Hi All,

I lost my thread I started a while ago about this mod. I had ordered the parts in late August/early September and was waiting on them and a time to install them at my local shop that let's me help. I was also away for a while (filming a reality tv show of all things!) so I FINALLY had the opportunity to install the GT500 Brembo Brakes last night!

I wanted to let you know:

1) It IS possible to do the swap without any modifications and the car DOES stop just fine.
2) The install, including all the instruction from the mechanic (he helped me) took 2 hours start to finish.
3) You DO need spacers, just not 1" (25mm). I measured afterwards and with 25mm spacers, I had approx 18" of gap left, so really, you only need about 10mm spacers to be safe
4) Even with 1"/25mm spacers, the 18" fanblades hardly stick out. Others have told me the same and think it looks fine.
5) It has been raining and I have done some hard stops and nothing locks up and the ABS does not fire prematurely. I haven't tested it yet fully but I feel like it's close to stock reaction.
6) So far, the 'mushy' initial pedal feel is still there (which is ok because I use some of that slack when I heel and toe so I am used to it) - ***It has not been dry since I installed them so I will see what happens then***
7) They look awesome.
8) Had I had the money, if I were to do it over again, I wouldn't have bought the GT500 rotors (which are very HEAVY) and would have splurged for Brembo Slotted lightweight rotors, harder compound pads and stainless steel brake lines. I will look to do this when I need to replace these parts in the future.

Parts I installed:
- 1"/25mm hubcentric spacers up front (now need to put these on back and get smaller ones for front) **SEE EDIT**
- rotors
- calipers w/springs etc
- pads and shims
- dust shields

I'll get a pic of the whole car tomorrow.

Kristina

Edit April 29th, 2008: As part of my birthday gift last winter, my boyfriend bought me some new spacers for my car since he knew that my slightly lopsided car stance bothered me. He ended up getting a set of spacers from Mustang Wheel Spacers (http://mustangwheelspacers.com/) in 5/8". They came with the longer studs and the tool to remove and install them. I am happy to report that this weekend after taking the car out of storage we removed the H&R 1" spacers, moved them to the back wheels, and installed the new 5/8" spacers up front with great success. The spacers are really well made, we were both really impressed, so high five to Mustang Wheel Spacers. The wheels still clear the brakes, everything fits in the front and rear and the car looks much more balanced now. Hope this helps!

 

Sounds sweet. How big are the rotors? Pics?

Out of curiousity, what TV show were you filming?

 

sweet... good to know..

now where are those pics!!!!

haha

 

The rotors are 14" and the calipers are 4 piston. They are finished in a gloss black with the white brembo logo on them, direct from Ford!

I was a contestant on Discovery Channel's Star Racer (only airing in Canada).

PICS LATER TONIGHT! (~9pm EST)

 

Really? Thats awsome. I thought about watching it once or twice but ended up watching other stuff. Are you "still" in it, as in like on the show, I think I'll watch the next episode now. What night is it on?

 

Episode 3 aired last night - new episodes air Tuesday nights at 10pm...they replay later in the week, like Saturday's at 5pm. The week following, they post the episode online at broadband.discoverychannel.ca. Right now episode 2 is online. The first two episodes were 'bios' of the people who made it - mine was on episode 1.

 

I thought the gt 500 brakes wouldnt fit with the stock 18 " rims. Are these the normal fanblades that are 18x8.5, same size as the polished upgrade rims. If so I may be looking into it. I was told they wouldnt fit properly. Well would love to see some picks etc.

 

(huge) pics are now up

 

OK, more impressions...as it's finally dried up, I've tried to test out the brakes a little more. This weekend I'll try and find some emtpy parking lots to do some really hard stops, but so far even in dry they don't bite as much initially as I thought they would, but where I notice the difference the most is midway through depressing the pedal, they don't really 'let up' as much as the stock ones do. They remain feeling really strong all the way to the floor...I'm not an expert at this so I'm trying to be as articulate as I can.

So far, so good...

 

Good info.
I though the one pic was of the caliper on the rotor, then I enlarged it and saw it was your cell phone. Do you have to carry a battery pack with that thing?!

Good luck with the show! What's it about? Racing cars?

 

That's a portable home phone, not a cell phone!! HA!

The show is about open-wheel racing, specifically F2000 cars...

 

Nice write up Kristina. Cool deal on the show? have you ever raced Karts prior? I used to run in the 90's...miss it a lot, a whole lot.

 

Go back and make sure you have no air in the system. If the system is free from air, the soft pedal feel will go away after a few applications of the brake pedal.

The initial bite is due to the pads. After you get used to the pads you'll see that they work better than the initial thought.

I emailed Brembo about a two piece rotor, shortly after I got my kit, and the response at the time was that they couldn't confirm if the rotors from their aftermarket kit would work due to offset differences between their upgrade kit and the factory kit.

This kit begs for a more aggresive pad.

 

those donuts look good

 

Kristina, can you post a shot of the whole car with the spacers on. I will never have the money for at GT500 brake upgrade, but I am interested in how the 25mm spacers look. Which brand did you go with?

 

Redbullet, you're right. As the days go by, I am really gaining a lot of confidence in these brakes and see how much better they are over stock...it's especially noticeable on the highway I find...in those panic stop situations. Once these pads wear out, though, I will look to get something with a bit more bite.

I'm sorry some of the pics are dark, it's so cloudy outside and my camera sucks. But here you go! I went with Eibach Hubcentric Spacers.

K

 

Kristina, thanks for the write up. Do you have a part number or link to the spacers?

 

Has anyone seen a good price for these calipers WITHOUT the rotors. I'm thinking these calipers with Eradispeed + rotors would be killer....and less expensive than the Stop-Tech kit.

 

So I went into my dealership and the parts guy had no clue what I was talking about when I asked for these brakes. Where from ford did you order them?

 

Looks good, I would never use spacers... but if you want to keep the fanblades, it is the only way