YaoNYC

hello all,
im about to upgrade to 14" front big brakes.

how much will it help if i do the steeda 13" rear brake upgrade or the baer 14" rear upgrade? both these kits reuse stock caliper.

any brake experts care to chime in?

thanks!

JonW

70% of your braking is done with the front brakes. You won't see nearly as much gain with a rear brake upgrade as you will the front.

YaoNYC

hi jonw. yes..that much i know

i was just wondering if its worth it to upgrade rear too. will it attribute significantly...

thanks...

wallace

no,it would mainly be cosmetic... the larger brakes would throw off the look as the back are already smaller. much like adding a 20" rim and not getting bigger rotors. it just look weird at first.

johnh

HOW about some one making aluminum hat stock size rear rotor it would help with rotating mass. Similar to in stalling a aluminum drive shaft.

mot250

Are the stock rear brakes sized incorrectly because my rear pads wore out quicker than my fronts and I'm not doing all that many smokey burnouts (I'm incredidibly inept at it with three pedals and only two feet).

Anyway, check out DBA (Disc Brake Australia) for stock sized rear rotors with aluminum hats. They also offer heat indicator striping so you know the maximum temperature your rotors are seeing. I'm pretty sure they have one for the S197 and you might be able to get them through Steeda as well.

RobK

Since you're just doing rotors and not calipers all you're doing is adding mass and swept area to help with heat dissipation. You're not improving braking force unless you also change pads. Just put on a good set of pads and you'll be fine. In actuality, the same holds true for the fronts. It's all about heat management.

mot250

if you are going to a larger diameter rotor, you are gaining on two fields even if using the stock caliper with a relocation bracket;

the increased mass for heat dissipation, as previoulsy mentioned by RobK

and

you gain in torque application of the braking (same idea using a "cheater" bar on a wrench to remove a stuborn bolt); you'll need less clamping force to slow down the rotor (though there is also an minor increase in rotational mass that would require a little more force)

If you go with a two piece rotor with an aluminum hat section, you get two more benifits;

you lower rotational mass, which is always good for acceleration and braking

and

the aluminum hat transmits less heat to the wheel and hub assemblies, prolonging hub life.

Sabre

You are turning off the traction control for those burnouts aren't you? The traction control tries to apply the brake to a wheel, when it senses wheel slip. I'm aware of one fellow, who left his traction control on while making a few laps on a road course. In the span of about 2, 15 minutes sessions, he had burned up and worn out his rear pads, because he had forgotten to shut off the traction control.

Mikes_BLK_GT

I've been looking at brakes as awll I just dont like the mushy feeling my stock brakes have. So SS braided line's, hawk pads and then bigger rotors(probably baer eradispeed plus 2) or atleast on the front the baer GT plus brake kit(14" rotors/calipers) and then just 13" decelorators by baer in the rear. I'm a little undecided though about the rear wondering how good the eradispeed 14" would look in the rear as well. Whichever way I go I'm planning to paint the calipers black to match the car when I finally take on this project.