Lotus Europa Wilwood Rear Disc Brake Upgrade Kit

[Certified Lotus]

As previously indicated I'm in for a rear set.

[Certified Lotus]

Any update?

[ProntoPhil]

I have been out of town - up in Indiana working on my Elan that is at my son's house.
just got back on Sunday.

Received this message from Michael Olsson with MIO on 9/2/17

Dear Phil
I have now received a rear Europa suspension, I will begin to design it.
I will get back soon about the price. Hope for your understanding.
Have a nice day

De bedste hilsner / Best Regards

Michael Olsson

He has a Europa for which to finish up the design of the brackets for the rear conversion kits.  I will keep everyone updated on his progress, the status of the kits and, of course, the pricing.  We are up to a total of seven orders now.

For those of you wanting his front Europa upgrade kit, you can order those now from his website " www.mio-engineering.dk "
He has a PayPal account.

Thanks everyone,
Phil Bishop

[46lotus]

I assume the rear caliper mount is from the 4 bolts holding the backing plate to the trailing arm and aluminum bearing housing.  If you are you need to be aware of the different bolt circles between the TC and non TC cars. One bolt circle does not fit all cars.

Tom

[Certified Lotus]

Phil, thanks for the update.

[Certified Lotus]

Any update on the rear disc brakes?

[Certified Lotus]

I reached out to Michael directly:

“I understand you are creating a rear disc brake kit for Lotus Europa Twin Cam Cars. I am one of the people who is part of the “group buy” from the US on the Europa web site.

Do you have an estimated time frame for completion of these kits?”

He responded:

Hi Glen
That is correct, but there is no estimated time yet.
I'll get back to you on the forum instead when I have an update.
Michael
De bedste hilsner / Best Regards

Michael Olsson

Mio Engineering
Nordlundsvej 2
2650 Hvidovre
Denmark
tlf +45 28 223344
www.mio-engineering.dk

[Pfreen]

I just talked with Claudius at http://www.lotuspbc.com/home.html Lotus prepared by Claudius in Cerritos, CA.  They apparently used to (many years ago) sell front and rear disc brake conversion kits for Europas. 

I told him about the interest here and he seems interested in finding out if there is an opportunity to sell some kits.  Anyway, since the brake hardware available today is different from what he used years ago, he would need to redo the engineering.  To do this, he needs someone to volunteer their Europa for a couple of weeks to complete the design, since he does not have a Europa on hand.

We also need to come together on what car we want to design to.  I don't know the rear brake differences between the different Europa models and wheel options.

I personally have a tc Special with standard Lotus alloys.  I would offer my car to him but I am in Florida.

Let me know what you think.

Paul

[Certified Lotus]

I’d like to give Milo a chance to complete his design, hopefully by early winter, as a number of us agreed to do a group buy. If he can’t get it accomplished I’ll get the rear disk brakes from Banks as they already have the system design done.

[surfguitar58]

Question: Would Wilwood front & rear conversion work with the standard TCS Fed dual master cylinder without boosters? Or is a MC swap assumed in this conversion?

[Certified Lotus]

Hi Michael, just following on the rear disc brake design for Lotus Europa Twin Cam. As you may be aware, the Post for interest in this on the Lotus Europa site started March 2017. If you aren’t in the final design stage I’m going to look for an alternative solution.

Sorry but I can’t wait for ever.........

Best,

Glen


On Jan 16, 2018, at 4:09 AM, Michael Olsson <mio137@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Glen

We are still looking at the rear brake setup. Hopefully a solution is found soon.
Michael

Den 16. jan. 2018 01.09 skrev "Glen
Hi Michael, checking in to see how the rear disc brake project is going for Lotus Europa Twin Cam Cars.

