New Ultra-High Performance ALCON big brake kits!

Ultra-high performance braking system



World-class Alcon components, designed by UUC.

Designed for the most demanding driver in racing or street use.

NOW AVAILABLE FOR ALL 1992-1999 E36 3-series and M3, MZ3, and 1999-2005 E46 3-series:

4-piston front, 325mm rotor / 4-piston rear, 328mm rotor kits: available for 1992-2005 3-series, 1994-1999 M3 and MZ3. Designed specifically for racing classes that limit upgraded calipers to no more than 4 pistons. Supplied with choice of 1-piece rotors, optional BMW Motorsport floating rotors, or optional Performance Friction Pin-Drive floating rotors.

(1) Alcon aerospace alloy aluminum 4-piston calipers, staggered piston sizes. Color choices: red or matte gray.
(2) BMW Motorsport floating rotors or 1-piece rotors, 325mm x 28mm.
(3) Hawk Performance Ceramic brake pads (street use). Race pad substitution available.
(4) Mil-spec heat treated stainless steel alloy radial mount brackets.
(5) DOT-compliant stainless steel braided/plastic covered brake lines. Matching rear lines included.
(6) Mounting hardware, all metric grade 12.9.

The design of these kits allows for scalable rotor use. Primarily, UUC specs the kits to use genuine BMW Motorsport rotors as provided with the European version of the M3 or the M3 CSL which feature a true radial floating mechanism for free thermal expansion of the disk unhindered by the center hat. The system is scalable in that oversized and thicker rotors will be available for future use.

Working directly with Alcon, all calipers used by UUC for the BMW fitments are custom-built "bespoke" components, specifically designed to retain perfect brake bias and a firm pedal.

For more information, please visit our website:
http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/ALCON


CURRENT OPTIONS AND PRICING:

http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/ALCON/f...E46_MZ3_Z3.htm

More pics:


As installed on the class-leading UUC BMW CCA JP 325iS racecar.

Basic matte gray finish:


Red finish:



All calipers include Alcon's temperature monitoring system:

Alcon components are used in the highest echelons of racing: Formula 1, WRC (World Rally Championship), IRL, NASCAR, Australia's V8 Supercars, BMW CR, NASA, and SCCA.

Alcon is a name synonymous with the manufacture and supply of high specification brakes and clutches for motorsport and high performance road vehicles.

In the world of motorsport, Alcon a Technical Partner to the Honda F1 Racing Team, supplying brake calipers of a patented design; while co-operating with a number of other teams to develop the next generation of F1 braking systems. Alcon also provided all the brake hardware to support Citroën's dominance of the World Rally Championship [WRC] in recent years.In the US, the 2003, 2004, and 2005 IRL titles have all been won using Alcon brakes, and Alcon product is specified as mandatory for the hard-braking road course races. In the world of NASCAR, Alcon counts Penske, Hendrick Motorsport and Ray Evernham Motorsport amongst their front-running customers; while a new partnership with friction manufacturer, Raybestos in 2006, is making the use of Alcon designed and manufactured brake components still more widespread in the top stock car series.

In addition the motorsport departments within Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda (Dome), Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen count amongst their many customers.

In the field of specialist and performance road cars Alcon serves an impressive list of prestigious road car manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Brabus, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche and Prodrive. In this field too, their reputation for technology and innovation is highly visible, no more so than the calipers for the 2006 Bentley Continental GT Diamond Series, vast but lightweight 8-piston calipers designed specifically to clamp the world's largest road car brake discs, ceramic items of 420mm diameter. Ultra-high performance resides in the level of quality... quality in engineering, materials and kit fitment. Alcon designs and manufactures every caliper in-house and the resulting component is superior to virtually any similar offering. Alcon calipers are incredibly stiff due to their cast-in reinforcement buttresses.

Their progressive design philosophy continues with the pistons and seals. The ultra-resilient internal pressure seals minimize piston retraction so that pedal travel is short, consistent and they are resistant to knock-back.

