Cadillac ATS Brembo calipers

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I will never understand putting really big brakes on a fox body that doesn't have ABS.

The calipers are designed for heavy cars with ABS, so that in a panic situation the driver can mash the pedal as hard as they want and the car won't lock the wheels up (with ABS). Put them on a fox, in a panic you'll have all 4 locked up and be sliding across the road into the ditch with very little pedal effort. But they look cool, or they would look cool if they didn't say cadillac or corvette on them.

Then the cost. $350 for a pair of calipers isn't cheap. Junkyard? Ain't seen a vette or caddy with Brembo's in a junkyard--ever. And I not only frequent the local yards within 100 mi from the house, I used to work at one. Maybe y'alls junkyards are different. Cobra/mach stuff is a lot cheaper and works just fine. GT/V6 stuff works great, just smaller. Less likely to lock them up too but they'll still do it if asked.
 
I will never understand putting really big brakes on a fox body that doesn't have ABS.

The calipers are designed for heavy cars with ABS, so that in a panic situation the driver can mash the pedal as hard as they want and the car won't lock the wheels up (with ABS). Put them on a fox, in a panic you'll have all 4 locked up and be sliding across the road into the ditch with very little pedal effort. But they look cool, or they would look cool if they didn't say cadillac or corvette on them.

Then the cost. $350 for a pair of calipers isn't cheap. Junkyard? Ain't seen a vette or caddy with Brembo's in a junkyard--ever. And I not only frequent the local yards within 100 mi from the house, I used to work at one. Maybe y'alls junkyards are different. Cobra/mach stuff is a lot cheaper and works just fine. GT/V6 stuff works great, just smaller. Less likely to lock them up too but they'll still do it if asked.
You are not wrong but I drive my junk, in 90% of situations I know what to expect from my car, the other 10% you are just along for the ride.
I believe in car control, I don't want or need abs, but I understand why it is there.
As for big brakes, I'm all for it, you just gotta learn to drive with them.
Again, you are correct about using big brakes, but again, you gotta learn how to drive it.
 
So, I finally got around to test fitting a '11-'14 GT non-Brembo rotor

In hand, comparing to a cobra rotor, the '11GT rotor was 1.2" thick, where the cobra rotor was 1.1" thick. It was also a tiny bit larger in OD at 13.2". The hub area was identical to the Cobra rotor. It slipped onto the Sn95 hub without any issue and was correctly sized.

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The main issue with the rotor is the hat depth. It's deeper than the cobra rotor. Without any sort of spacer between the hub and rotor, I couldn't bolt the caliper up. There was no room. So a spacer is required to run this rotor. My calipers were machined 0.075" so I can run the inserts I made without any rotor spacer at all and the rotor would be pretty centered. However, did have a 0.075" spacer I made that I had to throw onto the hub in order to mount the setup up.

(ignore the crusty pads, i'll get new ones when i'm ready to drive the car)

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It's hard to get a sense of perspective from this pic, but what i'm trying to show you is the pads are fully seated on the rotor face. There is no overhang at all. There is still plenty of room on the OD for the rotor. On the ID of the pad's radius, the pad is also fully seated on the rotor face. Pretty much 99% of the rotor face is being contacted by the pad.

Now, offset wise, this is where things are not quite there yet. I'm using a 0.075" spacer, and my calipers were machined 0.075". That means it would be the equivalent of a 0.150" spacer for those with unmachined calipers. As you can see, not quite there yet.


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Left side of pic would be the inner surface of the caliper towards the engine bay, right side is towards the wheel. As you can see, i'm very lightly contacting the inside of the caliper. I can't turn the rotor without dragging. That means in order to run this rotor, I need to add a little bit more thickness to the spacer under the rotor. I'm estimating that 0.025" would do the trick, but i'll need to confirm that.

If that number is right, that means you would need a 0.175" (4.5mm) spacer under the rotor to center up the caliper on the rotor. I think i'll try laser cutting up a spacer in the next few weeks and confirm this.

However, two things make me hesitate in going this route. #1, is the safety aspect of a 0.175" spacer under the rotor. I'm not questioning the use of a spacer, but at what point is a spacer too large to fit under the rotor? I would imagine one would want to upgrade your lugs in this case. And #2, is wheel fitment as you are now pushing the wheel out an additional 4.5mm. In my case, where I machined my calipers 0.075", I only need a 0.100" (2.5mm" spacer.

I'll update again when I can cut up some 0.175" spacers on the laser cutter I have at work.
 
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Nice threads!! I bought all my parts for the mod;
- ATS caliper
- Cobra rotors
- insert kit from S&S Engineering
- ATS pads
- ss brake lines ??? Wich one i need?
Got a 2003 convert gt
It is the good brake pads?

Thx guys and nice good work on that thread by the way!!
 
Any updates on this?

I abandoned the project. I wasn’t happy with the way it fit and it didn’t clear my wheel of choice.

The 11-14 13.2 rotor needs a 3mm spacer to fit. Problem is I couldn’t find one that sat flush on the hub. The hubs have an additional step where the rotor sits. I couldn’t locate an off-the-shelf slip on spacer.

final nail in the coffin was that my wheel of choice wouldn’t fit without enough spacers to push it past the fender lip. So I abandoned it.

the calipers are nice paperweights now. I went back to my PBR 2-piston calipers
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They looked badass in person. I just wasn’t thrilled with the overall fit and concessions I had to make.

I’m going to buy a set of Baer T4 calipers. I haven’t decided if I’ll sell these.