Flyin' Miata ND Little Big Brake Kit (front only)
Flyin' Miata ND Little Big Brake Kit (front only)
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Description
You could buy a $3400 option package for your ND to get Brembo brakes and BBS wheels - or you could pick up Flyin' Miata's exclusive Little Big Brake Kit and save big.
What's a "Little Big Brake Kit"? It's a light, stiff four-piston caliper mounted on a stock rotor. This gives you great pedal feel, a huge selection of pads that are easy to change, a drop in unsprung weight and low consumable costs.
The calipers are four piston Wilwood Powerlites. This is a newer design than the old Dynalite, offering improved stiffness and lighter weight. They form the basis of our Little Big Brake Kits for other models as well. Because the new calipers are aluminum, there is a significant unsprung weight savings: 5.45 lbs per wheel in the front when compared to the standard ND brakes. That's an overall savings of nearly 11 lbs of unsprung weight. Even the Brembo cars can save over 3 lbs per corner.
Since they're so stiff, they don't flex when you stand on the pedal. This gives a very firm, reassuring pedal with no springiness.
As a bonus, these calipers are more compact than the stock ones. This allows the use of 15" wheels. We've tested them with both 15x8 and 15x9 Gen4 6UL wheels. They also fit under stock 17" wheels without the need for a spacer.
These calipers are hard-anodized to make the coating very durable and resistant to changes due to temperature. This hard-anodizing means that there's no dye, which means that the exact shade can vary. It's important to note that the shades of grey will likely not match perfectly. We can't accept returns due to mismatched caliper colors. If you'd like your calipers to match perfectly, please choose one of our big brake kits in red powder coat.
Fits 2.0L cars, including all North American ND MX-5s. 1.5L cars use a different rotor size, so you'd need a set of 2.0L rotors to go along with the kit.
Will they fit your wheels? Well, we know they'll fit just about any wheel we've tested and they definitely fit behind stock ones, our Kōgekis, and our Tobus. We do recommend you check against your own, however. Use our handy template to be sure.
Includes BP-20 front pads and braided front brake lines. You will reuse your stock rotors. Also available as a four wheel kit.
Note: The piston sizes are well-matched to the stock hydraulic system, an almost perfect match to factory sizes and the same 3.0 square inch setup as used on other kits. Also, the 5.0 square inch pad size is very slightly smaller than the 5.4 square inch of the factory (that's 7% smaller, not 30% as claimed elsewhere) but the swept area is the same. As always, the only reliably accurate source of information about our products is from us.
Instructions
Shipping
What does it fit?
Fits: 2016, 2017, 2017 Fiat, 2017 RF, 2018, 2018 Fiat, 2018 RF, 2019, 2019 Fiat, 2019 RF, 2020, 2020 Fiat, 2020 RF, 2021, 2021 RF, 2022, 2022 RF, 2023, 2023 RF, 2024, 2024 RF, 2025, 2025 RF
Emissions
Emissions do not apply.
Warranty
none
SKU
This was the first time I had ever upgraded brake calipers on any of my cars over the decades I've been driving and modifying. Bleeding brakes and messing that up always intimidated me. But after a long drive on the roads at Miata's at the Gap this year I knew I needed to upgrade. My pads and rotors were fresh, but they didn't give me the feel I wanted in a more spirited drive. So when the Flyin' Miata tent opened on Friday, I immediately went over to it to place an order.
And by Immediately I mean, after standing in line for an hour to get the free T-Shirt they were handing out. Hey, it was a free shirt, I'm not a monster. And THEN I went over to place my order. I got to meet the team and placed my order with Brandon. A week later the box arrived.
Install was pretty breezy. As I mentioned, this was my first time doing this and I did get tripped up a little during the install. The elbow adapter between the caliper and brake line has two distinctly different ends and both will thread into the caliper. The instructions were not clear on which end is which. I did figure it out but as a first timer, it took some research on ol' Google. Maybe the instructions could be updated with a picture of it, clearly labelling which end is which for the newbies like me out there.
But it all went together easily. The only other part that tripped me up was bleeding. The bleeders are two piece and I have never seen that before. It took me a while to figure out that I only needed to crack the small inner black piece loose and not the brass piece. I wish that had been covered in the instructions. Another area where an image with clear labels would have helped a newbie like me. Or maybe I missed it? Quite possible.
I gravity bled the system and that seems to have worked great. I tried to use a one-way check valve and pump the pedal but then just decided to gravity bleed. My pedal is nice and solid and the car stops very confidently. I'm not out there locking them up at will, but hauling this car down from 60 feels much more authoritative now.
The passenger side took me about 1.5 hours going very slow and learning as I went. The driver side took me 15 minutes start to finish as I knew exactly what I was doing then.
My cars braking system went from "OK, we're going to stop soon" to "OK, we are stopping NOW."
Well worth the money, easy install and improved even my every day driving in it. I stalked this kit for months before pulling the trigger on it. I wish I had done it prior to Miata's at the Gap. Luckily, they will be with me next year.
C'est la modif à faire sur une ND stock, c'est vraiment le jour et la nuit, le mordant est de suite présent, terminé la pedale qui s'enfonce pour rien.
Je ne regrette pas du tout, je me tâte à faire l'arrière maintenant...Mais j'ai peur que le système de frein à main ne soit pas assez puissant pour le teste au controle technique en France.
Got this as a replacement / upgrade for my front calipers. Well worth it. Looks so much better than OEM. The installation process was pretty easy and everything you need comes in the box. The delivery was fast considering it was shipped internationally for me. They even give you FM stickers so if that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will.
For those that have an ND that wasn’t optioned with the BBS, Brembo, and Recaro package, I genuinely think this is the best option considering performance, price, ease of installation and flexibility when it comes to wheel choice. My initial impressions when going to test out the brakes is that it the pedal felt like it grew a bicep (literally) but quantifying it numerically I’d say the pedal feels about 40% stiffer. Whether that’s due to the caliper itself, the stainless steel lines, getting my fluid flushed for the first time, or all of the above, it’s a good feeling knowing I can trust my brakes again.
As far as installation goes? It’s an extremely simple job and that’s coming from someone who hasn’t ever tooled on a car this intrusively until now. The instructions, while not included in the package, was pretty straight forward but I would highly recommend FM to make a video on the install as the only hiccups I encountered was finding the right stainless steel lines to use on the right and left side (because they are different but they’re not labeled as such) as well as the hex screws that attach the caliper to the bracket. No where in the instructions does it list what size hex to use and even when referring to a Flywheel Films video, they used a 6mm although my kit seems to be using a slightly different size and when using a 6mm hex, it only continued to strip the head of the screw not allowing me to tighten it to the correct torque setting.
In the end, I think this kit is perfect for the people that have an ND that never came with the bigger brakes or for GT owners as it upgrades just about everything in the braking system. (say for rotors, rear lines and rear calipers) Now if you take your car to the track often or if you’re pushing it very hard on the street running forced induction, then I’d probably advocate for one of the other brake kits that includes larger rotors as after a few unrelenting instances I’m sure the stock sized brakes would start to overheat. My only genuine complaints about the kit is the unlabeled stainless steel lines, the strange sizing on the caliper bolts, and it would be nice if they came in other colors. (I know the Powerlite comes in different colors but I’m not sure if this specific version of the Powerlite comes in different colors) And it would’ve been nice to be able to option the kit with new brake rotors.
Thanks FM for being a genuinely cool company, you’ve got yourself a returning customer for as long as I own a Miata (and that’ll be forever)
Installation was straightforward, great looking, clear stock 17 inch without spacer. Only wish it comes in other colours.
