Just wondering what you guys like for a good pad/rotor setup that’s good for high performance street and some track or autocross usage. I think I’m just interested in keeping the stock dimensions with J55 calipers on factory 17” wheels. Big brake 6 piston kits are not in the cards right now. I was originally looking at the DBA 4000 rotors last year, but it seems you can now add them to the list of companies that have ousted a C4 product line. Now I’m looking into EBC’s BSD rotors with their blue stuff pads but looking for other suggestions. Maybe I will eventually look into a C5 upgrade to have better performance options. Or hell, maybe that would be the way to go now if it doesn’t break the bank. Talk to me.

 

for track days i run active performance pads by dynamic friction. rock auto. i run them on the street too.

edit, i now buy the cheapest rotors possible. ive never found a shred of difference in the run of the mill steel rotors.

 

ok cool I will look into them. Thanks.

 

I prefer coated rotors to prevent them from rusting. I’ve had rotors on my truck become unbalanced because they rusted, only found it after chasing a vibration for months as the brakes were due. Once changed, the vibration was gone.

As far as brands go, I will say R1 is terrible & no service at all. I bought a second full brake kit of theirs which was said to have coated rotors but they didn’t. Contacted the company, they didn’t give two poops & left me hanging on a Friday with no solution. That 85 pound box was sent back! I’ve bought from PowerStop twice as well & after a year on my truck it developed a warp, their customer service was stellar & replaced them so I’d buy from them without question.

Calipers; Couple other things, my J55 calipers spread… yes they literally spread the aluminum because of a few track days of hard driving. So check them with a telescopic gauge set ($10-15) as mine had almost a 1/4” of spread. You can also spot it on pad wear, when the outer most edge of the pads wear but inner most edges don’t wear near as much. While it could also be a caliper, your gauge will confirm things. If your calipers are OEM, rebuild them, super easy & kits are $8 last I looked on amazon. You’ll want to do this because there are now Chinese made replacement calipers with plain steel cups inside instead of the aluminum cups which means more weight, more wear on aluminum & of course rust. (Pics below)

Slide pins; if yours are original with only one groove, keep them! I have found the two groove pins allow the pad to get hung up on them. (Pics below)

Brackets; I don’t know why there isn’t anyone making a stainless hardware set to cover the wear areas of these brackets but I’ve never found any. This means the brackets develop grooves. So long as yours haven’t been filed too many times already, can be easily filed by yourself. (See photos)

Check everything before you toss the old stuff, I found on one brand of pads the squeal bar was too wide & would then rub on the bracket, so I had to go with a different pad. Go with the correct brake lube, ceramic brake lube is now the one to use for best temp range, just don’t over do it, metal to metal contact points. I actually use a q-tip to put it on the contact points. Definitely use Silglide inside any rubber boots as it won’t cause rubber to expand.

Can you tell I’ve been through this all recently…. Hope this all helps!

 

Cornhusker, thanks for all the great info. I’ve yet to touch brakes on one of these cars. I’ve heard about the caliper bracket grooves getting worn and yeah I can’t believe there’s no shims in there. I’ve also heard about the calipers flexing under hard braking but never heard about any permanent spreading. I don’t believe my car has been tracked before but I will definitely check them. I do intend to rebuild the calipers. I’ve heard the “corvette” logo version of the J55 that came on the grand sports and collector edition cars are bulkier and less prone to flexing. Maybe I’ll try to source a set for the front.

 

I track pretty hard and so far, im ok on my J55’s.

I will say that i am aware that they *can* spread so im not at all disputing that. However if the car is driven accordingly (trailbrake and carry momentum) they have served me very well. They are certainly not equivalent of C5 or C6 calipers, and if you spread J55’s then I would not bother with the C4 Grandsport / Baer version of them. Id simply go to C5/C6.

That said, if you’re there to enjoy track days/autocross, they are more than adequate. You may as a driver reach a level where you need better brakes, but that should likely only come after you have mastered trail braking, which takes a while when you start ramping up corner entry speed 👍