Brakes Brembo Cadillac ATS 4 Piston Calipers

Swhitney

Active Member
Feb 11, 2019
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Oregon City
My current setup already has the 5-lug swap with 94-95 spindles up front, 13" rotors with the 2 piston calipers, 18" FR500 wheels.

Question:

Has anyone on here done the Brembo swap and found the stopping performance made any difference?
Are these 4 piston calipers too aggressive for a non ABS car?

I am more of a weekend warrior when it comes to track time and or back road aggressive driving, so I would say they are more for look then performance, but still am looking for a little bump in stopping power.

I purchased the install kit from S&S Engineering the brake lines, calipers, pads from Amazon.

Photo Jan 15, 2 56 38 PM.jpg
 
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I did the XTS Brembos and 14" rotors. I didn't have a Cobra setup before to compare preformance. I have no complaints, they work great.

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What do you have for rear rotors?
 
important question to ask here is what do you have for brakes out back?

ATS brembos with rear drums would be heavily Front biased and may even be dangerous. I would recommend a standard SN95 cobra rear disk conversion with 43mm Taurus calipers with the ATS brembos if you go that route.
 
important question to ask here is what do you have for brakes out back?

ATS brembos with rear drums would be heavily Front biased and may even be dangerous. I would recommend a standard SN95 cobra rear disk conversion with 43mm Taurus calipers with the ATS brembos if you go that route.

I am running the cobra disk brakes for the rears, and I believe the rotors are 11.65".
 
They definitely look better. The issue with Fox brake setups is that you are often limited more by tires, than actual braking performance and the cobra setup is more than adequate for most street cars.

But I get that they look better. I’ve worked with a few guys on brake bias calcs and MC selection and a setup that’s been kinda settled on is the ATS front 13” setup with Taurus 43mm calipers on the sn95 cobra disks and the 94-95 GT 1 1/16” MC. As close to 70/30 as you’ll get and that’s the largest MC you can run

Looks like you have FR500s so they will clear the brakes. Hopefully you have decent wide rubber up front so you don’t lock up easily.
 
I have a 1-1/16 MC and prop valve from a non-ABS 2000 V6, I have a 94/95 booster, the XTS Brembo's and 14" fronts and 11.81" rear rotors with Lincoln LS calipers.

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They definitely look better. The issue with Fox brake setups is that you are often limited more by tires, than actual braking performance and the cobra setup is more than adequate for most street cars.

But I get that they look better. I’ve worked with a few guys on brake bias calcs and MC selection and a setup that’s been kinda settled on is the ATS front 13” setup with Taurus 43mm calipers on the sn95 cobra disks and the 94-95 GT 1 1/16” MC. As close to 70/30 as you’ll get and that’s the largest MC you can run

Looks like you have FR500s so they will clear the brakes. Hopefully you have decent wide rubber up front so you don’t lock up easily.

The Taurus rear calipers are larger then the GT/Cobra calipers?
 
Here's what I found on Amazon:

Rear Caliper
Rear Caliper

I assume these calipers will bolt right up to the 11.65" rear rotor?
Have any suggestions on ceramic pads?
I assume SS brake lines and banjo bolt will still work with these rear calipers?

Calipers are so cheap that it's worth the 100 dollar upgrade, plus it's worth doing it right. Nothing worse then a half as$ job.
 
The Taurus rear calipers are larger then the GT/Cobra calipers?


Yes, they are 43MM pistons vs the GT/Cobra's 38mm pistons. Both are made by VARGA. They are a direct swap so your parking brakes and the pads will work in them. SS brake lines will be the same. The only issue might be banjo bolts but that's because Ford used 10mm and 3/8" in the rear calipers depending on the year, so it will be a 50/50 shot if the banjo bolts on your current calipers will work on them or if you will need to buy new ones.

You definitely will need to upside the MC to the 94-95 GT 1 1/16" MC if you use the 43mm rears. The 1" bore MC will give you a soft pedal with a long stroke and be more sensitive.
 
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You most likely are not going to know the difference.
They will surely look better, just keep in mind a foxbody is like a 3200lb car and a gt500 is about a 4200lb car.
Which in a round about way might be the same point Mike was making, you can have all the braking in the world, but if the tires are your limit, you shouldn't expect much better performance. They just aren't hauling all that much weight to a stop.
With how much effort you have clearly put in that car, IMO instead of using a modified lug mount caliper, you should look for a radial mount setup. Yes it's absolutely going to cost more, but i think it's worth it.
 
You most likely are not going to know the difference.
They will surely look better, just keep in mind a foxbody is like a 3200lb car and a gt500 is about a 4200lb car.
Which in a round about way might be the same point Mike was making, you can have all the braking in the world, but if the tires are your limit, you shouldn't expect much better performance. They just aren't hauling all that much weight to a stop.
With how much effort you have clearly put in that car, IMO instead of using a modified lug mount caliper, you should look for a radial mount setup. Yes it's absolutely going to cost more, but i think it's worth it.

Primarily doing it for the look as I think the cobra calipers look like crap when mounted on a 13" rotor. I think upgrading to the Ford Taurus calipers in the rear will do better then the standard GT calipers.
 
Primarily doing it for the look as I think the cobra calipers look like crap when mounted on a 13" rotor. I think upgrading to the Ford Taurus calipers in the rear will do better then the standard GT calipers.


Don’t swap the rears unless you do the front brakes. Doing so will give you too much rear bias.