That was me- it did leave bruises. That was 160 vented brakes and Ferrodo DS11's (like, pure frickin' asbestos man
). Apparently that's why you can't get them any more. At least not the formulation that was so good.
I just got the 160 brakes on my 142 tonight, ironically enough. Took forever to get 164 hubs. You DO need them. The parts can be a major pita to get, but they work very, very well.
My 240 goes to my workshop this weekend, at which point it will not need to drive anymore and will donate its new calipers to the 140. It should be even better then.
Arcane system? Uhh, 140's have more advanced brakes than half of the cars made in the 90's dude.
Anyways to do the swap you need:
164E Vented rotors from Buybrakes.com
164E hubs from anywhere you get lucky enough to find them. Search car-part.com. I got mine from there via Sibum's Auto parts in PA. They had another set listed as well. People have debated as to wether or not these are necessary and I'm here to say they definitately are.
164E ATE vented front calipers OR 240 vented Girling front calipers (must be drilled out to accept 1/2-20" caliper bolts, it's minor).
I have the "proper" ATE front calipers right now, but they're a crappy design. I put them on becuase somehow I had them.
People have theorized that the 240 calipers use different brake fittings and so you need to either cut and re-flare the lines with the correct fittings, or use compression fittings.
I think they bolt-in once you drill 'em out. The hardline fittings sure look the same (and use the same 11mm flare wrench). But they might be almost the same but one is metric and the other is standard. Anyways that's an unknown at this point. I'll know sometime this month when I get around to swapping the 240 stuff on.
Aluminum would be nice, but the 160 stuff works very, very well, and doesn't take much effort one you track down the parts.
Hope this helps. 140's own.