Brembos kick butt, cooling ducts suck!

jlisle01

jlisle01

New Member
Dec 29, 2004
250
1
0
McAlester,OK
#1
Some of you may remember my post about burning up my stock calipers at the road course in April. I replaced the front brakes with a 4 piston, 14" rotor Brembo setup.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/jlisle01/AfterBrakes001.jpg

The install was easy, very high quality parts and kit. I also ordered and installed (or tried anyway, more on that later) a brake cooling duct kit from Steeda. Also in the mix was a brake temperature paint kit to get an idea of what kind of pads I was going to have to run. I got the stuff installed Saturday and went out to the track Sunday for "testing". The brembo's kick butt. Way better pedal feel and absolutely no fade at all. The temp's never cracked 750 degrees and the pedal stayed as hard as I did all the way through the sessions. There was a couple of guys out there in an '04 ZO6 and the last session one of them rode with me. He was kind of surprised with the brake power and said I had way more brakes than the vette. All in all, I am very happy with the Brembo's.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/jlisle01/TrackDayApril014.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/jlisle01/TrackDayApril006.jpg

The cooling ducts are another story though. I went with the Steeda kit because, to tell the truth, after the Brembo's and the new wheels (to clear the Brembo's) I just flat didn't have the money for the $400 cooling ducts and new lower grill from Agent 47 that I wanted. Steeda said their kit was made for their own front fascia but that it would fit the stock fascia. I have pretty much a whole Steeda front suspension on the car and I've never had a bad experience with their stuff so I opted to go cheap. MY BAD. It took me about two hours with a dremel tool to cut the openings for the billet ducts only to find out that there are hard fluid lines (AC or trany cooler, I was too irritated to care which) straight behind the lower grill openings that got in the way of the hose routing. The hose Steeda supplied was cheap plastic stuff that's not very flexible and I spent the last two hours of Saturday daylight trying to route the hoses. I eventually got the drivers side kind of half on and just flat gave up on the passenger side completely. I'm going to end up ordering some 3" silicon hose from Pegasus Racing that I hope will be more flexible. I do like the billet aluminum ducts in the grill and it's a good thing, because the ducts are the only part of the kit I'm going to end up using.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/jlisle01/AfterBrakes002.jpg

In conclusion: Brembo's....:nice: , Steeda Ducts....:notnice: Brakes that don't catch on fire....priceless
 
#4
Well, yes and no. An 18" wheel will clear but the spokes on my Konig Beyonds would'nt so I ended up ordering new wheels. Brembo has a template that you can order to check your wheels or you can call the Tire Rack or whoever you ordered your wheels from and ask if your wheels will fit a Shelby. If they fit a GT500 you're OK. Except for the piston sizes the calipers are the same. As a matter of fact, unless you're dead set on the Brembo rotors and/or a colored caliper you can get pretty much the same setup from GEF racing for around a grand.
 
#5
i have to ask what kind of events are you running? HPDE? i just started autocross and may or may not try HPDE [insurance is the biggest reason why not]. glad you had success with your brakes finally! i've been tracking your threads to see what you eventually came up with. Are you happy with your tires? Sorry, trying not to hijack your thread but just excited to see somebody actually races something other than in a straight line with these cars!!!!!
 
#6
I'll have to check out the template from brembo, good idea.
When I bought my car I worked in the deal to be able to get parts
from the ford racing catalog at cost as long as I own the car.
The brembo calipers and rotors will cost me $730 with tax.
Im hopeing they fit my wheels. That's cheep!
 
#7
northy_polk said:
i have to ask what kind of events are you running? HPDE? i just started autocross and may or may not try HPDE [insurance is the biggest reason why not]. glad you had success with your brakes finally! i've been tracking your threads to see what you eventually came up with. Are you happy with your tires? Sorry, trying not to hijack your thread but just excited to see somebody actually races something other than in a straight line with these cars!!!!!
Click to expand...

I love my G-Force KDW's. They have good grip rain or shine, wear good, run quiet, and have lasted alot longer than I thought they would. At first the track seemed to really be tearing them up. On my first track day, I'd come in and check the tires and the tread looked like someone had heated it with a blow torch and then given 'em a good rubdown with a cheese grater. I think when they were new the tread blocks were tall enough to squirm around a little under cornering. Once they wore down some they quit doing that. I'm thinking of trying the G force KD's next time.

Oh, and yes, I'm running HPDE at Hallet Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma. !.8 miles, 10 turns, 70 feet of elevation
change, technically difficult, Hardness factor = Viagra x Infinity and beyond
 
#8
KDs are a MUCH better tire for the track. KDWs are NOT a track tire. They do good for drifting and even some mild drag racing, but are damn near dangerous on a aggressive road course.
 
#9
I'm sure they're not as good as KDs, but dangerous? Tell that to the C5's who can't keep up with me. They're a great multi use tire. Sure, they're not a track tire, but they do fine at the track for a street tire and if it rains on the way home I don't have to park the car and bum a ride. If I had two sets of wheels and the desire to pull a track trailer behind the stang I'd skip the KD's and go with a set of NT01's for track use. Untill then, the KDW's are a good comprimise.
 
#10
NT01s are also better but now we're getting in to more track duty tires. Hell go with slicks, heh.

The reason I say the KDWs are dangerous is because they are extremely unstable in high speed cornering. They also cause the rear end to get loose from high speed braking. (120mph+ down to 45mph)

A driver would find themselves having to fight a lot less going hot in to a turn using KDs over the KDWs. KDW (King of Wet) it's an all weather tire, not a track tire let alone a dry pavement performance tire.

KDs are really not that scary in the rain if you drive with care. But yes, ideally two sets of wheels and tires for track time fun.
 
#11
Or you can be like me and get scuffed Toyo RA-1's from a World Challenge team :D

I don't like the Agent 47 kit. Those elbows they supply are restrictive. It's also ridiculously overpriced.
 
#13
Hey, who hijacked my brake thread and turned into a tire discussion? Bad Northy Polk, Bad, Bad! I'm really not sure what you're talking about with the whole unstable in high speed corners thing. Are you turning 130 in the corners or something? I know the KD is more optimised for dry cornering but my brain is having a hard time wrapping around this concept. Do the KDW sidewalls degrade at higher speeds? I take turn one at Hallet at about 90MPH and I have never experienced a high speed stability problem. Maybe you need more aerodynamic down force. Grip is grip, and I'm pulling G's in the unbanked turns at Hallet in the teens. You don't get a Mustang to pull 1.14 or 1.15 G's in a flat turn without some kind of grip. Every step up in tire is a compromise. NT01's are not as good as slicks, KD's are not as good as NT01's, but in tires everything is a compromise. I will probably make a deeper compromise next time and go with the KD's but I would recommend the KDW's to anyone looking for a tire for their occasionally tracked daily driver. Maybe we're not talking about the same tire. The KDW comes in two tread patterns, the "new" tread and the "traditional" tread. I run a traditional tread KDW, not the funky looking "new" tread.
 
#14
Rodeoflyer said:
Or you can be like me and get scuffed Toyo RA-1's from a World Challenge team :D

I don't like the Agent 47 kit. Those elbows they supply are restrictive. It's also ridiculously overpriced.
Click to expand...

I would suspect that those restrictive bends in the elbows are there to clear the same obstructions that I had a problem with. I agree on the price, but having been under the car trying to plumb it all up, the Agent 47 kit looks better engineered to me.
 
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