Complete List of Brake Upgrade kits

[cyrus]

Hey Cyrus here, I am doing the 2JZ-GTE swap on the 6 cylinder board. I want very effective brakes. I would like to run the Silver State Classic with 450hp. Bling is good too. I have been searching for a complete list of brake vendors with 240Z packages.

 

so far I have:

 

http://www.modern-motorsports.com

http://www.jskinnovations.com

http://www.arizonazcar.com

http://www.fonebooth.com/brakes_zcar.html

 

Who have I forgot?

The best?

[JMortensen]

The bigger the brakes the better the capacity to remove the heat generated from the friction of the pads on the rotors, so in that sense bigger is better. There is a point at which it just gets ridiculous though, and you lose out because you have to spin more mass with brakes and wheels.

 

These two (brakes and wheels) are strongly linked. The smaller brakes and the smaller wheels you can get that will still stop the car, the better IMO, because you'll have less rotating mass to turn. Imagine the wheels and brakes as though they were a flywheel. You want a light flywheel on your engine because of parasitic drag, same thing on wheels and brakes.

 

Bling usually means that you throw function out the window in the pursuit of form, so if that's what you're after I suggest the AZC or Modern Motorsports setups, because they are huge, and you need big blingy wheels to fit them. If you want function over form, then the fonebooth setup is probably the lightest, and if it works for John Coffey's race car, it should work for you. If you're like me and you just want it to work in all situations on a budget and you want to run 15" wheels, then JSK is the way to go.

 

EDIT--Looked at the AZC site, I thought they had a 13" rotor and 6 piston caliper for the early Z, looks like their stuff is basically the same as JSK's, so you can get equivalent bling at less cost with the JSK setup.

 

Just as a side note AZC used to advertise their brake kit saying "for Z's that regularly see 200 mph". Still haven't seen that Z....

 

My $.02,

 

Jon

[Modern Motorsports Ltd]

Here's a link to a similar discussion not long ago with some good advice from various members,

http://hybridz.org/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=31573&highlight=brakes

 

here's another recent thread/not so different subject

http://hybridz.org/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=29771&highlight=front+brakes

 

I'm surprised at Jim noting our setups for bling over function and will have to strongly disagree (strong function statements by customers in link above!). I'd put them at tops for function for a list too long to type here, and others can rate for bling. 16" wheels typically clear with ease on our Xtreme setups, didn't know 16's were blingy these days. Tucking max. diameter rotors within 16's gives you max. swept area/optimal cooling, weight directly under brake pad in the firepath etc etc. The setup speaks for itself with lightweight aluminum PBR DOT seal calipers, highest grade rotors fully balanced and stress relieved etc. Our fully profiled rotor hats are nearly one half the weight of some competitors investing less R&D efforts with basically profiled flat hats. Our lighter rotor hat weight keeps rotational inertia minimized where possible while keeping required weight in the rotor directly under the pad where of greatest benefit. With an exponential force relationship on centripetal forces this is same principles as lighter wheels make for a faster car given all else equal.

 

Our aluminum hubs at 50% of OEM weight further enhance our rotating (far more responsive than just unsprung non-rotating weight) weight savings benefits. R&D on profiling pays off in reduced acceleration AND braking. High end lightweight pulley sets come in notably less than the 'best buy' lightweight aluminum pulley sets.....best buy sets (ASP etc) are typically flat without much profiling or lightening efforts vs. unorthodox (better brand) fully profiled and lightened where R&D proved it allowable. Enough babbles.....engineer back to zleep now

[zero]

Just out of curiosity, I have a set of 14in American racing Libre wheels, that I really like, what do you think would be the best set up I could get thta would fit inside these wheels. I think I might just get some nice pads and new rotors for the stock brakes, but was curious if anything else would fit

[Modern Motorsports Ltd]

Just out of curiosity, I have a set of 14in American racing Libre wheels, that I really like, what do you think would be the best set up I could get thta would fit inside these wheels. I think I might just get some nice pads and new rotors for the stock brakes, but was curious if anything else would fit

 

A vented 4x4 front setup may fit, if not only a nominal (ie. 5/16" perhaps) slip on spacer with Nissan Quest wheel studs would get you quite an improvement, pad quality is key to any brake system (OEM or otherwise) with rotors also important but can be sacrificed somewhat on tight budgets if pad quality is still adhered to. OEM with KVR pads and high quality rotors or vented 4x4 setup with KVR pads would treat you well.

[Moridin]

Sorry for the highjack, but if those PBR's are sealed, I'm sold

[JMortensen]

PBR's do have dust boots. Sounds like Moridin is sold.

