Hello,

I need your help.. I don't know what to do regarding the choice of a good
front brake system for my C4.

Does anyone of you has experience with the DRM Front Bake Kit (Wilwood) ?

What do you guys think of the Baer Eradispeed System offered from MidAmerica for the C4?

What about AP brakes ?

:confused:

The reason I'm looking for a stronger brake system is, that I had a real bad experience when braking from 170mph down to 40mph because of road work ahaed - and that twice :rolleyes:
My ZR1 brakes with carbon-metallic pads and air-ducts didn't work like I expected them to work....

So, I would appreciate any recommendations / good places to buy / personal experience regarding those above mentioned kind of brake system.

So long and happy Vetting from Germany,
Ray

[Modified by Ray8, 10:20 PM 11/7/2002]


[Modified by Ray8, 10:41 PM 11/7/2002]

 

at speeds like that your going to want a 4 or 6 piston monoblock caliper. AP is a great choice as is brembo. here's the bad part, your going to spend $3,000 on them. lingenfelter sells the brembos, the baer stuff you were talking about is just a little better than stock, it's mainly rotors from mid america. what you need is more clamping force and less flex, brembo has a whole bolt on kit for the C4, i'm not sure what AP makes for the C4 but they probably have something, the C5-R uses AP brakes. anyway, watch the 170's on the highway, that's a instant way to loose your license for a year.


[Modified by gtsyellow, 2:03 PM 11/7/2002]

 

Okay, I wonderd, why the Baer System from MidAmerica was "quite affordable" compared to the 4 piston systems...
Does Brembo sell them directly as kit or through retailers ?

BTW: 170mph is completly legal on our German Autobahn - so no risk to loose my license :chevy

 

You need beefier brakes, not more pistons.

Your calipers may indeed be warped if you're laying on them at those speeds. The old J55 calipers you have are a defective design. When you apply maximum pressure they bend open like a $3 chinese C-Clamp and the pads no longer remains parallel with the rotor. Few folks notice this and blame the pads or cooling. Measure the used pad thickness at the inside and outside radius & compare. Mine differed by a whopping 1/4" and fresh pads only touched the inside radius around the rotor.

In addition, you need beefier rotors to absorb and release more BTU's....hence a different brake setup.

One solution is to switch to C5 componentry by simply procuring a set of C4 adapters. This is a very affordable option and offers rigid calipers and much thicker rotors that flow more air and absorb more BTU's before you overheat the brakes. The C5 setup is very substantial and barely fits inside the stock 17" ZR1 wheel. Another benefit is the rotors favorably compare to Baer and other 13" designs but they cost $60 each.

 

C5 brakes are very good, but they arent the racing design you would need at such speeds. I would go with a Brembo or Baer/Alcon brake package. A 6-piston for the front and GOOD pads should take care of you.

 

170mph down to 40mph because of road work ahaed


Dam, You better buy the best at those speeds..

 

you could try calling brembo for a jobber account but lingenfelter sells a complete package for the C4, try http://www.lingenfelter.com the 4 or 6 piston design would be ideal with a 13.5" 2pc rotor. to the guy who said you don't need more pistons, when have you seen a monoblock caliper with under 4 pistons? the C5 caliper is a improvment over the J55 in design and clamping force but it's NO WHERE NEAR a monoblock like the 4 or 6 pistons AP racing or brembo stuff.

 

At speeds like that, its worth spending the $$$ on safety :jester

 

Some of the Wilwoods and other racing style do not have the same sealing for external contaminants as the automotive OEM do.

Electro-Dynamics has both the C5 adapters for the C4, as well as the Porsche (Brembo) rigid caliper adaptation with the Porsche two piece rotors for the C4.
The Porsche setup is in the $2000-$2500 range. http://www.electro-dynamics.com

 

I would not be buying the C5 crap when dealing with those speeds at a consistent basis. Stock systems are geared for the majority of the population who do not drive their car hard. GM saves money by going to cheaper gear.

I'd step up to some 6 piston Alcons front and 4 piston rear. The monoblock as GTSYELLOW mentioned give you the sturdy caliper, and the additional pad area (with the 6 piston) to keep hot spots from forming in certain areas.

