Another project I’ve been looking into is a big brake kit for the 07 sedan. This is another one of the reasons why I still don’t have wheels. After a bit of a wait, I finally got in touch with their Marketing Manager in Compton. I was over at Stop Tech yesterday afternoon and spent a few hours there so they could take some measurements on my car. It also gave me the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures under the car. Here is a link to their website for reference:

http://www.stoptech.com/

After a review of all the measurements, I got the following email today:

“It looks like the rear is easy. The front will be new hats and brackets. We'll get the Committee together and decide what spec to build. My initial thoughts are 14-in. front with ST-40 calipers. In the rear, we should be able to do both 12.9-in. (328x28mm) with ST-22 calipers and 14-in. with ST-40s.

The smaller of the rears is actually one mm smaller diameter than stock, but 12mm thicker and a bunch lighter due to the aluminum drum and small, two-piston fixed caliper. Any preference?”

I replied that ST-40 calipers with 14” rotors in the front sound right since most of the braking power is there and said I would probably go for ST-22 with the 12.9” rotors in the rear for cost savings. I didn’t think it was really cost effective to go with 4 piston calipers and 14” rotors in the rear as well.

His reply was:

“For the rear, we'll probably release both versions, since we have the hats and brackets and it's just a matter of piston sizing. The only thing that would prevent that is if the largest piston we can use in the ST-22 isn't large enough. That's happened before, on a car where I really would have preferred the ST-22.”

So … for those of you looking at a BBK, you shouldn’t have to wait much longer.

Feel free to post comments as I’ll probably forward the link to this thread to Stop Tech. I'm sure they'd like to know what the interest level is.

 

Awesome.

Less unsprung weight helps in many ways!

 

my only concern is that you'll have too many parts for your car......give some to me!!!! im local tooo cmaaaaaaaan!! haha

 

Would these fit under the stock 18" sport rims?

 

I'm eventually going with 20" wheels anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem. For the guys that want to stay stock, the 14" rotor is supposed fit in the 18" wheel. The engineer I was working with had them on his car which has 18" wheels. The problem is the 17" spare! I'm still wondering what folks do in this situation. I guess run-flat tires?

 

Ah ... one can never have too much!

Plus, I don't know if they are gonna write off any hardware to me as part of R&D expenses like Eibach did, so think I may still have to pay for these.

 

that's when you put your complimentary infiniti roadside assistance to use
-GP-

 

I guess that would be another option ... chuck the spare and jack! More weight savings, right?!

 

i'm not sure... are they 4 or 6 piston calipers in front?

i'm waiting to hear from wilwood, brembo, rotora if they'll have kits to fit the sedan soon. i plan on upping to 6 pison fronts, maybe a nicer four piston for the rear.

 

I've called Brembo a while back and they said they only had fronts. Rotora said they had parts (even an 8 piston), but haven't tried them out. Keep in mind I started making my calls back in Feb so things may have changed. And I'm also not sure if other manufacturers knew at the time that the 07 is significantly different the earlier model years.

I know first hand that Stop Tech made measurements on the front and back of my car and will be doing R&D work, so they should have parts specifically engineered for the 07. They haven't told me if they were going to do the full product testing as described on their website though.

 

cool! are they gonna come in colors other than red? like black?

 

Looks lke they have some pretty cool color options:

http://www.stoptech.com/products/BBK/options.shtml

 

good stuff.

too bad about the logo, but that can always be painted over.

not that i'll do this mod anyway but it's cool anyway.

 

Cool terry! Sounds like an awesome mod.

But just out of curiosity...is there something wrong with the stock 'S' brake setup/stopping power that you'd have to stuff in 14in rotors and 6 piston calipers? I don't know the difference in stopping power between the non S and S models but I sure don't find it lacking in any way on mine. The brakes are pretty darn awesome.

 

The ST-40 calipers mentioned are supposed to be 4 pot according to their website. The upcoming G37 coupe is also supposed to come with 4 pot calipers on 14” rotors.

Like you, I actually like the stock brakes on the S and they work just fine (but there’s always room for improvement). I've read that the rotor diameters are different between the Journey and S versions. But I'm not sure what the other differences are.

As for why I’m looking at BBKs? I’ve always looked at mods to make my cars go faster, I figure I’d round out the package by making it stop better as well. It's another performance mod. I don't actually think I'd be fully utilizing the potential off a BBK (unless I cave in and decide to go auto crossing with a co-worker and his Porsche club). But even if I do that, the BBK would put my car into a higher class.

The benefits that I’ve learned about make sense. The lower rotational inertia of lighter components is a big plus, especially if I end up with heavier 3 piece wheels. The lighter components will also help the suspension respond faster. And of course, better heat dissipation to reduce brake fade. Between weight savings and heat dissipation, I expect the weight savings would be the most useful in everyday driving.

I’ve heard stories of people who put on 20” wheels and will swear they actually feel a performance difference (lower acceleration). Of course, I don’t know this first hand yet since I still have stock wheels. Maybe you can add some insight into this since you already have 20” wheels?

Another thing that made me look into this is curiosity … to see how much improvement a BBK will actually make over the stock brakes. Finally … it’s a modification that differentiates one’s car from others. It seems like more manufacturers are offering upgraded brakes.