Best,

Glen


> On Nov 2, 2017, at 6:32 AM, Michael Olsson <mio137@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I hope that I have found a solution during the winter.
> Best Regards
> Michael
> De bedste hilsner / Best Regards
>
> Michael Olsson
>
> Mio Engineering
> Nordlundsvej 2
> 2650 Hvidovre
> Denmark
> tlf +45 28 223344
> www.mio-engineering.dk
>
>
> 2017-10-31 17:38 GMT+01:00 Glen
>> Thanks Michael. Would be great to have these during the winter here in the US so we can have them installed before summer driving weather 😎
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Glen
>>
>>
>>> On Oct 31, 2017, at 12:23 PM, Michael Olsson <mio137@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Glen
>>> That is correct, but there is no estimated time yet.
>>> I'll get back to you on the forum instead when I have an update.
>>> Michael
>>> De bedste hilsner / Best Regards
>>>
>>> Michael Olsson
>>>
>>> Mio Engineering
>>> Nordlundsvej 2
>>> 2650 Hvidovre
>>> Denmark
>>> tlf +45 28 223344
>>> www.mio-engineering.dk
>>>
>>>
>>> 2017-10-30 13:51 GMT+01:00 Glen
>>>> Hi Michael,
>>>>
>>>> I understand you are creating a rear disc brake kit for Lotus Europa Twin Cam Cars. I am one of the people who is part of the “group buy” from the US on the Europa web site.
>>>>
>>>> Do you have an estimated time frame for completion of these kits?
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>>
>>>> Glen
>>>>

[Grumblebuns]

Question: Would Wilwood front & rear conversion work with the standard TCS Fed dual master cylinder without boosters? Or is a MC swap assumed in this conversion?

Without boosters on a TCS, probably would be best to swap to a smaller bore master cylinder. Most of the alternate caliper conversions (I bought two systems over the years) assumes the stock master cylinder is used.

 

[surfguitar58]

Question: Would Wilwood front & rear conversion work with the standard TCS Fed dual master cylinder without boosters? Or is a MC swap assumed in this conversion?

Without boosters on a TCS, probably would be best to swap to a smaller bore master cylinder. Most of the alternate caliper conversions (I bought two systems over the years) assumes the stock master cylinder is used.

I am weighing my brake options. If I stick with the stock rear-drum/front-disk set-up I think I would sleeve my (or another) tandem MC to get a .75 bore for the rears and a .70 bore for the fronts. (I'm told the S2 tandems with that bore combo are rare as hens teeth).

If life were fair, someone would make a set of bolt-on front and rear disks with oversized caliper piston bores to get the same brake force from the stock MC, but, life is not always fair.

[Grumblebuns]

If I remember correctly, the stock S2 master cylinder bore measured 0.70" front and 0.66" rear bore. The most used master cylinder conversion is the Spitfire M/C with 0.70" non stepped bore.

[mio]

Hi All
It's time for me to reply in this forum on the progress of the rear disc brake setup.

I have now tried several solutions to convert the Europas rear brake drum setup to disc brake setup.
There are some limitations and necessities to have.

The space available inside the 13" special alloy wheel is very limited, if everyone used 14" wheels it would be much easier.
The handbrake mechanism is mandatory to have and it has to fit the original lever and wire system of course.
The brake balance front/rear is very low on the rear brake drum, therefore it is needed to have more brake efficiency on the rear.
The Willwood handbrake caliper that I use on the Elan and Elan+2 rear, has too big circle diameter meaning it fit optimum an 11" / 266 mm disc this means that it will hit the rims inside because the disc is more close to 232 mm diameter.
Another issue with the Wilwood caliper is that the handbrake setup is sticking too far out from the caliper and goes into the rim.
I have tried to use different types of standard-issue calipers for production cars with integral handbrake mechanism and they are too bulky and hit the rims both
in diameter and in front of the disc.
The drive flange that supports the original brake drum is a little irregular in diameter and this diameter is too big to accommodate the 232 mm brake disc, therefore it is desirable to use around 245 mm disc.
The bigger disc needs an alloy hub to do the offset so the caliper clears the inside of the 13" Steel/alloy rim.

We have been working on developing a custom brake caliper with integral handbrake unit in 6082 T6 alloy that suits the need to fit everything inside a 13" rim

If the demand is still present and you want the best we will continue the development.
www.mio-engineering.dk the website will be upgraded in the very near future :-)

Best Regards
Michael Olsson
MIO Engineering.
mio137@gmail.com