Best Street Brakes without breaking the Bank

[tmoneyballin]

I think people are just pointing out that the Cobra brakes are the best bang for the buck - implied getting them is "hey by the way, you need larger rims" which if you are upgrading your brakes you probably have the capacity to drop a couple hundred bucks on some new or used 17" or larger rims....

When I do mods to my car I do them in stages: example: replaced stock shocks/struts and then said why not put in aftermarket caster camber plates while I am in that area messing around - true I didn't NEED them - but cosmetically and logically it was a sound investment - why would I put one of the best shock/strut combinations on my car and not replace the weakest link - it's like putting $20,000 rims on your old beater car that doesn't have a working engine....

So in this case his girlfriend might want to save an extra paycheck and wait and get the new brakes AND a new set of rims - and usually the rims are a good investment - aka you have stock rims with bald tires and you buy a take off set from someone else that not only are larger, sexier, etc but they have GOOD rubber on them and typically cost about the same as what a new set of tires was going to set you back - my brother's girlfriend has a v6 mustang and she went out and bought new tires on her stock rims - I was thinking to myself why wouldn't you buy a set of cobra r's with tires for a 100 bucks more??? Hell I have a set in my basement with perfect rubber...

 

[01BlkGT]

Thing is though, that's not the question that was asked. You don't know their financial situation so getting wheels/tires may not be an option. Maybe she already has new(ish) tires on the car and doesn't want to go through the hassle of selling them off to offset the cost of the wheels. Your talking about spending $1000+ for upgrading both as opposed to maybe $250-300 (tons of 99+ calipers being sold for $150-175) and pads. In terms of actual stopping power, (all things being equal) the Cobra set-up does not by you much of an advantage in if anything. Their advantage is in the 13" rotor being able to absorb more heat thus resisting fade.

 

[tmoneyballin]

I hear ya 01blkgt point taken- I was just saying "IF" anyone were to do this conversion and they had stock rims with fairly bald tires why not pick up a set of cobra r's with decent tires for 500 bucks to go along with the brake upgrade - I can't argue with the budget - you either have the money to spend on your car or you don't....Point being don't waste your money putting new tires on stock rims IF you can get a good deal on some 17" rims WITH tires - because you can always turn around and part out your old rims and get money back. I do it all the time. Just a consumer tip...

 

[Will Smith]

what i have is this and they are very nice, low dust low noise.

If you go to tirerack.com and looka the pads and rotors they have.

what i have and love are the Brembo OEM size rotors with slots. along with the Gransport GS6 Pads. The pads are carbon ceramic which means very good heat fade resistance. low dust and low noise. These are by far better than any hawk pad i have tried for the street/strip. The rotors are made of a little better metal than the Standard rotors so the wear will be even and provide better resistance to heat stress/fractures. They also have a rust resistant Coating on them so wear ever the pads don't touch will stay nice and clean looking.. If I remember it cost me about 600 bucks and unless I am pushing 500+ hp I am not going to get wilwood's.

 

[Will Smith]

here are the links for your particular application.

Pads
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brak...tang+GT&autoYear=1997&autoModClar=&perfCode=S

Rotors
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brak...tang+GT&autoYear=1997&autoModClar=&perfCode=S

 

[Gearbanger 101]

You're forgetting one major difference between new brakes and new wheels. The brakes are functional.....a safety item if you will. Upgrading to rims in this case would be purely for asthetic reasons. True, going to 17" wheels, tires and 13" brakes would be of some improvement, but not a whole lot when you consider you're still going with 2-pison calipers and now having to slow down the additional rotational mass of larger wheels and tires. From a cost vs improvement stand point, the PBR dual piston calipers are a much better idea.

Your priorities are different than hers and you're basically choosing rims as a focal point, simply because you don't like the stock 16" rims. She on the other hand seems fine with her 16" rims, so spending money on rims, tires and brakes is an unecessary expense.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Rotors
http://www.tirerack.com/brakes/brak...tang+GT&autoYear=1997&autoModClar=&perfCode=S

I wished I would have bought a set of zinc coated rotors like that when I did my brake swap. I cheaped out and bought the standard for rotors, then cross drilled them myself. I don't imagine there's going to be a large difference as far as performance is concerned, but the zinc coated rotors are worth it for their ability to resist rust alone. Not to mention sloted rotors are less prone to cracking.