One of my complaints about this lovely model (other than the woeful engine bay) was the standard looking small and boring black brake calipers. I figure on an "M" model car it should have bigger brakes than the standard after all! So I had a quick look on ebay and almost immediately found a set of blue "M Sport" calipers from another Kyosho 1:18 M3 model and purchased them on the spot! They arrived pretty quick and went about fitting them up. After I figured out how to pull the wheels off the car without damaging anything (you carefully pull them outwards), it was pretty easy to simply snap off the original calipers and glue on the new set! I had to grind away the small locating tabs for the rear calipers with a dremel as the rear hubs are made of die-cast as apposed to the plastic front hubs. I also flipped the brake discs around as the cross drilled holes look smaller and sharper due to the punching method during manufacturing process. Im sure some of you guys will understand what I'm talking about but to briefly explain, when the punch makes the holes the entry side of the hole ends up with a softer inward edge and the exit side ends up with a sharper edge as the material is pushed out. Well anyways trust me it looks much better this way.
So here are some photos of the results!
Original boring crappy looking brakes.. (right hand side wheel)
Awesome new blue "M" sport big brakes! (left hand side wheel)
Yes the calipers do sit slightly to far outwards towards the rim but I did trim the inner side of the plastic a little so they did sit a bit closer inwards but the shape of the wheel spokes near the center of the wheel limits how far you can mount them. The is even more evident on the rear brakes as the rear discs are even smaller..
But im very happy with the results as the new brakes cost me very little. It definitely brightens up the look of the car and makes it feel a little more special like a "M" model should be!
