The Golf is one of the biggest-selling cars in Europe. It features very good standard brakes for everyday use, but drivers with sporting ambitions should retrofit the car with the High Performance Brake Kit from ATE. This is the advice provided by the German motor magazine Gute Fahrt in its September issue.

The Golf is Germany's most popular production car - for workaday use in an urban setting the same as for vacation trips. For these normal uses the production brakes are adequate. But what about the driver with sporting ambitions who is bent on exploring the critical limits of his vehicle or is planning to use it on the racetrack? In this case experts recommend retrofitting a high-performance brake system to meet the higher demands.

“Gute Fahrt” praises the “extensive combination of high-quality parts”

The ATE High Performance Brake Kit (HPBK) combines the well-known PowerDisc (brake disc diameter 320 mm) with a huge four-piston fixed caliper complete with trailing pads. The HPBK includes all parts required for fitting, even two flexible steel brake hoses: "All custom-fit, precision-manufactured parts," says Gute Fahrt. As installation space in the bowl of the rim is limited, the magazine recommends using 15 mm spacers on both the front and rear wheels, which should have a depth of 18 or at least 17 inches.

Clearly measurable shortening of stopping distance

The HPBK keeps what its looks promise: the stopping distance of an unladen vehicle braking from 100 km/h to a full stop is reduced by 1.6 percent. The stopping distance of a fully laden vehicle braking from 160 km/h is even 4.2 percent less. That brings the Golf to a stop a full car length earlier, and after the tenth brake application there is still no sign of fading. The overall assessment for operation under race conditions thus is unequivocal: "unconditionally recommended".