Over the past few weeks we've examined the brakes on the A90 Supra, and we've spoken with several drivers who have thrashed them on the track. While they're certainly a bit more robust than what came from the factory on the MKIV Supra, they're still rather pedestrian and leave plenty of the room on the table for improvement. The stock brakes aren't particularly large behind the large OEM wheels, and they don't have any notable features that will make them outperform the factory brakes we've seen on similar vehicles in recent years. As with the numerous other areas of the car, it looks like Toyota took a fairly basic approach with the brakes and left some headroom on the table for the owner to customize depending on their plans with the car.

Whether you intend to pound your Supra mercilessly on the track, or if you just want to hit Cars and Coffee, we'll soon have a brake upgrade that will be perfectly tailored to your needs. Last week at our facility we successfully installed quite a few prototype brake components on a client's Supra, pulled from both our Competition and Road Radi-CAL Brake Kit product lines. We will be offering two front and one rear Competition Brake Kits, as well as a front Road Kit mated to a rear disc upgrade. Our Road Kits will feature AP Racing World Radi-CAL II calipers, while our Competition Kits will leverage the Pro5000R line of calipers. Both types of kits feature the most innovative caliper technology in the world, AP Racing's groundbreaking Radi-CAL. To learn more about this revolutionary caliper tech, please watch the "The AP Racing Radi-CAL Story" video on our blog.

We will begin accepting pre-orders for our systems in a few weeks. If you're interested in one of our kits and your Supra will be on display at SEMA 2019, please contact us for special pricing.

Summary of pending brake kits:

• CP9660/372mm Radi-CAL Front Competition Kit, $4399.00
• CP9668/372mm Radi-CAL Front Competition Kit, $4799.00
• CP9450/365mm Radi-CAL Rear Compeition Kit, $4099.00
• CP9562/380mm Radi-CAL Front Road Kit, $4399.00

Let's take a look at each type of kit below.

Competition Brake Kits

Our AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kits have become the most desirable choice on the market for anyone seeking the ultimate brake upgrade for their track car. AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kits are designed to make you go faster, period. When daily driving requirements take a back seat to lower lap times, our Competition Kits are the perfect fit.

Some benefits of our Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kits vs. the OEM system:

• Saves roughly 45 unsprung lbs. vs. OEM brakes!
• Both front kits and the rear kit clear the OEM Supra wheels without a wheel spacer
• Will fit behind many aftermarket 18" track wheels
• Patented AP Racing Radi-CAL caliper design for unrivaled stiffness and pedal feel
• Increase in disc size from 348mm to 372mm front, and 345mm to 365mm rear
• Every component designed to resist the heat of extended track sessions
• Pistons sized properly to maintain proper brake bias and work with the OEM master cylinder and ABS system
• Front kits designed to work with either OEM rear brakes or our rear BBK
• Durable anodized finish to resist track abuse

As we typically do with our Competition Brake Kit line, we'll be offering two front caliper options (the CP9660 or the CP9668), as well as a complete rear kit. To see complete product details, please click the links below:

Front Option #1= CP9660/372mm AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kit, $4399.00

Front Option #2= Front CP9668/372mm AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kit, $4799.00

Rear CP9450/365mm AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kit, $4099.00

AP Racing Pro5000R Radi-CAL CP9660 and CP9668 next to OEM GR Supra front caliper

Rear AP Racing CP9450 Radi-CAL next to the OEM rear caliper

Even the wider CP9668 that uses a 25mm thick pad clears the OEM wheels with no spacer!

You want thick pads that won't wear out at the track...the CP9668 is the ticket.

