^^^ :agreed:

 

Sure, but those rims are much cheaper and easier to retrofit.

Stock Brembos are much better than the pre-05 non-Brembos from my experience. It is much easier to modulate brake pressure on the Brembo as well as better fade resistance. The 05 are bigger than 04 but it still only has 2 pistons front and 1 piston rear. For normal AutoX and light track days the Brembos are perfect. For those hardcore track maniacs, upgrading brake lines, brake fluid, pad and rotors will do wonders to brake performance. (or so I was told) The stock Brembo calipers and rotor size are more than up to the task.

 

the OEM brembos arent that much better.
I'll be upgrading the brake system in the future to Stoptech or Project Mu.

 

Do larger rotors and calipers equate to greater stopping power? Thanks.

 

I wouldn't. Nice pretty wheels that let you see nice fugly brakes! Yuk!

 

It depends on what you mean by "greater stopping power." Larger rotors and calipers equate to better thermal handling and fade resistance, but they do NOT reduce stopping distances, at least over the first few hard stops. On a track, where you're doing repeated hard braking, they help because you won't experience fade on that fourth or fifth hard braking application (fade lengthens stopping distances), but on the street you will see no real benefit unless your commute includes lots of canyon carving with elevation changes. You car already has the capability from the factory to lock the tires up under braking. Applying more force after lockup only gets your leg sorer, but it doesn't slow the car any faster. If you really want to increase stopping power, you get stickier tires. They will result in shorter braking distances sooner than a big rotor/caliper combo will.

See these excellent articles on braking systems and the myth of bigger is better:
http://www.scirocco.org/faq/brakes/p...n/pfpage1.html

"You can take this one to the bank. Regardless of your huge rotor diameter, brake pedal ratio, magic brake pad material, or number of pistons in your calipers, your maximum deceleration is limited every time by the tire to road interface. That is the point of this whole article. Your brakes do not stop your car. Your tires stop the car. So while changes to different parts of the brake system may affect certain characteristics or traits of the system's behavior, using stickier tires is ultimately the only sure-fire method of decreasing stopping distances."



http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/...erformance.htm

"The most dramatic front-bias impacts are usually brought about by “big brake kits” which are not properly matched to the intended vehicle. Any time that a bigger front rotor is installed, there is a simultaneous need to decrease the effective clamping force of the caliper (installing smaller pistons is the easiest method) to offset the increased torque created by larger rotor effective radius. The objective is to maintain a constant amount of brake corner output (torque) for a given brake line pressure as Figure 6 illustrates. Unfortunately, too many upgrades do not take this factor into account, and those poor cars end up with both bigger rotors and larger pistons which serve to drastically shift the bias even more forward. While rock-solid stable under braking, stopping distances will go up dramatically."

 

G35fromPA summed it pretty well. The thing that is ultimately stopping your car is the tires. Stickier tires will equate to shorter stopping distances. The stock brakes already stop the car very well in a short distance. Big brake kits are bought not to stop the car in shorter distances, but to be able to maintain the same stopping distance capability (no fade) during repeated hard braking. Basically the bigger '05 brakes will be able to resist fade better than the '03 and '04 non-Brembos just in the fact that more material in the rotors means more thermal capacity and more surface area to expell the heat.

 

if your talking about upsetting the brake bias with larger brakes. you DO want the front to have more. thats the way every car in the world is made. so the front lock up first. because if they didnt the rear would and if u ever were making a turn and slam the brakes. and the rear lock up your going to spin. and just about anyhting u do will not stop it. u want the front to lock up first so when they do during hard braking the front with slide in a straight line. and be able to to control the car once u let off enough to gain traction again.
even in a staight line if u lock the rear its very hard to control once it starts coming around. these big brake kits just reduce fade after many times of hard braking like on the track. if u did upgrade your brakes u probably didnt change much maybe just intial braking. and reduced brake fade to really feel a difference u would need the stickier tires. your only limited to the traction of your tires. once your able to lock them up. its just as good as the guy next to you that can lock his up too.

 

Nobody's talking about adding REAR bias. What I'm talking about is maintaining the stock bias. Slapping on bigger rotors and calipers that are improperly sized up front will put too much bias up front, which will basically turn the rears into a pretty ornament for the rear suspension (i.e. the rear brakes are just along for the ride). You still need the rears working to get maximum decel rate. Take a look at the Stoptech article. When they just upgraded the front brakes with a larger system that increased front brake bias, stopping distances went up. When they went with a larger system that maintained OEM bias, stopping distances were preserved or reduced very slightly. But what they got was more consistency stop to stop (due to fade resistance).

 

Here's a good question. How does Stoptech maintain proper bias with the front only big brake kits? Let's assume the car is stock and nothing has changed except for the front kit. Below are the factors in the article that outline what increases front and rear bias.

So if you were to get a front only kit then you have increased front rotor diameter and have more weight on the front axle for sure. One increases front bias and the other increases rear bias. Do those two kind of cancel each other out? And what about the piston diameters? I know Stoptech fronts are 4 piston calipers. So you have more pistons than the OEM calipers, but the 4 pistons are smaller in diameter. So does the addition of more, smaller diameter pistons in the front increase rear bias? And I'm sure the standard Axxis brake pads that come with the kit also plays a role too. Don't mean to ramble on, just curious on how it works.

Factors that will increase front bias
Increased front rotor diameter
Increased front brake pad coefficient of friction
Increased front caliper piston diameter(s)
Decreased rear rotor diameter
Decreased rear brake pad coefficient of friction
Decreased rear caliper piston diameter(s)
Lower center of gravity
More weight on rear axle
Less weight on front axle
Less sticky tires (lower deceleration limit)

Factors that will increase rear bias
Increased rear rotor diameter
Increased rear brake pad coefficient of friction
Increased rear caliper piston diameter(s)
Decreased front rotor diameter
Decreased front brake pad coefficient of friction
Decreased front caliper piston diameter(s)
Higher center of gravity
Less weight on rear axle
More weight on front axle
More sticky tires (higher deceleration limit)

 

I can't say, exactly, which is why testing plays the biggest role in determining the right sizing, coefficients of friction, etc. to maintain the OEM bias. I don't think all of the other manufacturers have done as much testing as these guys have. (I don't work for them, by the way , nor do I have any financial interest at stake, but they seem to be the most informed & well-researched braking company I have seen, and have heard many good things about their kits from the Z32 community.)

 

I doubt the OEM wheels are 20 lbs. I seen one guy that actually weighed them and they came out to 25 lbs, which is the same as the OEM 18s, so its a wash.

 

Is it me or do the new '05 19" rims remind you of the Scion TC's rims, only bigger?

 

And, actually, since the weight is further out from the center, the 19's have higher rotational mass, which means slower acceleration and braking. Now, whether it's really noticeable to most drivers is questionable, but from a pure physics perspective, equal weight farther from the the centerline equals more inertia to overcome.

 

I totally agree. I learned so much just reading their articles in the Technical section. If and when my driving skills improve to the point where my stock brakes are not up to par out on the course, I will definitely be going with Stoptechs for sure.