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LMAO, yet another UUC BBK? What are ya'll at, 4?

Originally Posted by vaio76109

LMAO, yet another UUC BBK? What are ya'll at, 4?

We make 9 types of shift knobs.

We make 10 types of exhausts.

We have 47 types of wheels.

We have 15 types of suspension.

Why would it seem that 1 type of brake kit would be sufficient to cover all the various BMW models and the varying needs of different owners?

Our new Alcon kits were planned for the latest models, specifically E90/E92/E60 that are simply bigger cars than the E46, and need even larger brakes. That fact that the E46 enjoys a "trickle down" effect and gets a new premium package is something to be glad about!

- Rob

I don't know, it just seems that with each generation that comes out it makes it seem like you didn't do your homework on the previous kit. I don't like buying something just to find out that you're going to be releasing something better a few months later.

That's just the way I see atleast...

Originally Posted by vaio76109

I don't know, it just seems that with each generation that comes out it makes it seem like you didn't do your homework on the previous kit. I don't like buying something just to find out that you're going to be releasing something better a few months later.

That's just the way I see atleast...

I understand the sentiment, but I don't think you're being very fair here. Have you bought a computer in the last 10 years? How obsolete was it 6 months later? I applaud UUC and companies like them for attempting to continually improve the products they offer.

Would you say BMW didn't do their homework on the E36 M3 because they came out with the E46 M3? I know the time frame is longer, but we're also talking about a complete vehicle vs. a brake kit.

New components are offered by UUC's vendors/partners, stuff gets discontinued, a material gets too expensive or is outlawed by the EPA, a mfg process that used to cost too much gets cheaper, blah blah blah (not to mention that BMW comes out with a completely new chassis). UUC would be doing their customers a disservice by not reacting to changes like that.

In addition, from a business point of view, UUC only has so much control because they're not making the components. They have to make a deal with Alcon, a deal with a BMW supplier, a deal with Hawk, a deal with ARP, etc in order to put together the kit they think will do their customers the most good and still allow UUC to make enough $ to be worth the time. Their ability to make those deals, and the market conditions that affect demand are always changing.

I get what you're saying, I don't want to buy something for $X and have something better available for $X+$1 the next day, either. But obsolecense and improvement are simply realities we all have to deal with.

I haven't bought anything from UUC, nor am I a paid spokesperson (Rob? lol). But having looked around their website, they seem like a company that does A LOT of homework when they offer a product. I'd be wary about buying something from them if they HADN'T changed their product offerings in several years, cuz I'd be worried that they're not keeping up.

$0.02 FWIW

Originally Posted by vaio76109

I don't know, it just seems that with each generation that comes out it makes it seem like you didn't do your homework on the previous kit. I don't like buying something just to find out that you're going to be releasing something better a few months later.

That's just the way I see atleast...

That's a rather simplistic view, and not really accurate upon deeper analysis.

Xcelratr gave a very good explanation of this type of thing in general, and there's even more to it. I'll give you the full historical view:

UUC Gen1 brakes: Based on PBR 2-piston floating calipers, 2-piece rotors. Cost was around $1400 for a front axle kit. This setup performed very well, and was very popular... nothing else at the time could touch that price point. We offered this kit for about 4 years. Why did we discontinue it? Some rather shocking feedback from our customers - based on the level of technology in everything else we make, our customer base wanted a more sophisticated setup, something with a fixed 4- or 6-piston caliper. Our customers demanded more technology.

UUC Gen2 brakes: co-developed with SSBC, a straightforward 4-piston fixed caliper and 2-piece rotor design. Pricepoint was about $1650 for a front axle kit. We had very good results with this kit, and even pushed SSBC into a developmental change of the caliper to make it even better. We offered this for about 3 years. However, in the end, a few significant problems caused us to discontinue it. Lack of wide pad options was a problem since inception, and quality control problems from SSBC upon initial shipment (missing parts, bad finish, leaking calipers) caused a great amount of legitimate customer resistance.

