Broaner

iTrader: (10)

About six months ago I thought I'd try my hand at upgrading brakes. I ordered up a front set of Porterfield R4-s pads. They are really nice. They bite really hard. But they are not enough. The rotor simply doesn't have enough mass to absorb all the heat. I have thought good and hard about this whole thing and my thought is that I'm not the type of person that will be satisfied with a OEM size slotted rotor. I feel this is true because I don't get green fade. I get blacksmith style red fade!

From my understanding green fade is just the buildup of gases between the rotor and pad. Now don't get mad. I have found some local spots that are basically race tracks. Back in industrial parks and such. I go to these places at night and really let it loose. This allows me to judge the benifits of my mods while having some fun. I do it late when nobody is around so the only possible harm is to myself. My favorite spot is a fairly open non technical "road course". Its just over a mile around the thing. Back when I was auto my brakes had a much easier time with all this. I thought the opposite would be true because I can now engine brake but really the swap has just allowed me to get going faster more quickly so I need to use the brakes more. So, after one lap the brakes are totally fried. After one lap I can stomp the pedal to the floor doing 60 and not even be able to lock the tires. That is really bad. My buddies that stand around watching tell me that my rotors are glowing red every time I pass by.

My thought is that I need to upgrade the rears to match the fronts. I have ordered R4-s pads for the rears and depending on if I get green fade back there I'll get slotted rotors.

My second thought, as I said earlier, is that no OEM size rotor will be able to take the heat. I've really started to look into my options. To lay them out for people who don't know the options are(The ones that I'm considering):

1. AP Racing BBK w/ 4 Piston caliper/2 piece rotor from Top Element
2. Brembo BBK From Stillen w/ big(size?) drilled rotors
3. Frankencar BBK w/ Wilwood Caliper?/13.1" one piece slotted/drilled rotor from Corvete.
4. 300Z Caliper/Cobra Rotor
5. BlehmCo BBK w/ 6th gen max rotor/300z caliper

The AP kit is so nice and its so tempting to wait a bit more and get that.

The Brembo is a bolt on option but I've never heard of anyone on the .org that had it.

Frankencar looks really good for the money but the rotor is gonna be heavy as hel! and the caliper looks wimpy.

The 300/Cobra is complicated. I've been toying with the idea of getting two piece cobra rotors but then I'd still have to have them redrilled for our bolt pattern. Has anyone done a two piece Cobra rotor and had it drilled for the 114x5 hub? Also, it seems to me the 300Z caliper doesn't effectively use all of the braking surface available on the rotor so I'm thinking that is just extra rotational interia. Sure it adds to the heat sink properties of the rotor but is that extra .4" needed over the 12.6" Max rotor?

The 300/Maxima is not complicated because Matt Blehm makes a complete kit with SS lines but that rotor is also very heavy. He is currently working on a two piece rotor but he estimates that will add another $600 to the kits price. That puts his price higher than the Frankencar.

All of these are great options but all except the AP and brembo involve adding a sh!tload of rotational inertia to the drive wheels. I'm pretty much set between Matt's kit with better rotors and the Cobra setup with better rotors. I guess I'd just like to hear as much unbiased opinion as possible to help me make my decision.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Honestly? You got it on. But even the stock rotor's surface is not all used either. Basicly it depends on how much you are willing to spend. The AP kit is nice. No doubt. but you are going to pay though the nose/leg/arm/neck too. But it still leaves the bias un attended to.

One dude here is using a StopTech kit that uses piston sizing that Matt Blehm calulated as acceptable for frt/rear bias. I forget the dude's SN though

But the 2 pc rotors will cost quite a bit. No real way around it. But Matt also said they last alot longer so... I dunno

Broaner

iTrader: (10)

You asking honestly about the glowing? I **** you not. Every time I drive hard they get firery red.

I dunno either. Thanks for the input. I'm off to search for StopTech.

I was thinking about this last night and went out and did some rudamentary testing on the rears. On a full hard stop on fresh brakes the fronts lock up really early and I can't tell if the rears are locking. I need somebody to stand next to me when doing a stomp the pedal stop to see if the rears lock. If they don't that would be a huge detriment because like 95% the braking would be up front.