More horserpower and torque does not, in and of itself, mean the braking requirements for a street car have increased. A 3,200 lb car needs "X" amount of braking power stopping from 30, 60, and 90 mph regardless of horsepower. With increased power the engineers need to determine if the car will brake more often from higher speeds. In the case of a car designed for the street, the answer is most likely no. Nissan does cover that situation with the Brembo brake option on the track model.

 

z-u-later's getting hit pretty hard on that one !

Considering Nissan offers an brake upgrade package, discussing the trackability of the regular brake is not relevant to them. They work great on the street, even with some spirited driving, so the are fine...

 

Okay, I guess I need to clarify what I stated previously. Here's a quick look on what I was talking about:

'03-'05: 287hp (non-brembo)
'06: 300hp RevUp - larger brake system than previous year's (non-brembo)
'07: 317hp? HR - no brake system upgrade from '06 (non-brembo)

Nissan installed a larger brake system on '06s than previous years. Is this due to more HP with revup engines? If not, why? Did they realize that the Zs need more braking power on the streets? Just my thoughts . . .

 

Probably feed back from customers made them install larger brakes on the bases.

 

The car has plenty of braking power for both the street and track, 60-0 in 115 ft is very respectable. As I try to tell people, the car stops. It just can't get rid of the heat fast enough resulting in fade. Unless you drive like a total moron on the street, you will not overheat these brakes.

As far as the reason for the chamge, I can think of two reasons

#1 Need bigger brakes to make the 18 look less retarded/Marketing thing
#2 More fade resistance.

 

I would be willing to bet that Nissan determined the non-track Gs needed bigger brakes, based on its weight. Parts bin commonality required those same brakes on the 350Z.

 

I had similar issues w/ my first track day on the Z last year...I picked up these pads:
Raybestos R41 (front) and R43 (rear) brake pads

they're a semi-metallic pad, and work wonders for the track (I was also on R-comps)...I've done 3 full events and they're about 20% worn; I only use them for track days, so it's kinda a pain to swap pads ever time, but worth it in the long run. I also went to Motul RBF600 bake fluid...I had been gretting bad brake fade. (I'm also fairly new to track days and know that my driving habits probbably eat my brakes much more)

-Peter

 

20% worn after 3 events, wow, I need to try these things