Thank You. BTW is $75 a good price on these rotors?

I see you are over in St Louis, I work at SAFB and live over in Swansea, once I get my C7 we'll need to hook up over coffer or a beer.

 

I always trust Gene with that stuff, but I'd have to guess they're linked part numbers. Here's what my (current as of 04/14) screen shows:

 

How'd it go?

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-g...ay-report.html

 

stays on. I have been told the reason why it is recommended to take it off after each track event is corrosion could develop after time....but if you track your car on a regular basis..the rotors will wear out before they become corroded...so my ring stays on. I should point out I live in California and we do not have a lot of wet days and no salt on the road. It is also recommended to return the alignment to the original specs after doing the special alignment for the track. Same sort of logic...not likely to have the car realigned for a couple of weeks and then have it realigned again to go to the track. The 8 track days have not shown any unusual wear on the tires....I leave the car aligned for the track. Life is good.

 

I agree, but in this day and age it's no surprise GM has to err on the side of caution for the masses

 

I'd put the rings on and leave them. In all honesty though, they were an afterthought, and I don't think they're going to do a whole lot for you. You can read my analysis of the Stingray brake system's track-worthiness here.

We are in development of two-piece discs in the Z51 size. They will be more-or-less identical to what we're selling for the Viper. They will have the same design features...they'll just be in the OEM Z51 front and rear sizes. They will add a great deal of capability to the brake system, and they'll likely be available for sale late this summer.

To the OP, I posted this in your other thread about a track-prep shop...my top recommendation for anyone tracking their Z51 is to skip to the front of the line and go with our front AP Racing Competition Big Brake Kit. It has larger discs, and the AP Racing calipers bring a lot to the table. I view this as the "do it right the first time and be done with it" solution. We have a bunch of these on cars now (two more kits actually shipped out yesterday). The feedback is unanimous...no more thinking about the brakes on track...just driving.

If we had kept our Stingray, the hot setup for tracking the car would be our front big brake kit with our OEM-sized 2-piece replacement discs on the rear. That would be the most bang-for-the-buck you could squeeze out of the platform in my opinion.

 

I know it is superficial but I wish the caliper were red, my car will serve street and track purposes and the gray caliper with red in the rear doesn't look great.

Part of the reason I am waiting for Stoptech to come out with their kit or just buying the ESSEX rotors.

 

I agree with this. My rear calipers are red and it would look funny to have anything other than red on the front. You could go with the AP Racing Radi-cal brake kit, I suppose.

In any event, for the moderate HPDE person, I think the AP Racing rotors (when they come) with the right pads, lines and fluid will be more than enough. Hard core folks may need/want more. The person doing 8 to 10 days a year on a moderately fast track probably doesn't "need" the better calipers IMO... if they were red, however, I might just buy them anyway

 

Keep in mind that your calipers will not likely stay red if you go with the StopTech kit and plan to track your car regularly. They will be a lovely shade of maroon. Personally, I think that looks even worse. For example, here's an OEM Brembo from a Lancer Evo...this caliper started off red with a white logo. Evo, STI, and 350Z track model owners commonly refer to their OEM calipers as "Brownbo's" after they've been thrashed on the track. The same thing happens with aftermarket red calipers, given enough heat is poured into them.


Believe it or not, this is off of a customer Evo...this was red at one time!


Anodized calipers look better for longer when being subjected to track beatings.

 

The Radi-Cal kit from AP is a very different product than our Competition Kits. The calipers weigh several pounds more each, aluminum pistons with dust boots, no knockback springs, huge discs that limit track wheel fitment, limited pad selection with almost no track pad options...the list goes on. They would certainly look pretty, but not really an optimized option for heavy track use.

It's really tough to assess "needs" with a blanket statement like that. Every driver is different, as is every car. I've seen it constantly over the years in the C5/C6 market. You have two guys with all stock cars...One guy says, "I ran Laguna Seca with just race pads and they worked great." The next guy says, "I burned the brakes up after two laps."

I always tell people this as well...it doesn't matter how many times you go to the track. It could be once or 50 times per year. If you're exceeding the limits of your system, you're exceeding the limits of your system, period...doesn't matter how frequently you do so.

Finally, there are a lot of other benefits to a BBK...lower wear rates and less frequent replacement of pads and discs, less frequent fluid changes, etc. The initial cost seems high, but when you do the math over a couple of years they pay for themselves in nearly every case.

I think our disc upgrade will indeed do the trick for many people. I just want to make sure people understand that there are other issues with the OEM brakes besides the discs that are far from ideal. As I said, I view our front kit as the "do it once and be done" approach. A lot of people just like to go that route, rather than gradually following the brake upgrade path= pads--->fluid--->SS lines--->ducting--->two-piece discs--->Complete BBK. A lot of time and headaches can be saved from jumping to the end of that line, and there are many current BBK owners who will tell you they wished they had done so long before they actually did.

 

I have run red Stop Tech's on my E36 M3 for 14 years and they are still bright red, I replace dust boots every other year and have never had a brake related issue at Road America. We are talking about a 500hp car too not a stock M3.

I get that Anodized is ideal if your driving a purpose built race car, but for many of us the look of anodized is less than spectacular on this car. I like your rotors and that would be a first option for me, that or a new set of Stoptech's with ST-60's on the front, that would do the trick.....

 

I understand what you're getting at. I was sales mgr. at StopTech from '03-'08, so I saw plenty of their painted calipers with heavy use (including red calipers on two of my own track cars). We also currently sell red painted AP Racing calipers, and I have nothing at all against them. I'm just pointing out the realities of different finishes.

 

So can you package your red caliper that you use on the C6 Z06 for the C7, or do they have the same issues with brake pads and availability.

It would be a good option for those choosing to keep that red look.

 

The CP9040 calipers used in our six piston C6 painted kits have a disc that will fit inside of many 18" wheels (362mm diameter), and a much wider array of pad choices. They also weigh considerably less than the road car Radi-Cal calipers mentioned above.

We could do such a kit, but I haven't seen too many terribly compelling arguments to do so (this thread is the first time anyone has ever suggested it to me).

So we already have a nice spread of options to suit a wide range of customers.

Another idea would be trade your red calipers with someone who owns a Z51 with black calipers. Grey anodized AP Racing calipers on the front and black OEM Brembo's on the rear wouldn't be that noticeable aesthetically. I think we may even have a pic of this on our black stingray when we were doing the development of our kit.

Finally, we are planning on a complete rear kit with anodized calipers to match our front kit, so the car would look balanced front to rear. Below is a C6 Z with our four wheel kit installed. The calipers don't scream "look at me!," but they do look really nice (and serious) overall. For reference, the disc sizes are 355mmx32mm front, and 340x28mm rear, and those are 18"/19" wheels.

 

I contacted them today to buy some back up rotors and they quoted me $108 each and said they were on back order.

 

Glad I came across this thread. I was pulling the pile of stuff out of the back of the C7; front plate bracket, battery charger, transport cover, when I came across the rotor cooling rings. Glad to know what they're for.

 

Stupid question: I was told that with the Z51 they came with the car and were packed in the trunk. Is this true? I did not see them in my Z51 .

 

Yes, they come with the car. My dealer handed them to me.

 

I asked Spring Mountain mechanics about this when I was there and they put the rings on and leave them on all the time. They wash these cars nearly every day, so I'm sure the rings/rotors get wet in the process. But I'm guessing their rotors get changes out fairly often with every day track use.