UUC Gen3 brakes: developed 100% in-house using Wilwood components, these are still offered and still fantastically popular. Pricing runs from about $1000 to $1400 for a front kit. The UUC/Wilwood kits have been our best-selling brakes ever, and continue to impress with the winning race history of UUC directly and our UUC/Wilwood-equipped racer customers. We are absolutely still carrying the Wilwood kits. We've had results far beyond our expectations with the UUC/Wilwood product, both in performance and sales volume. It's a fantastic value equalling the performance of many other kits costing much more. Our race results history, both UUC directly and our UUC/Wilwood-equipped customers, speaks for itself.

And now, Gen4: UUC/Alcon.

An obvious follow-up question would be "Why did UUC get involved with Alcon if Wilwood is already so good?" The answer is simple; with development for the newer generations of BMW, particularly E90/E92 and the new E92 M3, as well as E60 5-series and M5, we could not support those needs with Wilwood. Wilwood does not have caliper offerings suitable for the rotor sizes we need for the newer cars. As you can see from the UUC website catalog, the biggest rotor we use with Wilwood is 348mm. For the 335i, that's the same size as the original rotor... clearly we had reached the size limitations and had to look elsewhere.

The Alcon components, on the other hand, really are in a league of their own. As described above, Alcon's experience with high-end racing is unparalleled, and our in-house experience and testing shows them to be unlike anything else we've ever used. We have experience with all the major brands of BBK, of course... but the pedal feel, feedback, and general caliper response (both in clamp and release) blows the rest of them out of the water. Without sounding like too much hype, I genuinely believe that you would have to experience them to appreciate the difference.

Not only that, but as the development and sub-component manufacture is done directly by UUC, we're able to offer the Alcon kits at extremely competitive pricing. See this page for a comparison:
http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/ALCON/costs.htm

The fact that our very first offerings using the Alcon calipers appears to be interchangeable with our Wilwood offerings in application and even rotor size is coincidental... we had the ability to offer the Alcons for the very popular E36/E46 race platform use (and that's what we actively campaign), so it was obvious to do that in addition to the larger-chassis offerings.

The Alcon calipers will also let us offer an upgrade to a front 345mm rotor for the E46 3-series, as well as a 6-piston variation. We opened with the 4-piston setup as race rules for BMW Prepared classes (and for other sanctioning bodies) limit calipers to 4 pistons. With UUC's level of race support, the 4-piston is the most important to our large group of racer customers.

I hope that helps clear things up!

- Rob

wow this is really nice....love the temperture thingy...so far everything i have gotten from you guys have been great...a little pricey on some stuff ..but like they say...you get what you pay for...i have at least 5 UUC items installed in my car

I always thought it was funny that Arjun's car has ALCONzzz but UUC pushes the Wilwood kit. Guess its fair now

Originally Posted by shady3one3

I always thought it was funny that Arjun's car has ALCONzzz but UUC pushes the Wilwood kit. Guess its fair now

The #54 JP car ran about half the 2007 season on Wilwoods (and kicked major ass!). Spent the second half of the year testing the Alcon setup, and that's when it got the revised graphics.

- Rob

Originally Posted by Rob Levinson * UUC Motorwerks

The #54 JP car ran about half the 2007 season on Wilwoods (and kicked major ass!). Spent the second half of the year testing the Alcon setup, and that's when it got the revised graphics.

- Rob

Ash, big brake kits make all the difference. No need for driver talent.

...and no Rob, do not jump on my ass, it was a joke between Ashley and myself. Actually, I hate to admit it, the Alcon's look like a good kit. Never liked any of the past UUC BBKs or any other products since the orginal Rob Knob, wayyyyy back when.

Xcelratr... spot on correct. Good post.

