Those of you with Brembos, do you feel the difference in braking?

 

I took my car to the track a few times this summer and both me and my buddy SammyJL (GRedddy twin turbo G) commented how after many hard laps there was no brake fade whatsoever on the Brembos. I know some guys who track their G's have gone to the big Stoptechs, but I'm so far very happy with the performance of the Brembos.

 

The Brembos are great. In normal street driving though, I can't tell much of a difference in stopping power - both the Brembos and non-Brembo equipped G's stop extraordinarily well. Having driven the G35 sedan loaner cars a few times, I can tell the standard G35 brakes feel a little more touchy and grabby than the Brembos do, which are more linear in feel.

I raced my G35C on the track at Willow Springs once, and the brakes performed flawlessly. No fade or anything. Unfortunately, I didn't have a standard brake G35 to compare it to on the track. The only thing I could compare them to was my Z06 brakes, which I've also raced on the same track before. The Z06 brakes are more similar to the standard G35 brakes in that they are two piston front calipers with single piston rear calipers. The Z06 brakes performed flawlessly on the track as well, however the Z06 is considerably lighter than the G, and it has much better brake cooling with brake cooling ducts front and rear. So its not really a comparable setup. Take away the active cooling and add 350 lbs. of weight, and I would imagine fade would be a problem with these brakes versus the Brembos.

2003 G35C, 6MT, DG/G, Aero/Nav/Premium
2002 Corvette Z06, Electron Blue/Black, headers, intake, exhaust, 380 rwhp

 

thanks all. so i guess there really isn't much difference in terms of brake performance with brembos.

 

Difference: YES. Brembos are much more linear, less grabby, havn't experienced any fade whatsoever, better brake feel, easier to modulate and heck I just feel safer with them.


CPV35 G35C Maliblue

 

Brake Fade is usually an issue of rotor mass and pad temperature ratings. According to one website I looked at the Z06 uses 12.5" Rotors. The G35 Brembos are 12.7 IIRC. I'm not sure of the thickness of the Z06 rotor, but I would imagine it would be fairly substantial or at least on par with the G. The G35 rotors are 30 or 32mm thick, I can't remember. The calipers themselves have much less to do with fade as they are not designed with heat absorbtion in mind. In fact in many cases, they are designed to reject heat(Stainless steel pistons). The rotor's mass is what gives it the ability to absorb energy. The more mass it has the more heat it can absorb before reaching a certain temperature. When the rotor reaches too high a temperature the pad material will start to vaporize. When this happens a layer of gas is formed between the rotor and pad which prevents the pad from making contact with the rotor. For a time, you will be able to slow the car down by pressing the brake harder, but if you continue to add more heat to the rotor than can be dissapated, you will eventually get to a point where no matter how hard you press the brake, the car son't really slow down(I know this from personal experiance). Having 4 piston calipers do not really add any mass where it is needed and 2 piston sliding calipers still do a great job of clamping down on the rotors and maintaining even pressure across the pad. The biggest difference will probably be the brake feel being slightly softer in the sliding calipers as they have some give.

So as far as the Z06 brakes are concerned, being a 2 piston sliding caliper is going to have little, if any, effect on fade resistance. Generally, sliding pistons are used because they are cheaper to build. The disadvantage is mainly in the weight of the calipers as sliding calipers need to use a much more rigid material (heavier).

 

I havent driven the auto without the brembos but like everyone else says, they are still good brakes. I wanted the brembos mainly because they way they peek through the rims....nice looking brakes always sets your car apart from the rest. Plus, i like to drive stick..so it was the only option.

2004.5 6MT Coupe Diamond Graphite/Loaded...no mods(yet)

 

People gawk at the brembos.

 

Oem DOT 3 brake fluid is more likely to boil [after 6 months] than the Brembo pads to fade with 900F rotor temperature.

A higher temp wet boiling point fluid changed every 6-12 months will be one of the best brake mods you can make!

"A typical glycol DOT 4 fluid that starts life at 450F dry boiling fresh from the can will degrade to 300F at 12 months by just picking up 3% of its weight in water. By 24 months its likely to be well below 300F at 5% water.
Racing brake fluids with very high dry boiling points, say, above 500F out of the can, tend to degrade more quickly then more mundane fluids. A 400F dry BP DOT 3 fluid will drop to about 325F wet BP with 2% water by weight. A 500F dry BP fluid will also be at 325F wet BP with just 2% water. Racers bleed/flush their brake fluid pretty frequently, at least every race, sometimes between heats, so they're not too concerned with wet boiling point. If you decide to run a high zoot racing fluid in your street car, be prepared to flush it more often to maintain a firm pedal."

If peak caliper temperatures exceeds 240°C [416F] or temperatures of over 200°C [352F] are exceeded for a cumulative period of 1 hour then caliper seals should be replaced.

So if you boil NEW brake fluid you probably need to rebuild the brakes!

 

I've driven over 5 thousand miles on stock 5AT brakes and over 12 thousand miles with Brembos on the same car. There is a difference. Even with just Brembos in the front. The rear Brembos will go on soon.

 

Isn't there also a major difference in brake lifetime between the Brembo's and the stock brakes? I thought that the stock brakes get about 20-25k miles (depending on how hard you use them) and the Brembo's under similar conditions should get between 35-40k miles.... Anyone else agree?

I have the 6MT with the Brembo's and I agree that they are a more linear feeling (not oversensitively grabby) and the stopping power is there when you need it... And yes, the stopping difference (60-0) is only 2ft between both sets of brakes (adv. Brembos)..

Mods:
Aluminum racing pedals
JWT Pop Charger / Z-tube Combo

 

"what is brake fading????"

Brake fade is a term to describe the degradation of bralking performance for a given pedal pressure. Almost always, brake fade will be the result of too much heat. My experience is that pads tend to be the first thing to overheat. However, Q45Tech made some very good points about brake fluid. I change mine quite often and always no more than a week before a track event. On the street, there was little chance of brake fade occuring (considering my last car, a 240sx, was running Z32 brakes), but on the track, maintaining acceptable temps in the pad and brake fluid is quite important.

Ok I got a bit off track here. But brake fade is essentially when you have to press the brake harder to stop as fast. If you want to feel it, take you car up to 70-80 mph then stop as quickly as possible. Repeat this in quick succession. After a few stops, you'll notice you will need to step on the brake pedal harder to get a response. The pedal will still feel firm, but braking will begin to worsen.

If your fluid starts to boil, expect the pedal to sink further as air begins to form in the lines. At this point you might see the pads overheating in conjunction and the situation gets ugly really fast.

 

does anyone know if i can get brembo when i have to get new brakes? is it worth it/