ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty
Haven't driven another 44 for over 10 years, forgotten what they were like to be honest, but with mine 70+ they don't stop you quick
Stamp on them around 40/50 and they can lock up.
Guessing the S doesn't have ABS, so bigger brakes won't make any difference here? In fact, I guess you could argue that the later, bigger brakes were designed to work with the ABS system, so might even be worse? I don't know. I'd not be surprised, though, that they lock up when you stamp on them, and that's possibly down to how we've come to rely on the safety systems too much when we drive more modern cars every day.
The 944 is a car, IMO, that fit's very neatly between being a real "vintage" car, i.e. slow, unreliable and expensive, and the modern cars, that are soul-less, detached, and full of expensive electronics waiting to go wrong. Accept it for what it is, if you try to change it too much you create something that's arguably worse than you started out with.
My Lux had pretty decent brakes, but my daily-driver van doesn't have ABS either so I'd never owned anything before with that benefit. When I got the S2 I knew the calipers needed attention, but I was really disappointed with the brakes. I'd heard the stories about how they were a massive improvement over the Lux, but they weren't really any stronger at all. After nearly £2K of work on them, with 4 refurbed calipers, new discs and pads all round, new lines and fluid etc. they now work like they are brand new. Are they better in reality? Yes. The whole S2 system is stronger, but the ABS is an integral part of that. I would admit to being careless and expecting too much of the Lux brakes a few times, although it would only be country roads with wet leaves in my case (I should know better[8|]). The S2 has made me brake later and harder, and I have had the ABS kick in a fair few times on wet roads.
In summary, would I want the S2 brakes on the Lux? No. The S2 system is designed to deal with a car that's over-tyred, and likely to be going in to a braking "event" at a higher speed. The ABS is, in my experience, more help here than bigger brakes; once you're over-commited in a car without ABS, bigger brakes might only make the lock-up more of a problem?