First I would like to say that this is in no way a sales pitch for ArizonaZCar. This is purley my commentary on my experience so far. Take it for what it's worth. So with that said, this past Saturday I spent a good portion of my day installing this BBK by myself in my garage. As a little background, I decided to purchase this kit because of the awesome value it presented for the quality of parts it contained. I track my car about 2-3 times a year so I definitely wanted something better than the stock brakes that could handle the heat from the repeated hard stopping that is incurred during track sessions. But at the same time I didn't want to break (pun intended) the bank doing so since I'm not a hardcore racer. If money was no object I would have purchased the Stoptech 13" Front BBK or an AP Racing Kit, but since it is I thought I would give this kit a try. I'm not saying this kit is or isn't as good as the more expensive kits, just that it really is an excellent value for such quality parts. On the website it lists the 6-pot front kit for $1,395 but I opted to go with the 4-pot kit, which is not listed on the site, for an amazing $1,069! Just as a comparison the Stoptech 13" Front BBK retails for $1,995 and the RacingBrake OE Caliper Front BBK is $999 which obviously doesn't even come with an upgraded aftermarket caliper.

When I first called Dave to put in my order the customer service was excellent to say the least. Instead of just taking my order and hanging up after he was finished, he spent his time with me on the phone for another ten minutes giving me helpful hints for my install as well as just talking about cars in general. Definitely a nice guy and you can definitely tell he has been in the Z performance market for a long time. He was very helpful and wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing since I was going to do a self install. And when I did run into a little trouble and called him on a Sat night he reminded me not to call after normal business hours but graciously still accepted my call and tried to help me out with my problem. He definitely stands behinds his products and backs it up with great customer service. I don't want to sound like I'm swinging on the nuts of ArizonaZCar, but I couldn't be more happy right now with the product and customer service. After about 100 miles of street driving I can say the kit definitely gives a firmer, nicer pedal feel and brake modulation is much improved over stock. The pads provided are the Wilwwood BP-10 smart pads which are described as the double duty street/light track pad with minimal dust and noise. So far no noise and I'll have to see about the dust after more driving. And with the thick 35mm rotors it should perform nicely on the track and stand up to the heat abuse I'll be throwing at it at soon. My confidence in my braking system has dramatically risen but the real test will be at my upcoming HPDE at Reno-Fernly in a few weeks. Enough of my blabbering and onto the facts and pictures.


http://www.arizonazcar.com/350zbrakes.html


Contents of Kit:

Wilwood Forged Billet Superlite Calipers, 4 x 44.5 mm pistons
Wilwood GT Series Rotors, 332 mm x 35 mm
Wilwood BP-10 Smart Pads
Wilwood Stainless Steel Brake Lines
AZ Z Car custom rotor hats, brackets, and nuts/bolts


Total weight of AZ Z Car Kit - ~47 lbs.
Total weight of '04 OEM Brakes - ~57 lbs.

The claim on the AZ Z car website that this kit saves ~10 lbs. seems to be true. My numbers are estimates as well since I was using a bathroom scale. But saving ~10 lbs. of unsprung weight is always a good thing.


Kit Contents



Stock rotor vs Wilwood rotor


Look how thick the Wilwood pad is


Stock Brakes


Stock Caliper and Rotor removed


Hub and Dustshield removed


Hub and Dustshield


Caliper Bracket Installed


Rotor Installed


Caliper Installed (I had to use 3 extra shim washers that were provided on each side to center the caliper)


With the thick 35 mm rotor the pads just barely fit


Everything on


My 17x8 +43 wheel just barely clears the caliper with 2-3 mm to spare

 

Excellent info/pics. Thanks for posting. I'm considering this route when it comes time to replace the pads on my car (approx. Jul/Aug). Dave's kit does seem to be a great deal. Loved reading the faq page, LOL!!

I guess the braided lines don't come with the 4-piston kit?

Please keep this thread updated with info on dust/noise/feel over the next couple of weeks.

How long did it take for the install?

 

Nice write up.

Braided lines does come with the fastbrake.com kit.

Saving 10lbs off unsprung weight is a lot, I could feel mine
front end less bumpy after wilwood BBK. The weight saving
is one of the great advantages of wilwood BBK.

 

did you need a spacer to fit these bad boys in the wheels? What are the wheels you are using? Offset and size?

 

Install took me about 8 hours by myself with a lunch break, taking pics, taking weights, and a long time wasted when I had problems doing the brake line install which was of my own fault.

 

Thanks for all the pics and review!!

 

He did not use a aspacer, you can see the rotor hat through the holes.

 

nice...

 

dklau33,

What are you doing for a spare tire? Do you have a coupe or sedan? It looks like I need a set of wheels like yours! Who makes your wheels that fit? I need!

 

cato: if I were to get a flat in the front I would just throw the spare on the back and move the back wheel up to the front. More than one flat and then I'm screwed but that's regardless of the brake kit anyway... lol

My wheels are 5Zigen FN01R-C. Cost $200 each from Discount Tire Direct. Only weighs 17 lbs per wheel which is lighter than the OEM sedan wheels by about 4 or 5 lbs.

Silver Wheel
Flat Black Wheel
Gloss Black Wheel

Only the 4-pot caliper will fit the wheel in my size. The 6-pot caliper won't. If you order these same wheels I'd suggest you get 17x8 +35 offset which are the ones I've linked above. Those will definitely clear the 6 or 4 pot caliper.

 

Great information! Thanks for sharing it. Will runflats fit on those wheels. It seems to me that if the spare won't fit the BBK, then the tires should be run flats?

 

I don't see any reasons why runflats wouldn't fit. Just depends on if the manufacturers make them in the proper tire size for the wheel. I'd suggest sticking with your current size of 235/50/17 or 245/45/17. I know the 245/45 size has some choices for runflats.

If you're worried about flats then either have a can or two of the fix-a-flat stuff or get a wheel that will fit over the bbk as your spare. That's what I'm planning on doing when I decide to upgrade my rears to the RacingBrake OE Caliper Rear kit. Are you planning on getting a 4 corner kit?

 

Where in the Bay Area are you? If you don't mind, I'd love to take a look at this kit in person.

Also, I don't know if this was discussed before or not, but what is the detriment (if any) to running only a front BBK? Is there a severe change in braking bias?

 

I'm located in Fremont. I'd be happy to show you the kit if you're around the area. Maybe I can make it to one of the next meets or something. Haven't been to one in a long time.

As for the brake bias question that is a good point. Myself not being any sort of physics major or engineer I had to totally rely on what I could find through the internet. So I stumbled upon this brake bias calculator located here.

I can only take the results of this calculator with a grain of salt though so I don't know how accurate it really is or if it accounts for all the different variables and factors. Anyways with that said I calculated the following static bias with this calculator.

Stock '03/'04 Non-Brembo Brakes: 62% F 38% R

AZ Z Car 4-Pot Front w/ Stock Rear: 69% F 31% R

Stoptech ST-40 13" Front w/ Stock Rear 64% F 36% R

Assuming the numbers are even somewhat accurate it would seem that I have thrown more front bias on my car. If it proves to be a problem in the real world I plan on upgrading my rear to a RacingBrake OE Caliper rear BBK. The larger 13" rotor in the rear will bring that bias value back down to 64% F 36% R. Or I could jsut simply throw a higher friction race pad in the rear but that would not be the correct move not to mention noise and wear issues. It's times like these that made me wish I was a physics major and could figure out this stuff.

 

Nice pics and great info!

Any special tools needed for a garage install?