Don't cheapout.
:nono:

 

The stock setup uses a 12" rotor and small calipers. The J55 or GS setup is very much the same system as the Baer. It uses 38mm twin pistons and a 13" rotor. The caliper is identical except for looks to the baer. The rotors from baer are an improvement but they can be used with any of the systems so if you want this caliper and have it already, just change the rotors and skip the calipers.
Next step up would be to C5 brakes. These are the same brakes used on every C5. They have twin 40mm pistons which are much larger than the C4 pistons, have a larger pad size by about 40% more surface area, and the rotors are 13" but thicker and better designed to vent heat so they are superior for stopping to C4.
The next step would be to the willwood, brembo, or Alcon setups. These go with 4 to 6 pistons, have the option of increasing rotor size, pad size, etc. They are much more expensive but continue to improve performance.
Bang for the buck, the C5 is the best buy. You will need to swap rims to something aftermarket or to ZR-1/GS style rims to fit even the C5 brakes or use a wheel spacer. For the other systems, you may need to go into larger rims to accomidate their size which is another layer of expense, especially if now you also need to add on tires. A $700 US upgrade is now a $4000 upgrade. Of the people who look at these setups however, and me being very jealous of this, you are one of the few people who can legitimately use a setup like these more expensive ones. If you have more questions or want to know more about them please post more questions. http://www.electro-dynamics.com has a lot on the C5 upgrade.

BTW, with everyone oohing and aahing about "those speeds", its not that big a deal. The average car over there is similar to a BMW 330, Honda Accord, or Ford Focus with stock brakes. The C5 setup is as good or better than these brakes and can definitely stand its own. Also, all these cars are driven on a regular basis often at over 125 mph, no problem. The reason is that the driver's in Germany and system in Germany is very different from our own. People don't zoom in and out of lanes, they stay in their lane which pretty much everyone moves at the same speed. The farther left lane wise you go, the faster traffic is on average. The average highway puts all but the best US highways to shame. And they have a notification system that we don't have built into every car sterio. As you are driving, if you get close to a backup or slowdown in traffic ahead, the radio plays a tone and then tells you about the danger ahead and if you need to slow down or stop. This is activated as you drive by certain signals on the road. Since a good majority of people drive with the radio on, most people will slow down as a group which alerts the other people to follow suit. This stops the inevitiable pileups and alot of the need to have stop on a dime brakes. Wish we could make such a super highway system in the US. Have drivers pay a tax or toll to use the road, require special licenses and inspections to pass to get on, and then have a no speed limit from NY to Chicago to San Fran following route 80 and one up each coast. That would rule. To bad the greenies and crybabies wouldn't be prudent people would never go for it. Germany kicks tail! :flag


[Modified by 92TripleBlack, 1:21 PM 11/8/2002]

 

Thanks to all of you guys for your fast answers and your help !

@92TripleBlack,
I read in your signature, that you have Z06 brakes mounted ?
Did you get them from ElectroDynamics ? I have about 8inch wheel spacer mounted and I don't want to change my sawblade design. Do you think,
the C5 system will fit ? Could you probably post some detailed pictures of your front brake ? How much does a system like that approx. cost ?

All those questions...

It is in deed important to have good brakes here, because the traffic is gettin' more and more crowded. It is illegal to pass on the right lane of a car, so you must be able to pass on the left lane. So you must find out a way to make the guy in front of you changing lanes... :jester

BTW: What you mentioned about the German Autobahn and the warning system is not at all high tech. Basically it works through your normal car radio. There are no signals around the Autobahn. If you are lucky (!) you hear about a traffic jam in the radio (they tell you the traffic jams on a regular basis - like in the US). But if you have your CD on and disabled this function (most time called traffic program) you won't notice it, and hit the traffic jam like everyone else. Another system is offered through gps navigation, which I use. This one notices traffic jams through radio-stations and calculates new routes to get aroung the traffic jam.




[Modified by Ray8, 7:41 PM 11/8/2002]

 

I got my brakes from various places: http://www.electro-dynamics.com supplied the brackets. I don't have a good picture but they do on their site.
I got my hawk pads from Zip on the corvette forum mall.
I got the rest from Jeff Kopp at Superior Chevrolet. He's 18carfan on the forum, a Chevy parts manager, and a great guy. He sells parts to forum members at just over cost. I don't know if he can sell internationally or not.
The cost for everything from rotors to calipers to pads was around $750 shipped but I got the polished brackets, better pads, and could have reduced the cost by about $75.

As for wheels, they are supposed to be able to work with sawblades with a spacer on the hub. The indentations of the sawblades go about 1/4" or so to deep and would hit the caliper. The spacer mounts the wheel out slightly allowing the caliper to fit. Simple fix. Vette Brake Products should have the spacers and dimensions needed but it may be cheaper to have them made there as they are simple to make but heavy and costly to ship.

Whenever I visited my friend in Regensburg we always go on the Autobahn and it really does impress vs. some of the stuff we have here. Even the driver mentality and approach to driving is different there than here. Here, its illegal to pass on the right so that means don't get caught, not don't do it for example. ;)
Hope this helps.