and for the want of convenience would prefer a 3/9 o'clock orientation rather than 6 o'clock for the conventional Golf calipered option.  I'm thinking that increasing the rotor diameter should allow room to rotate the caliper 90º from the conventional location .

There are a couple of options which have basically the same offset, same stud pattern and other similarities. Two in particular are the Mazda MX5 1.8i rotor (sorry, Miata for US folk!), which is 250mm OD and the front solid BMW 316i rotor, which is 260mm.

The face of the MX5 rotors suit a wide short brake pad and may not be suitable if using the Golf caliper from this perspective.

 

The E30 316i non-vented rotor on the other hand looks to be a possible option for rear rotors for a 2002. has this been considered before?  Comments?

 

BTW on the front is the typical 2002 big brake set up.

Here are the specs:
 

BMW 316i

 

Golf Mk1

 

Mazda MX5

 

Golf Mk 2/4 pads

 

Mazda MX5

[skipsfcr]

We never got the316 in the States, nor any other model equipped with a non-vented, slip-on disc with such a shallow rotor "hat." Based on the specs, that rotor looks as though it might fit pretty well, and the larger inner diameter would minimize the amount of material that would need to be machined off the drive flange. Bear in mind, of course, that the 6 O'clock caliper position was chosen to facilitate use of the stock parking brake cables without the need for adapters. Take that stipulation away and the sky's (almost) the limit. FWIW, I had a complete Miata rear disc set up on my '76 for a few years. It didn't function nearly as well as the VW set up on my '72 and I ultimately converted to VW on it as well.

[DB]

handy to know about the parking brake cable. I had not given that any consideration. I have Mk2 carriers and Mk 4 calipers on the way so I'll await to I get that and try a dummy fit before I commit to rotors.

[TobyB]

...and I'm running rear Saturn discs with Nissan Sentra front calipers on the back of the race car.

 

Works just fine- took quite a bit of fabrication.  And no parking brake.  Because race car.

 

(the Sentra calipers were for pad availability as much as anything)

 

t