Wilwood Engineering offers a wide variety of brake kits for imported cars such as the Acura Integra, Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Evo and Nissan 350Z just to name a few. Some of the younger car enthusiasts may think the imported cars have always been part of the American car scene, but that’s not really the case. If you go back in time to the ‘20s and ‘30s some special luxury cars from Europe were imported to the United States by early film stars and industrialists on a one-by-one basis, but those were special cases that were not backed by the manufacturers. The first cars that were actually imported to the United States by popular demand were the English sports cars such as the MG, the Jaguar and the Austin Healey. During the war many service men got a chance to drive the English sports cars and they had a good time, so when they returned home from the war they wanted to buy sports cars here in the States. Dealerships started appearing here in the very early ‘50s and many of them specialized and sold all of the various English sports cars.

Two other cars that were imported to the Unites States in the mid-‘50s were the Volkswagen Beetle and the Porsche sports car, and although both were unusual little cars with rear engines, they did find a market. The VW made it because of the extremely reasonable price and the cars offered excellent gas mileage. Porsche made it because it was another fun to drive sports car that offered exceptional handling. The French also imported the Renault to the United States and it also gained a small market share. It took a while longer before the other imports from the Germans and Japanese became available. Some of the big names such as Nissan and Toyota on the Japanese side and Mercedes and BMW on the German side haven’t always been popular in the United States for several reasons. After World War II, American car buyers were strongly biased toward domestic products, plus most of the import cars were slow and had strange designs when compared to American cars. It took a long time before Americans would consider purchasing imported cars, so many of the Japanese and German cars didn’t become acceptable until the ‘70s. Many of the people who served in WWII would not buy the imported cars; it was the sons and daughters of the veterans who started buying them.

The vast majority of import car dealerships didn’t start appearing until the late ‘60 and early ‘70s and most of the cars being offered were slow little economy cars. The only Japanese car company at the time that had an exceptional looking and fun to drive car was Datsun (Now called Nissan) when the company released the affordable 240Z sports car. It took quite a while before the import car market started becoming universally acceptable and the Japanese car manufacturers were smart when they marketed the dependability and safety of their products. The sales pitch worked because the Japanese sedans appealed to women who wanted an economical car that wouldn’t break down. The Germans took a different approach with Mercedes, advertising their cars as “Engineered To Move The Human Spirit”, and BMW took a little different approach and advertised their car as the “Ultimate Driving Machine.”

Wilwood Engineering has brake kits for most of the popular imported cars with the majority of the kits being built for the more popular late-‘80s and newer performance imports. If you have an earlier sports car that we don’t cover there are some specialized companies making brake kits for earlier imports and you can contact our tech line for information on those companies. Going back to the cars we mentioned earlier, the Acura Integra, Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Evo and Nissan 350Z, Wilwood has brake kits for all of them. Wilwood offers the Forged Dynalite Big Brake Front Hat Kit that features Dynalite calipers in a red, Platinum-E and polished finish. Most import cars do not require a hub assembly like the older American cars and that makes the installation easier in most cases. The Dynalite kit features 11.00 and 12.19-inch rotor diameters and they are available in a standard HP or drilled and slotted SRP style. This kit is available for the Acura, Honda and Mitsubishi imports. Another kit that is popular with many imports is the Dynapro Radial Big Brake Front Kit that features Dynapro calipers in a red or Platinum-E finish. The rotor in this kit bolts directly to the import car’s hub assembly and it can be outfitted with 11.75 or 12.19-inch rotors in the buyer’s choice of a standard HP or drilled and slotted SRP style. This kit is available for Mini, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Volkswagen imports. The Dynapro 6 Big Brake Front Hat Kit is another brake improvement that is designed for cars that require a large, powerful braking system. The Dynapro caliper is available in a red, Platinum-E or polished finish and the rotors are 12.19-inches in diameter and they can be ordered with a standard HP or drilled and slotted SRP rotor style. This kit is commonly used on Acuras. One of the most popular kits for both imports and late model General Motors cars is the SL6 Big Brake Front Hat Kit. The kit features the big six-piston SL6 caliper that is available in a red, black, Platinum-E or polished finish. This kit can be used with 12.88, 13.06 or 14.00-inch rotors and they are available in the slotted GT or drilled and slotted SRP style. This kit is used with BMW, late model GM, late model Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Acura and Subaru cars. The final disc brake kit that is popular with the import and domestic cars is the Forged Superlite Big Brake Front Kit. The forged Superlite caliper is available in a red, black or Platinum-E finish and it works with rotors ranging in size from a 12.19 to a 13.00-inch diameter. The rotors are also available in a slotted GT or drilled and slotted SRP style. This kit was developed for Ford, Nissan and Scion cars.

Many of the small imports are front-wheel-drive, so Wilwood has made rear brake kits for most, but not all of the different makes. One of the popular rear brake kits is the Combination Parking Brake Rear Kit. This kit features the combination parking brake that uses hydraulic pressure from the master cylinder for stopping power and an internal mechanical lock for the parking brake. This caliper can be used together with a range of rotors from 11.00 to 12.88-inches and it’s available with a standard HD, a slotted GT and a drilled and slotted SRP rotor style. This kit was developed for Ford, Acura and Honda cars. The other popular rear brake kit is the Dynapro Rear Kit for OE Parking Brake. This rear brake kit features Dynapro calipers in a red or Platinum-E finish. This brake is compatible with the original internal drum parking brake mechanism and the hat hubs are designed to fit the individual applications. This brake kit uses rotor diameters from 12.19 to 12.88-inches and they are available in a standard HD, slotted GT and drilled and slotted SRP style. This brake kit is used with BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, General Motors and Subaru cars.

Today there are a wide range of Imported cars that have made their mark in the United States and some have done very well while others have not. Toyota, Nissan and Honda are the leading Japanese cars in the Unites states and Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW are the leading German cars in America. There are offshoots of these brands that are also doing well, such as Lexus, Infinity and Acura, the upper end of the Japanese cars. Seeing the success the Japanese were having, the South Koreans also started importing cars to the United States and they have come a long way in a short time. Wilwood Engineering has been working very hard to offer improved disc brake kits for all of the imports so you will probably find exactly what you are looking for. If you have any questions about the brake kits we do offer or want to find out if there is a specialty shop that makes a brake kit for your sports car that we don’t cover, contact the Wilwood tech line at: (805) 388-1188 or email Sales/Tech Support.