I have read everything I can find on this topic and am still having trouble making a final decision. I would like some advice from those with experience please.

I currently have the Z51 brakes on my car. I love the look of the Z06 brakes but after reading all the threads on this I had decided that over the winter I would just upgrade a little by just doing new pads, braided lines, new and better brake fluid and possibly rotors if I find I need them when they come off. At the same time I planned to get the calipers powder coated or painted.

It seemed that the cost of going to Z06 brakes wasn't justified from what I've read about them.
Of course, now that I thought I had my mind made up I came across some brand new Z06 front calipers I can buy for 400 dollars and this got me thinking of going that route again. I know I would need new wheels but am planning on that either way.

Any thoughts from people that have done this or have experience?

Thanks.

 

Sir, you may want to post this in the Autocrossing & Roadracing section as well. I have read about this upgrade a few times over there.

 

If I were you, I would do it. I did.
Of course there are better brakes out there but they come at a very high price. The Z06 brakes are better the Z51 brakes. Side by side, the 14" rotors are quite a bit larger than the 13.4" Z51's with much more braking surface area. With a Hi temp fluid swap and the newer one piece pads they really get the car hauled down, and look great also.

 

OP: If you do not mind spending a little, these guys have very nice rotors. I have a set on my Z51 and like them a lot. They are lite and last a long time. They also have them for the Z06 as well. http://shop.performanceafx.com/C6-Z51-Corvette_c15.htm

 

OP: Check out this thread. Also I would recommend powder coating over painting for the calipers. http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-t...for-least.html

 

It's a complete waste of money unless you do it for the appearance factor alone. There's nothing wrong with that, but be honest and don't try to convince yourself that it's for a performance improvement...it is not.

New pads, fluid, and lines (as you mention) will make a world of difference in how well the vehicle stops. You'll get much more benifit from changing pad compounds to something more aggressive than you will upgrading to Z06 brakes. Your car will not stop "better" by doing the swap alone.

 

WHEELS:
with 5 spoke factory wheels you need a spacer 1/2" with others you will need less. This will require longer studs.

ace slick (z06 relicas)
ace r1 (zr1 replicas)
sportmuscle gs (GS replica)

clear the z06 brakes

ROTORS:

rotors - 1 piece you can get solid dbas for cheap - kns was selling them for 400 a set these have proper venting for each side

coleman/afx makes nice 2 piece units

west coast corvetes also sells 2 piece

PADS:
pads - hawk hp+ and dtc30 both have 100 degree operating temps but are more racing oriented pads

The pins dont come with these pads so you will have to buy a set of pins.
The factory pads come with the pins.


LINES:

goodridge makes regular stainless lines and then black coated (phantom series) which are roughly double price

technafit makes the lowest cost stainless lines

stoptech makes regular stainless that are supposed to fit the best and cost about the same price as the black goodridge

 

Dude, go with the Z brakes. The car will stop so much better u will think something is wrong. I did it I know. Yes, it may be an over kill. Then, what's wrong with erroring on the side of safety. My car is modded, but for the price the Z brakes are the way to go.

 

If you don't do it then let me know who has the calipers and I will give the money to him. I am looking for a front set of Z06 Calipers.

 

Sold my C6 and went back to the C5Z now looking for the brakes.

 

I recently did exactly what you're thinking about doing. I was going to go with the C6Z brakes, but they would not clear my wheels so I went with the Baer Eradispeed +2 rotors, GM Ceramic pads, stainless lines, and powder coated stock calipers.

Here are a few photos.

 

There was a similar thread going on a while back.....still a good read

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...an-01-z06.html


This is what I had said, and still holds true....




I had posted this a while back, and I think it still holds true....


There are a ton of braking options out there for Corvette's to meet almost anyone's needs.


Well I can say this, picking a brake kit is going to be like picking a dinner plate pattern with your wife. Everyone here has made some excellent points but you have to find what is right for you.

You are not going to go wrong with AP, Brembo, StopTech, Alcon..... You guys see them run NASCAR, F1, ALMS, Speed World Challenge....and they all compete right there with each other, so we are not talking about the difference in a Corvette to a Kia here, all of them make a great product that is going to work better than stock.

