Big brake kit

[kevinatfms]

ok i have been looking at big brake kits for the past couple of months trying to figure out what i wanted. so here is it, just choose what you think is the best and maybe state one or two reasons why it is better than the other two kits. price is not an option cause they are all around the same. here are my choices:

1. FRPP GT500 brake upgrade kit

2. SSBC Force 10-tripower 3 piston kit

3. Baer GT-plus big brake kit w/ 2 piston PBR calipers

the car will be used for auto-x and the occasional HPDE events at summit point and VIR. car is also driven alot to work and around, not exactly daily but 80% of the week will be driven. oh and dont ask about keeping the stock brakes, cooked them the last 4 times out. also car is setup with the frpp/steeda suspension catalog along with steeda pentar 18x9.5's so clearance is not an issue

let me know!!! thanks guys!!!

 

[DusterRT]

GT500...cheap to buy (new take-offs with cosmetic flaws <$600), relatively cheap consumables (I don't think you can get rotors for $90 from Baer/SSBC), effective, wide variety of pads available, and you can get parts at any Ford dealer.

 

[Stangmeister9]

what do you mean by cooked your oem brakes? i have run over a year with the oem calipers and rotors with zero issues in extreme heat. so i see no reason that for an auto-x car to have to make that big investment. did you try a better pad and fluid with ss lines?

sorry, just seems like maybe you haven't looked at all your options yet.

 

[pcdrj]

GT500...cheap to buy (new take-offs with cosmetic flaws <$600), relatively cheap consumables (I don't think you can get rotors for $90 from Baer/SSBC), effective, wide variety of pads available, and you can get parts at any Ford dealer.

+1. I'd also recommend brake ducts.

 

[RedMosesSC]

I had the Brembo GT500's on my GT, i was very happy with them, they give you alot more confidence on the AutoX coarse, youll see good improvements in your time unless you really suck and even still they make great street brakes.

 

[Shotokan1509]

GT500...cheap to buy (new take-offs with cosmetic flaws <$600), relatively cheap consumables (I don't think you can get rotors for $90 from Baer/SSBC), effective, wide variety of pads available, and you can get parts at any Ford dealer.

This exactly, I've seen some good deals on other BBK's but go price out replacement rotors

 

[Flash_of_Yellow]

This exactly, I've seen some good deals on other BBK's but go price out replacement rotors

+1 On the OEM cheap parts. You buy nice aftermarket kit and it's gonna cost you big time when you have to replace parts. If you ever get into more track time, it makes sense to have two sets of rotors and pads, so again lots o' $$$ unless you think it out. And later if you want, you can upgrade the GT500 setup to 2-peice rotors to get a nice improvement.

 

[kevinatfms]

cooked my brakes at the last few 15 min sessions i went to, this is with ebc yellows and gt500 rear pads with SS lines and no backing plates...dont have any ducts though.
ill wait until a few more chime in but i seems for ease of use and parts availability the gt500 brembo setup is the most favored. what is the benefit of the floating caliper over the fixed ones of the baer and the SSBC?

 

[kevinatfms]

anyone know where to get the gt500 kit? my FRPP source tells me they are on backorder at this point.

 

[Vapour Trails]

I struggled with this question and finally decided some upgrades to the stock brakes would be good enough (cooling ducts, pads, fluid).

 

[DusterRT]

cooked my brakes at the last few 15 min sessions i went to, this is with ebc yellows and gt500 rear pads with SS lines and no backing plates...dont have any ducts though.
ill wait until a few more chime in but i seems for ease of use and parts availability the gt500 brembo setup is the most favored. what is the benefit of the floating caliper over the fixed ones of the baer and the SSBC?

IMO, try cooling first and go from there. I was able to fade my Yellows after a couple laps even with GT500 brakes..I added some cooling and they have held up much, much better for a street pad.

Also, the GT500 calipers are fixed...are you sure it's not the SSBC and Baers that use pins? I'm not too familiar with them..

 

[kevinatfms]

the gt500 calipers are fixed but they are considered floating while the PBR calipers and the TRI-force calipers use a mount and move with the mount which in turn compresses the pads to the rotor. so one is mounted directly to the spindle and the other is mounted to a bracket which is mounted to the spindle...

 

[DusterRT]

the gt500 calipers are fixed but they are considered floating

I don't see how that could possibly be..nothing on them moves but the pistons, which meets every definition of fixed caliper that I've ever heard/seen.

 

[Stangmeister9]

imo, try cooling first and go from there. I was able to fade my yellows after a couple laps even with gt500 brakes..i added some cooling and they have held up much, much better for a street pad.

Also, the gt500 calipers are fixed...are you sure it's not the ssbc and baers that use pins? I'm not too familiar with them..

+1 on that cooling aspect,

i run ht10's, ate fluid, ss lines and qms ducts with very good results and all are hp/de's in (like i mentioned) a very hot climate and the replacement pads are much cheaper for the stock set up and the rotors go without saying. Helps with the tire fund that is going to be needed.

 

[kevinatfms]

ok got them backwards? been a long day...anyways i have SS lines, ebc yellow fronts/gt500 rear pads and ate super blue and rotors are new take off's. no cooling at all besides removing the backing plates, which i guess ill look into some ducts.

im going to try and find a set of gt500 calipers and go find some takeoff rotors since it seems i can get the gt500 calipers for cheap with blemishes. only other question i have is will my SS goodridge lines work with the gt500 calipers?

 

[DusterRT]

LOL sorry, kinda sounded like I jumped on you there. Long day here as well.

Brake lines are the same..good to go there.

 

[Sleeper_08]

The GT500 kit comes with SS lines.

+ 1 on GT500 kit + brake cooling ducts - works fine for me and I have the extra weight of the SC to slow down

I'll be running Carbotech HP10/HP8 this year.

 

[Flash_of_Yellow]

only other question i have is will my SS goodridge lines work with the gt500 calipers?

I used my stock GT brake lines with my GT500 calipers... so yes.

And don't buy new calipers. Used are cheap and worth the wait to find them, unless you just like blowing money. If so, go buy the kit. But last I looked it was like $2200. I got my calipers and rotors for $550 shipped on the forum here.

 

[kevinatfms]

well just saw this ad in the classifieds for the baer kit for 550.00 going to see if its the off the shelf kit and if it is i think im going to grab it. but if its a custom kit ill def be looking out for gt500 calipers. im going to grab a set of new rotors once i find the calipers....

 

[DusterRT]

well just saw this ad in the classifieds for the baer kit for 550.00 going to see if its the off the shelf kit and if it is i think im going to grab it. but if its a custom kit ill def be looking out for gt500 calipers. im going to grab a set of new rotors once i find the calipers....

It's an off the shelf kit, but for someone who's going to track their car, I have a couple concerns..

First off, the "slight" grinding done on the calipers appears to have completely removed the ribbing from the top. I feel this could have an adverse effect on the structural integrity of the caliper, and I think under heavy use it could be prone to warping the casting. It may also have a negative effect on heat dissipation. However not having the FEA models and such in front of me I can only offer educated speculation.

Also, those two piece rotors are going to be very expensive to replace (figure in the neighborhood of $250-300 per rotor), and the drilled/slotted rotors are much, much more crack prone than plain or slotted only rotors.