Just bought a Speedster from Vintage Speedster

Good summary on the wide 5 stuff available, Danny; I'd forgotten about the 356 rear drum. As he says, they are very good as well- just rare and a little expensive once you find them. I just saw online (don't remember where) that one of the Porsche restorers relines the aluminum drums. Waaay past expensive!

I looked into 944 brakes (thought the vented fronts with the big "Porsche" calipers would be cool) but that's an expensive (and heavier) option as well, and really not needed in these light cars unless you're putting huge demands (road racing, serious canyon running) on your braking system. I'd have to have a set fall from the sky to be able to afford the conversion pieces, but very cool stuff. Would look good though....Hmmm....

Back to wide 5, does anybody know- are the early type 3 rear drums bigger than the bug stuff?

It appears so, wider and bigger diameter. Looking around on the web, type1 is 230mm diameter and type3 is 280mm. That translates to 9" or 11". But look at the tape measure in this Samba thread(albeit 4 lug): http://www.thesamba.com/vw/for...ewtopic.php?t=372473

So type 3 rear is the same size as 356, but made of iron whereas some of the Porsche drums are aluminum with heatsink fins, right? This makes a major difference in terms of fade resistance.

Brake shoes appear to be 248 by 48mm on type3 rear. Bug is 230 by 40mm. It appears that the difference is 18mm, or about 3/4" in diameter and 8mm, or close to 3/8" wider. Wheel cylinders are bigger too. Sounds like a lot of trouble for an improvement but at that point easier to go disc, not to mention the easier maintenance, lack of fade, and way better stopping no matter what conditions.

Al, there is a Canadian guy on Samba that makes caliper brackets for Wilwood calipers. You can use whatever you want then, 1,2,4 piston and whatever pads. Kind of a make your own, but to me I'd rather buy a kit of parts that FIT rather than make something, especially for wide5.

Here's a link the the Canadian source that Danny mentioned:

http://vdubengineering.com/

Danny- So they're the same as the 4 bolt stuff; great!

And Ron- That's where I first started drooling; they make fantastic stuff!