As for the actual product, that temperature gauge is very very neat. How does it work exactly? Obviously its not a powered temperature gauge so I'm just curious how it actually works. Is it pulling the temperature from the caliper housing or from the pad (or just behind it, rather). It sort of looks like a thermometers my mom used to slap on my head and it'd light up as it heated up to a given temperature. I wonder if its the same tech.

Anywho... very neat offering. I can definitely see myself throwing these on down the line.

Originally Posted by JCz04Bimmer

As for the actual product, that temperature gauge is very very neat. How does it work exactly?

It's a special type of surface contact pyrometer, developed by Alcon. The calipers themselves have a specific mounting point (in fact, in the matte gray caliper pic, you can see where it is missing). It does a very good job of monitoring caliper and fluid temperature, giving a clear indicator if the fluid has been boiled and in need of refreshing.

It shows max temperature reached, but does not reset... so it needs to be replaced. Replacements are included with the kit and available directly from UUC or Alcon at any time.

- Rob

Originally Posted by Rob Levinson * UUC Motorwerks

It's a special type of surface contact pyrometer, developed by Alcon. The calipers themselves have a specific mounting point (in fact, in the matte gray caliper pic, you can see where it is missing). It does a very good job of monitoring caliper and fluid temperature, giving a clear indicator if the fluid has been boiled and in need of refreshing.

It shows max temperature reached, but does not reset... so it needs to be replaced. Replacements are included with the kit and available directly from UUC or Alcon at any time.

- Rob

Interesting and quite cool. Thanks for the explanation, Rob. I'm assuming that the main function of the temperature element, given that it does not reset and is easily replaced, is to install the kit with a given pad and fluid combination and then see what temperature is reached on the track. If fade or whatever is experienced you can then check the temperature unit to see just how hot things got and if the temperature restraints of the pad and/or fluid were exceeded. Then, with a new pad and/or fluid choice and a new temperature element you can hit the track again and see if your changes have resulted in an actual reduction of temperatures. Is that one general concept behind the feature?

Originally Posted by JCz04Bimmer

Interesting and quite cool. Thanks for the explanation, Rob. I'm assuming that the main function of the temperature element, given that it does not reset and is easily replaced, is to install the kit with a given pad and fluid combination and then see what temperature is reached on the track. If fade or whatever is experienced you can then check the temperature unit to see just how hot things got and if the temperature restraints of the pad and/or fluid were exceeded. Then, with a new pad and/or fluid choice and a new temperature element you can hit the track again and see if your changes have resulted in an actual reduction of temperatures. Is that one general concept behind the feature?

Yes, that's the exact idea!

- Rob

What I said earlier, " it just seems that with each generation that comes out it makes it seem like you didn't do your homework on the previous kit", still holds true to me in my own mind(it's just MY opinion, you don't have to agree with it). After all, you just admitted the shortcoming of the previous generations. As far as I know the Alcon calipers you're now using were available at the time you started making the Wilwoods, so why didn't you use them then? Are the Wilwood/UUC kits for the E46 still in production or will you be phasing them out?

Originally Posted by vaio76109

What I said earlier, " it just seems that with each generation that comes out it makes it seem like you didn't do your homework on the previous kit", still holds true to me in my own mind(it's just MY opinion, you don't have to agree with it). After all, you just admitted the shortcoming of the previous generations.

I think you're misinterpreting it, and that's my opinion.

Gen1 had no shortcomings, but our customers wanted an even higher level. Gen2 worked very well, but developed problems with the supplier. Gen3 is still for sale and will continue to be for sale. We still support all of these with replacement rotors and pads, no customers are ever left with a problem.

As far as I know the Alcon calipers you're now using were available at the time you started making the Wilwoods, so why didn't you use them then?

They certainly were not available! Maybe you missed this in the initial post:

Working directly with Alcon, all calipers used by UUC for the BMW fitments are custom-built "bespoke" components, specifically designed to retain perfect brake bias and a firm pedal.