We ran StopTech's on our World Challenge cars, and actually developed the ST-60 caliper on Lou's #28 car during the season because we needed more pad, and more force. What you saw us run on our car is the EXACT same kit as what you would buy for your street car. Keep in mind the Brembo kits are not. They are the same company but the Brembo GTR caliper is not the same as the GT kits that you see for sale for your street car. Currently we have Alcon's on our GT2 car as we needed an endurance caliper that can hold a 30mm thick pad, currently StopTech does not offer such a caliper.



So where do you start to figure out what is right for you?



*PRICE* Well price is surely one thing to look at. Find a group of kits that fit in your price range, then start to weed out the ones that do not fit for you and your particular application.

*WHEELS* Everyone has a different caliper design, width and offset. This gives you a wide range of wheel fitments. Narrower calipers such as Wilwood might fit a wider range of wheels, but not have as wide of a brake pad because the caliper is narrow, or to the extreme the Alcon's may not fit any but one or two wheels on the market because the caliper is over a foot wide. Do you want to get new wheels? Sometimes you have to but if there is a kit out there that works with your wheels, then start to narrow your search a bit more.

*PADS* Thicker is always better. Find one that will take the thickest pad that you can get because you are going to get more heat protection as well as more life from one set than what you would with a thinner pads. Again see above for wheel fitment. Also look at replacement pads. Is your favorite pad made for this caliper and how much are replacements going to be? Most of these are going to use a popular shape. The StopTech ST-40 for example is a pretty basic Porsche 993TT pad shape so pads are cheaper and more easily found as where say your 30mm thick Alcon's are not, and are close to 3x the cost.

*ROTORS* Everyone loves drilled but slotted or solids are going to last you the longest. With the Corvette I would highly suggest a floating hat and rotor combo to fight the Corvette's poor wheel bearing design and 'pad knock back'. Brembo has by far the trickest floating design that is quiet for use on the street. Track cars that do not care about a little noise, most of these kits will allow for floating or fixed rotors but maybe with a little bit of noise on the side. Also, again look at replacement rotor costs and do the rotors come with new hardware if you have to replace it as well (most of the time you do). So figure this into your replacement costs. Also look at availability for rotors, and can you easily get new ones?

*ABS* Are you retaining the ABS and stock master cylinders? If so them make sure your kit will work with this. StopTech, Wilwood, and Brembo all make kits designed around this. AP, Alcon, Brembo GTR...these are more race designed kits that were setup with dual master cylinders and bias bars in mind so you can control them more finely.

*USE* Do you need a kit that will run 10hrs without a pad change? Just running 20 min sessions at a local track? While a $25,000 top of the line Alcon kit looks cool and you will be the talk of the paddock do you need something like that to run 3 20min sessions a year? If your going for different and top of the line and have it, then go for it, but on a budget you really don't need that.





For the money, our G-Stop kits will cover most weekend warriors and give you a much larger step up from stock. Past that, then we get into StopTech for those that need a two piece much larger rotor. Again for the money they are a hard setup to beat. Brembo, also has some very nice features for not to much more money.

I am always more than happy to speak one on one with anyone that needs some help deciding on what they need, and what will fix their specific issue that they are having.

We carry, Wilwood, Brembo, StopTech, and can get just about any model of each. Full race calipers are also available on special order basis.

 

I want to thank everyone for the opinions and great information. After reading all of this and thinking it through again, I have decided to stay with the stock Z51 setup and upgrade it accordingly. I dont race on the track so I really dont think I need more stopping power. As much as I like the look of the Z06 package, the cost and added weight dont excite me so much. Still some decisions to make including what color to do the calipers. Time to start looking at pictures and decide that. Its winter here and I have some time.

Thanks again to the corvette community, always very helpful.

 

If you want to follow up on this let me know and I can pm you the info. Keep in mind they are here in canada so you have to figure on some shipping costs. There are 2 front calipers, in red of course, which are supposedly brand new. The seller says 400.00 is the best price but who knows.