Road Brake Kits

When you want to stop your car, and everyone walking past it! AP Racing by Essex Road Brake Kits are the finest systems available for enthusiasts wanting to run their car on both the street and track. While some of our more hardcore customers favor our track-focused Essex Designed AP Racing Competition Brake Kits, others are looking for something with more street-friendly features such as dust boots, painted calipers, and stock-like NVH levels. For these customers our AP Racing Road Kits are the perfect fit, as they are equally at home on the daily commute or at the occasional track day. Some features and benefits of our front Supra Kit include:

• Carefully chosen piston sizes for proper brake bias and integration with OEM master cylinder & ABS systems
• Front kit designed to mate with stock rear brake components
• Weighs the same as the OEM front Supra brake system, despite being considerably larger
• Patented AP Racing Radi-CAL caliper design for unrivaled stiffness and pedal feel
• Larger than stock discs, calipers, and pads to improve system thermal capacity and fade resistance, while increasing longevity
• Directional, 72 vane, 380x36mm brake discs with floating aluminum hats
• Lightweight, anodized aluminum disc hats and caliper mounting brackets
• Optimized to allow for a wide range of wheel fitment
• Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads and Spiegler Stainless Steel Brake Lines included with every kit
• All associated mounting bolts, hardware, and detailed installation instructions
• Available in your choice of beautiful red, black, or silver painted finish

Front Brake Kit= CP9562/380x36mm AP Racing by Essex Road Brake Kit, $4399.00

Our huge 380x36mm discs and six piston calipers clear the OEM wheel spokes without any issues.

Look how much larger the pads are in our AP Racing six piston caliper are vs. the OEM four piston!

Below you can see how much larger our front AP Racing J Hook Discs are vs. the OEM front unit. Please note that these are prototype disc hats. Our production hats will be anodized black with laser-etched logos, not raw aluminum, and they will have all the hardware attachment pieces installed! ;)

Unsprung Weight Savings vs. OEM Brake Components

Below is a grid that shows the OEM brake component weights vs. our AP Racing by Essex Brake Kits. Despite having more pistons and significantly larger discs, our front Road Kit weighs nearly identical to the OEM system, while our four wheel Competition Kit shaves roughly 45 lbs. of unsprung weight from the car! The front and rear OEM discs do have an aluminum hat riveted to an iron outer ring, but they do not have the ability to float in any manner.

Which Type of Brake Kit is Right for me?

Whether you're looking for the most gorgeous brake package to fill up your 20" wheels, or you're trying to cut every hundredth of a second from your lap times, Essex has an AP Racing Brake Kit to fit your needs. Essex offers AP Racing Brake Kits in two main varieties, Road and Competition. How you plan to use your car will determine which product category best suits your unique needs. The owner profiles below will help guide you towards your best fit. However, please keep in mind while reviewing these profiles that you'll likely fall somewhere between these two owner types. That's completely normal, and is true with most of our clients. You'll just have to decide where your priorities lie, and where you want to take your car. If you're curious about how a certain type of kit performs in the real world, you can always find tons of owner reviews and feedback on our Essex Blog.

AP Racing by Essex Road Brake Kits

If several of the bullet points below describe your relationship with your car, an AP Racing by Essex Road Brake Kit is likely your best choice.

• I drive my car on the road the majority of time, and only take it to the track once in a while
• I want big discs that fill up my wheels, and I want painted calipers that turn heads and get attention
• I don't want my brakes to make any more noise than my stock brakes
• I sometimes drive my car in wintry conditions, and my local roads are salted to melt ice
• I'm not terribly concerned about saving every ounce of weight possible
• I don't need 50 different race pad choices, and I don't plan on swapping pads all that often

AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kits

If several of the bullet points below describe your relationship with your car, an AP Racing by Essex Competition Brake Kit may be in your future.

• I spend as many weekends at the track as possible, and driving my track car on the road bores me to tears
• Component durability and keeping my brake consumable costs low will be crucial to the long-term success of my marriage
• I'm okay with a few squealing and scraping noises from my brakes, because race car!
• I don't drive my car on salted winter roads, because that's why winter beaters exist
• I want to save every ounce of unsprung weight, and I've even gone on a diet to bring my race weight down
• I'll be wrenching on my car fairly often, and I want tons of brake pad options