280Z Turbo

Seating pads? Explain that to me.

I'm surprised that you have good bias since most people with S12W calipers say that they can't get the rears to lock up, even with the bias valve all the way open. That's why I went S12+8.

Sorry here is the link: http://www.zcar.com/forums/read/1/1884421/page=1 I just feel that he goes too far in his praise of stock brakes. There is a reason why even lowly econoboxes have vented rotors. I fully believe that stock brakes are fine for street driving, but when it comes to track days, I really think that you can benefit from upgrades when it comes to modulation, heat fade, maintainence, and yes even stopping distance (due to better bias). Theoretical "woulda, coulda, shoulda" aside, I don't see why my new setup would be worse than my old setup. Sure, maybe I could have gotten away with some really aggresive pads, frequent brake fluid changes, and constant drum adjustments, but I'd rather have my brakes working at 80% on the track rather than 110%.

You must be thinking of the nonvented setup.

Nah, but it can easily be done for under $400. You need spacers, vented rotors, calipers, and pads.

You're just trying to convince yourself that this: wasn't hurting your Z!

I see you are trying to sell something. That changes things a bit. For under $800 you can buy a setup that has little or no chance of properly balancing with the rear until you buy another $800 rear kit.

Brakes are kind of a pass/fail sort of thing. Once you lock up the tires, it doesn't matter if you have 15" Brembos or 4 wheel drums. The tires matter more. There are 5 basic questions you have to ask yourself before doing an upgrade: 1.) Can I lock up the front wheels with stock brakes? 2.) Do I have heat fade with stock brakes? 3.) Do I have good balance with stock brakes? 4.) Do I have good feel with stock brakes? 5.) Is the stock system easy enough to maintain? The first one is the most important. The S130 comes with 4 wheel discs, so I think with Hawk HP's and some good brake fluid, you should have great brakes.

I've been wondering about something. I quoted one of your posts about upgraded brakes on zcar.com and Tony came back with this: BJ is running a full-on race car, and NOT a street car. That is a terribly misleading post when talking about a street vehicle. You will also note that BJ recommended RACE COMPOUND FRICTIONAL MATERIAL (sound familiar? where did we hear that before? DS11 for over 50K miles thusfar...hmmmm?) for the best rear braking performance. his maintenance problems are centered around a RACING CAR, once again, not a STREET CAR. Brakes are not as simple as people are making them out to be. And people have a terrible tendency to put words into my mouth that I never spoke. And for terrible mixing of contexts. I really don't know if people are really simply that plain stupid, or if they really get offended by having impartial information out there simply to inform, rather than parroting marketing hype or playing monkey-see monkey-do. My thoughts are, of course, that the majority of people are just plain stupid. AT least that's been my experience...here especially. Okay, most of that was just verbal abuse, but I THINK what he meant to say was that: 1.) Brakes really ARE rocket science and it's impossible to make "cobbled together" setups work as good as stock brakes 2.) There is no point of upgrading brakes unless you are doing endurance racing 3.) Stock drum brake setups are easier to modulate than 4 piston vented + rear disc setups Thoughts?

16x7, 205/55/16's: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=107531&highlight=JDM+zg+flares

I'm afraid that if you throw on ZG flares with 8" wide rims it will take on what the Z31 guys refer to as "the battleship look". Big phil had to run big fat adapters to fill up his ZG flares

Other people here have done it with good results.

Use a baseball bat, bubbles.

AP137 is for the S12+8 (vented or non) caliper.

What's wrong with the stock brakes?

Trashing the old drum brakes is the best part of rear disc swaps.

You're barking up the wrong tree, man. We already has this discussion in our local Z-car club forum. He likes it and it will stay on the car.

Okay, this is a bit off-topic but still somewhat related. S12+8 calipers are not "wrong". Many people have reported having to run weak-ass pads in front and race pads in the rear because the 240SX rear calipers can't balance out the big S12W "useful" calipers effectively. Some have even wanted to install a prop valve in the front (not safe at all!). I had absolutely no trouble getting good pads for S12+8 from Porterfield. Also, it appears that 2nd gen RX-7 pads MAY also work with these calipers, but I haven't tried it yet. I've often thought that the unvented Toyota caliper swap was a waste of time and money and would make the car stop worse than before. However, I was just reading the other day that some have found that the brakes are easier to modulate and are more fade resistant with the larger calipers and pads. You have the same situation with 60 mm TB's, aftermarket intakes, rear disc swaps, 4 barrel carb swaps, injector placement, Rust-oleum paint jobs, etc. etc. Some people say they like them, others say it doesn't work. Getting back on topic, it seems that often people have different experiences, setups, climates, driving styles, needs, and budgets and what may be "wrong" in one person's experience is right for another. There are always pluses and minuses to every option, and I think Hybrid Z is about discussing those rather than saying "this swap/mod is stupid and useless".

They're not Nissan wheels. 260Z's came with steel wheels and hubcaps like this: See if you can find a brand name on them. They might be Western Wheels.

I would sooner use S12+8 calipers but I think even those would be way too much brake for even Wilwood fronts. A much smarter swap, IMO, would involve rear Z31 vented calipers or perhaps even Z32 rear calipers. As far as I'm concerned there are only 3 kinds of easy, effective bolt on setups: 1.) Stock brakes w/ good fluid and Porterfield pads and shoes 2.) Z31 rotors, S12+8 vented front, 240SX rear calipers, good fluid, Porterfield pads 3.) Racing brake kits like Wilwoods, Cobra brakes, etc. The AZC is well put together and a good value, so if I required more brake than what the Z31 vented setup could provide, I'd just go for their Wilwood kit.

Those rims that he posted are not 260Z rims. They're old aftermarket wheels. 1981 turbo snowflakes fit over the Modern Motorsports setup. Those can be had for cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TRAILBLAZER-BRAVADA-ENVOY-MOTOR-ENGINE-4-2L-4-2-L-73K_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33615QQihZ003QQitemZ130207474933QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW It doesn't look that tall to me.

Even S12W's are overkill. People have trouble getting enough rear brake bias with those. Bigger is not better.

Why would you ever want to put these calipers on a Z?

Yes, it should fit under stock rims, but an S12+8 vented does stick out farther than the surface of the hub so you need at least 1/4" spacers depending on the wheel. I have Turbo snowflake rims. S12+8 non vented is a different story.