Behind The Scenes At Disc Brakes Wildwood

Wilwood's new facility adds an additional 100,000 squarefeet to its manufacturing arsenal. The barrage of CNC machinery is run for two shifts each day, up to six days a week, with tooling designed in-house. That adds up to 10 tons of shavings spit out of the CNC machines each month!

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There was time in hot rodding when brakes were a “must-have” but not a “brag-worthy” item. After all, they just “slowed you down;” and who was going to brag to their buddies about that? Enter the Pro-Touring movement and that notion was cast out the window altogether. As wheels got bigger and spokes got thinner, big, beautiful brakes became just as brag-worthy as tunnel ram intakes, huge hits of nitrous, and that big blower poking through the hood. A paramount facet to going fast on a racetrack is knowing where to go slow. A consistent and capable brake system is the key to a center podium spot.

At the forefront of the performance braking movement, providing the engineering, innovation, and the know-how to slow-down is Wilwood Disc Brakes. The company is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and has just acquired an additional 100,000sqft building in Camarillo, CA. This effectively doubles its footprint for manufacturing, testing, and finished product storage. The new digs also allowed Wilwood to bring nearly all of their coating processes in-house. Anodizing, powder coat, E-coat and laser engraving are all performed under Wilwood’s twin roofs and has allowed them to expand all of their in-house manufacturing and assembly.

We dropped by to check out the new facility and see how calipers, hubs, rotors, and many other brake components go from raw aluminum to race-ready, and to gain some insight on braking technology as a whole.