Flo-ridaZ33

iTrader: (60)

I guess if your happy with them but the Brembo would've been your best bet actually. I've owned both and didn't' see a difference.

midz350

iTrader: (4)

I think I read somewhere in this forum that the Brembo were way better than the Akebono.

Toneloc

I didn't read through the whole thread heres my 2 cents I have the z1 brake upgrade with the drilled and slotted rotors with the hawk track pads.... let me tell you night and day difference from stock... pedal is firm and stiff and takes little effort to slow you down and I have to consciously be careful of hitting them to hard and loose my lunch lol.... I don't know why someone would want to pay 1000"s of dollars for a crazy upgraded caliper unless you were tracking all the time and braking from 150mph... I do spirited back road driving and it suits me very well...any questions let me know o and im on base calipers

I would not recommend track pads unless you like loud squeely noisy people look at you like wtf lol... but the braking makes up for it

Osborn Wu

if you didn't see a difference, why would brembo be the best bet though? they are more expensive usually if you compare a used set to used set. If there isn't really a difference, i don't see brembo is being cost effective at all here.

I'm pretty sure the Z1 kit does something, but i just wasn't sure how it would do compare to the akebono set. if they can hold as much heat capacity as the bbk, then fuq me lol but thanks for the write up anyway, at least now we people can find out how they perform compare to stock

Toneloc

I think before you shell out the cash...do the z1 brake upgrade and see if that suits you first before you thinking you need an upgraded caliper... enjoy

Flo-ridaZ33

iTrader: (60)

Akebono's are larger so fitting wheels behind them was an issue.

The bracket is cheesy at best

Brake pad options on the Brembo's are more plentiful

Akebono's weight more.

I "settled" for a set of Endless 6/4pots. My Z was one of the first get the full Akebono kit back in 2009 from CZP. Akebono's look nice but don't perform like the Brembos do on the Z33. There's a reason the OEM Brembo's are the same price as the Akebono's.

Osborn Wu

well, cash already shelled out 2 weeks ago... and i'd rather do it right the first time instead of spending more later on... also, this set i found was really cheap, so i jumped on it as, following what people said 2 weeks ago, it'd probably be better than the z1 upgrade.

wheel fitting honestly isn't even on my list of concern. i mean i already know the 06+ oem wheels will fit and i have no plan to get new wheels.

i did read some complaints about the weight and pad choices, but for the overall performance itself, many said they were about the same, while a few argue the brembos do better. given the higher price, and all i have read before, i just think brembo is overpriced for what people wanted for them (not "the same" as you mentioned, but more, as of 2 weeks ago). that was why i decided to not include brembos in this discussion at all as i wouldn't be considering them at the first place...

to me the reason brembos cost higher just because it's an oem upgrade and has the name brembos on them, not after market upgrade like the akebono is :/

kilogram

iTrader: (1)

This is true, though it begs the question just how much an average driver can feel. The 370Z rotors add about 75% more rotational inertia per front disc (I haven't bothered to calculate the rears) over the brembo rotors. Pretty much any larger rotor is going to add RI. The issue isn't the static weight, it's the fact that the mass is centered farther from the axis. ST 355x32 rotors still add something like 25% more RI over the stock Brembos, despite being slightly lighter. The Camaro rotors I mentioned earlier in this thread add about 25% less RI than the 370Z rotors (+49% over Brembos), despite being the same sizes/dimensions.

The question is whether it's significant. I see a lot of people complain about adding weight on this forum and maybe 1 out of 10 has a legitimate reason to do so. On a street car or even an HPDE setup, the extra fade resistance of larger brakes far outweighs the negative effects of the added weight. Brakes are one area where I feel that extra weight is justified.

We're dealing with a 3200-3300lb car here. If we were talking about Lotus Elises, I could see the point, but that weight is much less significant on a heavy car like the Z.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for reducing it wherever possible, which is why I pointed out the Camaro rotor option earlier as an alternative to the ridiculously heavy 370Z front rotors. And if you want to go even lighter, the CTS-V2 has a co-cast rotor with an aluminum hat section and could be cut down to 355mm diameter on a mill for WAY less $ than stoptech rotors (adding an estimated 30-35% RI), but it's 34mm thick and might not fit the skinny Akebono calipers. There ARE options out there to reduce the added weight, and they're surprisingly cheap.

The point is though, unless you're up against someone in an equally prepped car on a track or a stopwatch, the extra weight of a BBK shouldn't make you lose any sleep at night.

I once ran out of brakes heading to turn 5 at Road America (in a different car). Since then, I've always subscribed to the "I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it" school of thought when it comes to brakes.

Osborn Wu

better safe than sorry and it never hurts to have more :P