Brakes

You will either have to buy a remote servo or go without a servo because the Carbs/throttle boddies take priority over the limited space! Remember, a servo does not make the brakes better!! It only makes it easier to apply them! 

Be advised that if you uprate your brakes it is very easy to upset the balance of the brakes.  On one extreme you could get problems with the back brakes locking up too easily, not good.  The other extreme is that your front brakes will lock too easily as the rears brakes are hardly doing a thing (something Capris suffered from).

To solve these problems you will need some form of brake bias control.  The ultimate is a brake bias peddle box, or the cheaper alternative is a brake bias valve.  For Mk 1 Escort owners you will find that Mk2 bias peddle boxes are cheaper and they can be made to fit with a small home made bracket to save you a few quid.

Mk 2 Bias Peddle Box from TJ Motorsport

 

At the front 2.8 Capri vented discs are a cheap and popular modification.  You can get various cross drilled/cross grooved disc and various high performance pads such as EBC.  I used to have a 2.8 Capri runing standard sized brakes, but with grooved/drilled discs and kevlar pads and it stopped really well.  That set up on an Escort would be fine for the road/track.

The next upgrade in terms of price is AP 4 pots from an Austin Princess.  Rally Design sell 257mm discs to for this conversion and the calliper spacer you need to fit them to vented discs.

 

After that it's all down to how much you want to spend.  Caprisport do 2 options that utilise calliper from other Fords and move the disc to the outside of the hub.  I have heard good reports on these but I have never tried a car with them on.  Rally Design offer a number of kits using Wilwood callipers that start at about £500 and there are similar products available from a number of different suppliers. 

Rear Discs

Discs all round is a sensible option using XR3i/Mk 4 Escort Ghia callipers/discs and Rally Design brackets (weld or bolt on) on the rear.  You will then need either a bias valve (£40 or use a Sierra bias valve) or bias peddle box (£160-270) (www.tjmotorsport.co.uk).  The nifty trick here is to weld a small bracket on to both XR3i calliper for you handbrake cable because the callipers are of the ‘floating’ variety. 

You can also buy complete kits that use Sierra rear callipers from www.Caprisport.com.

What Im doing

I have opted for AP Princess callipers, EBC Greenstuff pads and 257mm vented discs.  On the back I will be using XR3i front callipers and discs mounted with brackets from Rally Design.  To control this all I have a MK2 bias peddle box that needed a small bracket making up to fit my Mk1.  This brakes set up used to be on a 190bhp Rally Car and was good enough for that, so I have no doubts it will be fine for me.

My rear brakes, showing XR3i front calliper carriers mounted to brackets on 2.8 Capri LSD rear axle.