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.
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| "Oh no, baby, what is you doin'?" |
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.
"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.
I guess they add more horsepower than a spray can of engine paint. They'd sure better, for that price, at least.
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