I can respect you have been a member since 2002, however, in this case you are wrong. I had the base model with stockers for three years. The bite and the feel of the brembo setup is different. And the braking is better. Trust me. I have put a lot of time and effort in the braking of my car.

 

Streetracer, you make a lot of excellent points in this thread, and I agree with all of them. I've only driven a Z without Brembos two times and feel exactly as you say right here, that the brembos have a totally different feel than the stockers, imo. Actually, the Brembos on my Z are the best set of brakes I've ever had, including two Vettes.

 

I was just going off of objective testing StopTech conducted during the development of their bbk for the 350z. They tested both the stock and brembo brake setups alongside their own configurations, and the numbers showed that in terms of absolute stopping distance, the brembo package and the stock setup were pretty much the same. I wasn't making any comment on braking feel or initial bite. As stopping distances have as much to do with the tire grip as they do with the coefficient of friction of the brakes, it makes sense that in stock trim, the stock brakes and Brembos have similar stopping distances.

Things may be different if you stuck much fatter tires with a lot more grip as it may overwhelm the stock brakes while the Brembos may be able to handle them. But as far as I know, no one has done any objective testing in this configuration so there's no way to know.

 

I would agree. The Brembos are a great addition. They only increase stopping distance from 100-0 by like five feet... nothing stupendous. However, they will handle much longer intervals of aggressive braking. I threw in some synthetic brake fluid last year and noticed a much nicer initial bite in the braking as well (I think my stock fluid was going). I have a set a track pads as well (Carbotech) but have not used them yet, hope to get to do that this year.

Upgrade the fluid and the pads on the Brembo's and I think that combo will exceed the need and driving skills of 90% of the members on this board, myself included. However, more power to you if you want the big, shiny BBK's like Stoptech.

 

Well said and very true. It was my bad not to have pointed out that since my brembo swap I upgraded to 255 up front and very light track model rays, which also help stopping. Good point on your part.

 

Army, I would look into lines as well. They add feel to the pedal and a lot of confidence driving hard. Be careful on the carbotechs, we just installed some in a legacy gt and it worsen the braking in the car. Pedal felt hard and firm but did not stop the car. Just my $0.02. Sorry to intrude.

 

Doing some auto cross with some non-brembo z's and my track model, i def. can feel the heat build up on the non-brembo z's and the amount of effort/fade applied from continuous braking. The brembos def. can withstand the continuous braking, and not only do they look super good they give me gunmetal wheels after about 2 weeks.lol

 

Evo owners friends of mine tell me as soon as they wash the car and take a corner the rims are gunmetal. I'm exagerating, but you get the point...