crashnscar

I need to buy calipers either way, and I'd like to fill the wheels (CCW 505a 18") so I'm not really doing this for any added benefit over the C5 brakes other than looks. I do believe that they will work better than c5 brakes simply because there is more surface area and so many pads (bite must be great) but maybe not enough to warrant an upgrade from c5 brakes if you already have them on your car. I'm not really worried about getting better brakes, as this car will be 2300 pounds with a full 18 gallon tank so the saved weight should make the brakes work great, c6 z06 or c5.

Mind pointing me in the right direction?

Bill Dearborn

If you want to go with a big brake kit that doesn't cost an arm and a leg go with LG Motorsports 6 Piston Wilwood kit. It uses the stock rotors fits under the C5 Z06 17 inch wheel and costs about $1400. You can get the calipers in black or red. It is less sensitive to pad taper thus gets around the weakness of the C5 calipers. I put them on my Z two years ago and have been delighted with them.

Bill

ICaughtVetteFever

Sure, first what do you plan to do with the car? There are a lot of options out there. If you just want to fill up the wheel C6Z51s are a cheap way out. Any C5/C6 caliper, cheap brackets, and choice of rotors from a few places(determined by useage). A lot will depend on how hard you are going to be on them and of course budget(keep consumables in mind if you plan to track often). Let me know your plans and I will give you my reccomendations.

ICaughtVetteFever

Most of the info I got was from real people, not someone trying to sell me something. Mostly C6Z guys who took their new car to the track and were very dissapointed. I know guys who had pad taper so bad one padlett was gone while others on the same side of the same caliper were ony half used. Others have had wrecks becasue they boiled fluid from rotors having incorrect vanes or the aluminum pistons transfer too much heat through the thin, fast wearing pads. You don't have to believe the claims, just look at a set up close compared to a real BBK. Sure, most of this stuff is track related, but there are plenty of drawbacks on the street too.

crashnscar

It is going to be a weekend car/track beast (500+ crank hp and 2300 lbs) and will not be driven many miles each year, but will be tracked hopefully a few times a year. The reason I do not feel the need to spend a lot on a big dollar BBK is that the car is so much lighter that I believe with pads and rotors the brakes will perform perfectly. I do not feel that the c5 caliper fills out the wheel enough.... although this will be a track beast, it also has to look good which is why I went with the CCW 505a's. Basically, it has to be a supercar, looks and all.

I will be using different rotors and pads with aftermarket pieces that will hopefully work worlds better than stock pieces.

ICaughtVetteFever

Sure, with a lot of the trick parts the C6Z setup is not as bad as factory, but the caliper is still crap. It is not stiff enough and will taper pads, the heat sink aluminum pistons will cause too much heat to get to the fluid(with the thin pads not helping either) and it is still heavy even for such a large caliper. Not to mention the PITA pad removal procedure if you can get the bolts not to seize.

For the same kind of money you can get LGs Wilwood kit or use the larger C6Z51 setup on the cheap. It is hard to get BBK looks AND performance without BBK prices. You can check out JasonBlueBoost's ad in the parts section, he has a pretty good Wilwood package, aside from the drilled rotors(which you can use till they crack then replace with non drilled)