That means these calipers have unique piston sizes, spec'd by UUC. Other Alcon calipers we use in other fitments have many other custom features, including different pad shapes... all spec'd by UUC. Also as explained, the move to Alcon was to support the newer, larger BMWs, something we could not do with Wilwood. There is no crossover between Wilwood and these larger fitments, and the only Alcon crossover is the 3-series. It's not a replacement, it's an alternative.

Are the Wilwood/UUC kits for the E46 still in production or will you be phasing them out?

You did not read my previous post, did you? Please... I have the respect for your question to answer it fully, return the favor and fully read the reply. The Wilwood kits will continue to be a part of our catalog, there are absolutely no plans to discontinue them. In fact, we are still developing new Wilwood applications! It's a question of "right tool for the job", whether by application or price point.

- Rob

Originally Posted by Rob Levinson * UUC Motorwerks

They certainly were not available! Maybe you missed this in the initial post:

Working directly with Alcon, all calipers used by UUC for the BMW fitments are custom-built "bespoke" components, specifically designed to retain perfect brake bias and a firm pedal.

That means these calipers have unique piston sizes, spec'd by UUC. Other Alcon calipers we use in other fitments have many other custom features, including different pad shapes... all spec'd by UUC. Also as explained, the move to Alcon was to support the newer, larger BMWs, something we could not do with Wilwood. There is no crossover between Wilwood and these larger fitments, and the only Alcon crossover is the 3-series. It's not a replacement, it's an alternative.




You did not read my previous post, did you? Please... I have the respect for your question to answer it fully, return the favor and fully read the reply. The Wilwood kits will continue to be a part of our catalog, there are absolutely no plans to discontinue them. In fact, we are still developing new Wilwood applications! It's a question of "right tool for the job", whether by application or price point.

- Rob

Yes, I know the pistons sizes are custom spec'd, I was referring to the basic caliper design. I might be wrong, but I believe this caliper design has been around for several years(Nothing is wrong with that). The majority of BBK's offered by X manufacturer use the same basic caliper design, but with different piston sizes, as I'm sure you know.

I did read you previous post, you said "these are still offered and still fantastically popular". Something can be out of production and still be offered, until you sell out of them that is. I believe at one point you were simultaneously selling the SSBC and Wilwood kits.

"It's not a replacement, it's an alternative." Ok, thanks, that's what I wanted to know.

-Greg

Originally Posted by vaio76109

Yes, I know the pistons sizes are custom spec'd, I was referring to the basic caliper design. I might be wrong, but I believe this caliper design has been around for several years(Nothing is wrong with that). The majority of BBK's offered by X manufacturer use the same basic caliper design, but with different piston sizes, as I'm sure you know.

Yes to all of the above.

I did read you previous post, you said "these are still offered and still fantastically popular". Something can be out of production and still be offered, until you sell out of them that is. I believe at one point you were simultaneously selling the SSBC and Wilwood kits.

Yes, but only as SSBC covered applications that we had not with Wilwood. The situation is very different now - for the most part, with the exception of the E36/E46 fitments, Alcon and Wilwood will not have crossover.

"It's not a replacement, it's an alternative." Ok, thanks, that's what I wanted to know.

-Greg

Glad to clear things up!

- Rob

questions:

1) for the e46, what are the calipers position in relations to the rotors (ie..3 o;clock)

2) for wheel clearance purposes, what are the dimension of the calipers?

Originally Posted by GWU_Greek

questions:

1) for the e46, what are the calipers position in relations to the rotors (ie..3 o;clock)

They are in the exact same position as the OE calipers. The radial mount is centered over the original mounting points.

2) for wheel clearance purposes, what are the dimension of the calipers?

Best results for determining wheel fitment is to use our wheel fitment diagram listed on the website in the application page for each car. For the E46 3-series, here's the link:

http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/alcon/I...R_4POT_325.pdf

Simply print out the diagram lifesize (1:1 in your printer settings), glue it to a piece of cardboard for stiffness, and then cut out the profile. You can then fit it into your wheel to see if there is interference, and also to figure out what size spacers you might need.

- Rob