[Review] AP Racing CP5200 4-pot brake kit for Jetta MK6

Towards the last quarter of 2014, I had my stock Altis brakes upgraded to Golf-R MK6 brakes for an improvement in braking performance.

With a bigger disc (345mm vs 312mm) and a bigger caliper, it provides a much greater bite and of course with a bigger disc size, the brakes will be able to take much more heavier punishment before suffering from the dreaded brake fade.

At the turn of the year, towards the end of Q1 2015, I decided to get the Altis upgraded further in terms of stopping power.

After looking around and the indecisiveness between Brembo or AP Racing BBK (Big Brake Kit), I decided to go for the AP Racing BBK.

I purchase my AP Racing BBK from AC Gruppen Singapore. The boss, a nice guy name Jun, deals with my queries and provided some very sound advice. 

(Do let me know if you wish to purchase BBK from him. He carries Brembos and AP Racing).

My AP Racing kit consist of

- CP5200 4-pot caliper

- Mounting bracket for Jetta MK6

- 330mm Slotted original AP-Racing rotors

- Steel braided brake hose

- Ferodo DS3000 brake pads

All in all, it cost me SGD$2899 (RM 8200 with today's exchange rate).

I did not install the brake kit in Singapore. Instead I opt to transfer the kit back to Malaysia and have it install at Acanta Autotech.

Installation is straight-forward and a couple of hours later, the brake kit is now in place.

Looks good isn't it?

After some initial period of bedding in the brake pads, its time to test out the brakes.

Where else to test if not for the usual hill-climb route.

The braking performance of a 4-pot setup as expected, is a major improvement over a single pot setup. There is no need to slam the brake pedal to extract some serious stopping power from the BBK. All you need to do is just to modulate the brake pedal and watch the speed drop and it seriously drop really fast. 

Really confidence inspiring when some serious braking power is needed. You know the BBK will just give you the braking power the moment the brake pedal is depressed.

With the hill-climb route test done and over with, its time to hit the tracks.

Again as expected, in the tracks the brakes performed flawlessly. There is a renewed sense of confidence in braking much later before a turn. You just know the BBK will slow the car down before the turn.

One thing I found out on the Jetta is that if we are to stand on the brake pedal with this BBK, the weight transfer of the car is very much different compared to when I am on the R-brake kit. The rear of the car will loose its grip much earlier as the weight transfer from rear to front during hard braking with the BBK is much more apparent. This will upset the car balance prior to entering the corner if the front end of the car do not have enough traction and grip to cope with the more sudden increase of weight transfer.

This could be solve with a harder and stiffer front suspension or upgraded rear brakes.

I will update once I've experimented with this 2 solutions.

On the streets, this characteristic is not apparent as we are not pushing the car to the limits unlike on the tracks. So in this sense, it is pretty much safe and fool-proof. So do not worry about getting your car brakes upgraded with BBK.

On a final note, in my opinion, the Jetta stock brakes (which in fact is the same brakes found on the MK6 GTi, whiich technically means the Jetta is already running BBK out from the factory) is more then capable of stopping the car.

If you want improved braking power and upgrading to a BBK is too big a budget, getting the next best thing will be to use a better brake pads. You will feel an improvement for sure, just don't expect wonders like what BBK can offer you.

Apart from braking power, BBK adds to the aesthetic value of the car.

As the saying goes, "kereta slow tak per, janji gaya ada" (it's ok if my car is slow, as long as there's style)

Hehe.

P/S -

As I am using a Ferodo DS3000 brake pads, my brakes will be generating huge amount of screeching sound in slow moving / town traffic application. Those that have driven my car or have gone driving with me will know.

The screeching sound is annoying loud and if you can't stand the sound, stay away from this brake pads. This brake pads provide crazy amount of bite but the trade-off will be the annoying loud screeching sound.

The original AP Racing brake pad that comes with the kit will not emit annoying screeching sound but of course it wont match the Ferodo DS3000 in terms of bite.