What are the best brakes for a 2008 GT?

[Schnelly]

What is the best stop for the buck? Looking at Slotted and Drilled brakes. Lots of options. Whats the best for the cost ?

Thanks !

 

[Red_LX]

Factory with good pads. Slotted and drilled rotors do essentially nothing except look cool, and drilled ones tend to crack.

Factory Brembo upgrade is an option but requires either factory 19" wheels, or possibly aftermarket 18" wheels with the right offset to clear them.

 

[Schnelly]

Slotted and drilled allow the pads to cool and provide greater grip. Now I’m all freaked out about the cracking though. Looking into that now.

 

[Red_LX]

That's actually a myth. https://www.good-guys.com/hotnews/truth-drilledslotted-brake-rotors/

 

[edw794]

Now I feel sort of like I wasted money on slotted and drilled rotors for my brembo equipped 13 gt over a year ago. Does this opinion also include high temp fluid and ss brake lines on a strictly street car?

 

[Red_LX]

Stainless lines are always a good upgrade because they reduce line expansion under braking. High temp fluid is probably overkill but fine too.

 

[Norm Peterson]

Slotted and drilled allow the pads to cool and provide greater grip. Now I’m all freaked out about the cracking though. Looking into that now.

Slotted and/or drilled aren't going to do much as far as cooling is concerned - there just isn't going to be enough mass airflow through the holes/slots.

Slotted can scrape off the stray bits of grit that can score a rotor and make noise, which is a mild positive for the street. If drilled has anything going for it at all, it might have to be in braking under conditions of really heavy rain and road "ponding" where they might be providing a few more exits for water clinging to the surfaces of the rotor.

Most street braking isn't going to be hard enough to cause rotor cracking - I say "most" because there probably are a few - really hard driving in the mountains and using the car for a big early-morning newspaper delivery route come to mind. Not that plain rotors are immune to heat-checking (fine cracks that you can't catch a fingernail in) or even cracking in track duty, because checking is all but guaranteed and cracking does occasionally happen. They're just more resistant to cracking than the heat input from any street braking can generate.


But as a guy who does get out on the track from time to time, the idea of a mod like drilled, whose appearance suggests it's a high performance mod while actually being a high-performance downgrade, leaves me scratching my head.


Norm

 

[Norm Peterson]

It would be hard to go wrong with Ford's 14" Brembo brakes as used on the 2008-ish GT500. Lots of pads to choose from, all the way from street to hard-core race. I happen to like either G-loc's or Carbotech's lineup of pads (very similar compounds).


Norm

 

[Schnelly]

Great info thanks!!!