call me crazy, but I like the 4 bolt fuchs wheels. they were exclusive to our little cars and I'd be happy to stick with them. However, sooner or later I'm going to give in to the 6 conversion.

I'm about to sort my suspension, and don't want to do throwaway work, so if a 5 bolt conversion is inevitable, I'd rather get it over with. Talking with my local garage, he says I could stick with my 4 bolt setup and increase the brakes by swapping to the bmw calipers and we can upgrade the CV's on the existing axles.

do you guys see problems with this strategy? Ignoring the wheel options, will I regret not taking this opportunity to upgrade the front suspension?

I'll be keeping it a narrow body, so the 5 lug swap doesn't really allow me to put more tire on. I also intend to keep the 901 gearbox, so I'm assuming that gives me a hp cap of 175-200.

The bmw calipers are not really an upgrade

they don't allow for vented rotors so you are only increasing the pad contact.

you can do the same exact thing by improving the stock pads onto the stock calipers and rotors.

If you don't need vented rotors, then just upgrade your existing calipers by rebuilding them with new hoses and really good pads (not cheap crap pads)

if you do need vented rotors then the bmw caliper is not going to give you that anyways.

I would say stick with your 4-lug until you do the conversion. My reason for this is to 1) save money (for other things on the car); 2) stock brakes are fine for -4 when in proper working order; 3) when you do a 5 lug conversion, you need to decide on how you're going to handle the emergency brake, in my opinion. A good route, I think, is to drill the rears for 5 lug that way you keep the emergency brake otherwise you shop for the $$$ -6 stub axles, rotors and calipers. A factory 914-6, after all, had a non vented rear rotor not much bigger than the -4 rotor. The front can use many 911 front suspension as a bolt up which is an easy part of the conversion. Just my end-'o-the-world thoughts.

so is there a vented disc that will go on the stock spindle in front? with the correct offset to accomodate the stock, widened calipers?

I believe the mueller - brad hubs allowed that option.
It might be hard to find a pair, I haven't seen any lately.

Stock brakes are more than adequate for the street, unless you put in a "big six" (greater than 2.7) and plan to drive "more than spirited" on the street. Stock brakes are fine for AX as well. Just upgrade the pads as brant noted.

I have both a six conversion track teener and a '70 four banger street car. The PMB rebuilt stock calipers are more than adequate for twisty bits that I enjoy with the four banger (we've got some great roads nearby - when its dry ) carb'd 1.8 that we rebuilt.

Frankly, I have just as much fun driving the street car with stock brakes as I do the track car with boxster brembos on the front.
If you like the stock wheels, fresh pads and a complete rebuild (if not done for a while) should be adequate for normal spirited driving.

as a rule...
if you are boiling and loosing your brakes then you might need more heat sink (a vented rotor)

but before changing the rotor/brakes you would install good fluid, and Great pads (4S pads to start with), as well as sticky tires to give you the stopping power you want.

if you continue to boil your brakes after the pad upgrade you would consider a higher temperature pad or better fluid
(note this isn't going to happen on the street below 300hp and without race tires)

Then you would need vented rotors