I don't know exactly when the red caliper thing started. Italian brake manufacturer Brembo was an OEM supplier to a lot of companies dating way back before brightly colored calipers were a thing.
Late Eighties and early Nineties supercars may have had Brembo brakes, but the calipers were fairly normal colors: black, gray, metallic, whatever. Some were finished in a gold color. It was hard to tell, though, because wheels were 17" and smaller and also tended to have a more "aero" appearance; a flat disc with fewer, smaller holes.
While I don't know who Patient Zero in the Red Plague was, I do know that by the close of the Millennium, as larger wheels with spindlier spokes left more of the braking system in view, racy cars started getting brightly-colored calipers, most often in red.
This, of course, led to goobers spray-painting calipers with high-temperature engine paint, a "performance enhancement" along the lines of a fat exhaust tip and a J.C. Whitney decklid wing.
Possibly my favorite example of this was the dude I saw in the Meijer parking lot who had rattlecanned the rear drums on his early '90s Toyota Corolla red.
I hadn't given it a lot of thought, assuming the fad would kind of reach peak silly with spray paint, but I was wrong.
The other day I spotted what I initially thought was a pretty trick Volkswagen Golf GTI in the parking lot at the Preston Safeway.
As I was processing the RAW files in P-shop, I first noticed that it wasn't a GTI. The calipers looked unusual, too. I zoomed in to read the lettering on them...
"MGP? I've never heard of a brake manufacturer with that name..."
Which was because MGP doesn't make brakes; they make anodized aluminum bolt-on caliper covers. They sell them on Amazon and they ain't cheap.
I guess they must add more horsepower than a spray can of engine paint. They'd sure better, for that price, at least.
Late Eighties and early Nineties supercars may have had Brembo brakes, but the calipers were fairly normal colors: black, gray, metallic, whatever. Some were finished in a gold color. It was hard to tell, though, because wheels were 17" and smaller and also tended to have a more "aero" appearance; a flat disc with fewer, smaller holes.
While I don't know who Patient Zero in the Red Plague was, I do know that by the close of the Millennium, as larger wheels with spindlier spokes left more of the braking system in view, racy cars started getting brightly-colored calipers, most often in red.
This, of course, led to goobers spray-painting calipers with high-temperature engine paint, a "performance enhancement" along the lines of a fat exhaust tip and a J.C. Whitney decklid wing.
Possibly my favorite example of this was the dude I saw in the Meijer parking lot who had rattlecanned the rear drums on his early '90s Toyota Corolla red.
I hadn't given it a lot of thought, assuming the fad would kind of reach peak silly with spray paint, but I was wrong.
The other day I spotted what I initially thought was a pretty trick Volkswagen Golf GTI in the parking lot at the Preston Safeway.
As I was processing the RAW files in P-shop, I first noticed that it wasn't a GTI. The calipers looked unusual, too. I zoomed in to read the lettering on them...
"MGP? I've never heard of a brake manufacturer with that name..."
Which was because MGP doesn't make brakes; they make anodized aluminum bolt-on caliper covers. They sell them on Amazon and they ain't cheap.
I guess they must add more horsepower than a spray can of engine paint. They'd sure better, for that price, at least.
My 24 GLI cane with red calipers from the factory. They carry on the theme of red accents on the body. I think they're cool in a boy-racer sort of way. The brakes are allegedly better than those on the base Jetta, but I don't experience them as amazing. They stop just as well as the regular brakes on the 13 Passat this car replaced.
ReplyDeleteWith larger wheels making the calipers more visible, it makes sense from an aesthetic standpoint for sure.
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