The term Specialty Car covers a wide range of different cars such as the Tri-year Chevys, restored muscle cars, mildly modified 1959 through 1970 cars that are sometimes called resto-mods, and the newest car style that’s gaining popularity, the pro touring car, which can cover all of the years. The specialty car section can also be opened up to include a few foreign cars such as the early Anglia, Prefect, Fiat, VW, MG sports car, the Austin Healey, the Sunbeam Tiger and the Cobra just to name a few that you will see at local car shows. The Specialty Cars range in makes and models from the 1949 to 1971 but some special models from Pontiac, Chrysler and AMC can stretch that to 1974, and as time goes on other special later models may be getting into that category. Wilwood has brake kits that fit into each and every category and we’ll try to look at some of them. We will not break them down by building style because some of the brakes we make transcend styles so we will cover the brakes that are available by the year of the vehicle. Wilwood is always adding brake kits to the vast array that we are currently offering, so if you are building a certain kind of car and we don’t show a kit, the Website is being updated weekly so the brake kit that you are looking for might be in the works and Website bound. Wilwood offers thousands of brake kits and trying to mention them all is very difficult, so we will give you an overview of what we have. Currently there are kits for most of the GM, Chrysler, and Ford cars so you should be able to find one or more kits for every one of the early ‘60s to ‘70s cars. Along with the brake kits, we also have a wide assortment of brake related parts such as master cylinders, proportioning valves, residual valves and brake pads.

The Tri-year Chevys have always been very popular and Wilwood has just released a new ‘55-‘57 Chevy Forged Dynalite Pro Front Kit and a Billet Dynapro Lug Mount Rear P-Brake Kit for originally equipped cars. This new kit provides front and rear 11-inch disc brakes for the Tri-year Chevys that are still using original front spindles and original rear differentials and stock 14-inch wheels (disc brake wheels available from Tri-year Chevy aftermarket dealers) and tires. This kit can be ordered in a variety of ways from a show system with polished calipers to a standard kit with red, black or Platinum-E calipers. Wilwood also offers the Forged Dynalite Big Brake Front Hub Kit for Tri-year Chevys and it can be ordered in show finish with polished calipers and hub assemblies, with polished calipers and machined hub assemblies, or with calipers in the standard red, black or Platinum-E finish. This brake system uses an 11.75-inch rotor in the buyer’s choice of a standard rotor, a slotted rotor or a drilled and slotted rotor. This big brake kit is a favorite kit of tri-year Chevy street machine builders. Pro touring builders like the Dynapro 6 Big Brake Front Hub kit that features the Dynapro six-piston caliper. This kit can also be ordered with a show finish featuring polished calipers and hub assemblies or it can be ordered with red or black calipers with machine finished hub assemblies. This kit features large 11.75 and 12.19-inch rotors, front and rear respectively, in the buyer’s choice of standard, slotted or drilled and slotted rotors. Wilwood also makes a brake that will work with the popular Superior Spindles dropped spindle for Tri-year Chevys. That spindle is designed to work with the Forged Dynalite Big Brake Front Hub Kit that we mentioned previously. That kit features the Forged Dynalite caliper with the 12.19-inch rotor in the buyer’s choice of standard, slotted or drilled and slotted styles. If the rear differential of the Tri-year Chevy has been changed to a Chevy 10 or 12-bolt or a Ford 9-inch, Wilwood also makes rear kits for those differentials. The Chevy and Ford differentials can be equipped with the Forged Dynalite Pro Rear Kit that features 12.19-inch rotors. This kit is designed for cars where individual rear parking brake assemblies are not required. The Chevy and Ford differentials can also be equipped with the Forged Dynalite Rear P-Brake Kit that features an internal parking brake assembly. This kit features Forged Dynalite calipers in the buyer’s choice of black, red or polished calipers and standard, slotted or drilled and slotted 12.19-inch rotors. These are the most popular kits for Tri-year Chevys but there are a few others that can be used.

Judging from what we have been seeing, the ‘59 through ‘64 Chevys are extremely popular right now and many are being turned into mild street machines and some into wilder Pro Touring cars. Originally, these cars had drum brakes and they aren’t up to the task when these cars are being equipped with healthy small-block Chevy engines or when they are using even more powerful big-block Chevy engines. Wilwood makes brakes that can bring these big Chevys effectively down from speed. All of the ‘59-‘64 Chevys can be equipped with a Forged Dynalite Pro Front Kit. The kit features Forged Dynalite calipers in red, black, Platinum-E or polished finishes and 11.00 or 11.75-inch rotors in the buyer’s choice of standard, slotted or drilled and slotted styles. The pro touring builders favorite brake kit, the SL6 Big Brake Front Hub Kit can also be used and it features Billet Narrow SL6 Radial Mount calipers and a 12.88 or 14.00-inch rotors. The larger rotor brakes would be perfect for Pro Touring style cars. Wilwood also offers a rear brake kit for the early Chevys, the Forged Dynalite Rear P-Brake Kit with an internal parking brake. It features Forged Dynalite calipers in the buyer’s choice of red, black, Platinum-E, or polished finishes and 11.00 or12.19-inch rotors in standard, slotted or drilled and slotted styles.

Looking at all of the other ‘64-‘74 American Specialty Cars from GM such as Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, as well as cars from Ford such as the Mustang, Falcon, Fairlane and Cougar, and Chrysler products such as the Belvedere, Challenger, Coronet, Road Runner and many more, they all have brake coverage with the Forged Dynalite Pro Front Kit with an extensive list of individual part numbers. Wilwood also offers the Forged Dynalite Big Brake Front Hub Kit for some of the cars and the Dynapro 6 Big Brake Front Hub Kit can also be used on some of the ‘60s to ‘70s cars. Wilwood also offers the SL6 Big Brake Front Hub Kit for a variety of the ‘60s to ‘70s cars and this system would be perfect for enthusiasts who are building their car with Pro Touring styling because this kit comes with 12.88 or 14.00-inch rotors. If the SL6 caliper isn’t big enough, you can upgrade to our giant W6A and W4A calipers. Many of the ‘60s to ‘70s cars can also be equipped with rear brakes using the Forged Dynalite Rear P-Brake Kit. This rear kit features Forged Dynalite calipers and 11.00 or 12.19-inch rotors.

Wilwood offers a wide array of brake kits for street rods and specialty cars but they also offer other parts that can improve your installation. Wilwood offers a very nice assortment of master cylinders for specialty cars from firewall-mounted units to others that are activated with Wilwood pedal assemblies. If you are plumbing your vehicle Wilwood also offers residual valves and proportioning valves to make your system work perfectly. Wilwood also offers individual parts to finish your installation or if something gets damaged such as pedal assemblies, rotors, hats, hubs, bearings, rotor mounting plates, brackets, calipers, brake pads, brake hoses, and parking brake cable kits. Wilwood also offers Hi-Temp 570 Racing Brake Fluid and Wilwood EXP 600 Plus Super Hi-Temp Racing Brake Fluid.

If you have questions please contact Wilwood’s tech line for assistance at (805) 388-1188 or email Sales/Tech Support.