 

Wasn't trying to cut down the MM products at all, just trying to point out that brakes need to be big enough to dissipate the heat from braking. Any more and your lugging around extra weight. They WILL require bigger than 15" wheels, and I always try to run the smallest diameter wheel I can get away with. The MM setup should be capable of stopping ANY Z repeatedly for long track sessions etc, and I would never try to take that away from Ross.

 

John C thinks my JSK brakes are bigger than necessary. He has quite a bit more hp and quite a bit more suspension than me and uses a smaller setup with 11.5 x .81 rotors. MM setup is a lot bigger than what I have. I'm sure you could adapt some crazy 14" rotor road race setup from a Viper or similar and get even more brakes with 18" wheels, but it isn't necessary on a Z was my point.

 

And as for weight, my hat weighs nothing compared to the rotor, I'm not sure of the difference in weight between a 12" rotor and a 13" rotor, but I'm sure there is a lb or two at least, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the 13" rotor weighed 13 or 14 lbs. The Wilwood UL 32 vane rotors weigh 10 lbs without the hat. I doubt there is a lb of aluminum to be lost from scalloping the rotor hat or taking it from the inside.

 

Jon

[Modern Motorsports Ltd]

we're not disagreeing entirely Jon, but this is far from apples to apples..

 

"Wasn't trying to cut down the MM products at all, just trying to point out that brakes need to be big enough to dissipate the heat from braking."

....and prevent rotor temps from exceeding pad limits...allowing users to use pads they want and not overly aggressive pads if not suitable to their purpose....leads to far greater rotor longevity amongst many other factors

 

" Any more and your lugging around extra weight. They WILL require bigger than 15" wheels, and I always try to run the smallest diameter wheel I can get away with."

 

yes, I understand the diehard competitive racer, many of my customers are running 16's/17's/18's in OE to 10 or 12" wide rims with 350-500 hp routinely.....their closing gaps and other requirements are different from your braking requirements Jim

 

"John C thinks my JSK brakes are bigger than necessary. He has quite a bit more hp and quite a bit more suspension than me and uses a smaller setup with 11.5 x .81 rotors." ...and far more aggressive pads and well executed ducting, two items typical street/track fiend isn't fulfilling typically

 

"MM setup is a lot bigger than what I have. I'm sure you could adapt some crazy 14" rotor road race setup from a Viper or similar and get even more brakes with 18" wheels, but it isn't necessary on a Z was my point."

 

OK, I think you're really missing my point. The mass in my rotors I've TAILORED to meet my calculations and observations to suit desired heat sink for Z's.....the diameter is great for many reasons.....you see this growing on many OE vehicles as well....they're not doing it for looks alone. My rotors actually weigh less than the heavy duty 1.25" wilwoods.....with our greater swept area and other details we can do this quite effectively, in two piece rotors you can't simply compare OD's/thicknesses....many specifications I can tailor and arrive at my desired mass for design purposes.

 

 

"And as for weight, my hat weighs nothing compared to the rotor, I'm not sure of the difference in weight between a 12" rotor and a 13" rotor, but I'm sure there is a lb or two at least," - not in apples to apples...those are 9" OD hats on mine!..ours are 1.1" thick overall, ours weigh more than wilwood ultralight but that's also a marketing stab they took at selling a product much cheaper to make with thin rotor sidewalls that isn't near as thermally stable as more stout castings with thicker sidewalls

 

" and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the 13" rotor weighed 13 or 14 lbs. " I have done a set at that weight but it was for an extreme high speed road racer with 500+hp in a 2200 lb chassis who's requirements were more demanding than 99.9% of us.

 

"The Wilwood UL 32 vane rotors weigh 10 lbs without the hat. I doubt there is a lb of aluminum to be lost from scalloping the rotor hat or taking it from the inside."

 

Be surprised I know specs I saw on 'other' hats (I don't want to get into mine's bigger than yours etc etc) showed ~1.5 lbs difference on 5lug hats alone. 4 lug hats are a flatter profile but will still yield similar percent weight reduction in comparing apples to apples.

 

 

Engineered package.

[JMortensen]

Look I don't want to argue with you Ross. You make a nice product, and it works great by ALL accounts.

 

It wasn't for me, main reason being that I wanted smaller wheels than will fit your setup and I have a limited budget.

 

But, I will say this: show me a roadrace Z that is faster than John Coffey's car (good luck) that burns up his braking system, and I too will believe.

 

I would also point out that vehicle weight has some bearing here, so one of the V8 cars from the PIG post might be justified in going larger.

 

EDIT--also, I believe you're comparing HD rotors to your setup, and the common 12" rotor is the UL setup. Less vanes and considerably lighter.

 

Jon