Brakes

[KHsonic03]

I am looking to get new brakes for my cobra. The PBR's worked well on the aluminum block cobras, but with the added weight, the '03's seem to need a little more stopping power. I am looking at the Wilwood 6 piston front brake kit, and I was wondering if anyone has experience with it. If so, any opinions? I am also in search of a rear brake kit, but no one seems to make one for the IRS cobras. I will probably go with the BAER Eradispeed rotors in the rear unless anyone has a different suggestion. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.Wilwood Kit

 

[SonicVenum]

Unless your going to be on a lot of twisties, I'd say 6 piston brakes are over kill. For the street, Eradispeed rotors all around with upgraded pads should be enough. If road courses are in your future or you have a lot of money, go for it with the 6.

 

[Cobra-R]

I agree with Sonic. A brake pad upgrade will be fine. The PBR's are very capable brakes.

 

[ZeroSpinn]

Actually as far as prices, I think I remember seeing the Wilwood 6 piston kit in one of the Mustang mag's "hot parts" sections, and they said it was around $1200. Which is really cheap for what it is; you guys might have a price idea from kits like Baer, whose 6 piston kit is more like $7000. Does anyone know how/why Wilwood's kit would be so much cheaper? Are they not as good as other 6 piston kits?

 

[six speed]

I am going to try the hawk pads maybe that will help the PF Z rated pads will not stop the car to much brake fad. I have order some powerslot rotors maybe this will work. You would think that a 13 inch rotor would stop the car? If you drive the car real hard look at your bearings in the frount the seal will melt and the bearing will go I seen two mustang at the track loses there wheel bearings.

 

[yermo]

i was wondering the same thing i was looking at the 14" rotors from Brembo and calipers. can the front brakes that are on our cars be rotated to the back, so that there is a 13" rotor back there?? will the 14" rotors fit or do you need 18" wheels for that??

 

[Friendchicken]

Get the Baer for the fronts and move your current set to the rear? Of course if money is no object...

 

[2F2F]

There was an immediate difference felt with Hawk HPS brake pads...

 

[hj16]

will the 14" rotors fit or do you need 18" wheels for that??

Yep, a 18" rim is needed for 14" rotors

 

[KHsonic03]

I found the wilwood kit for $1243. That is about $100 more than the Brembo kit, and they are 6 piston. If you click on the link I provided at the beginning of this post, you can see that the Wilwood kit is a very nice one. The calipers are billet aluminum, and it comes with a two piece rotor. That is the reason why I was looking at them, and yes, the track is in my immediate future. I just can't see the point in buying the 2000 Cobra R kit for $1100 when I can get a much better product for $100 more. Baer and Brembo sell 6 piston kits for somewhere around $5000. From what I understand, 14" rotors are not worth it; they create additional rotating unsprung weight. I was told that you can get the same performance from a 13" rotor with a stronger, better designed caliper. I know that on the steeda Q400, they put brembo 14's on the front, and the 13" PBR's on the rear (basically the stock Cobra front calipers). I believe that this is a custom job, and you would have to get a special rotor with an internal parking brake (unless you don't care). I think Baer and Brembo are so expensive because they have the name. Just my .02.

 

[SuperSonic]

I think the brakes on these cars are great. All I did for now was upgrade the pads to Hawk HP Plus and it improved the feel dramatically. If you are worried about fade, upgrade the brake hoses to braided SS lines, change to high temp brake fluid and put on a brake duct kit, that's what those holes are for next to the driving lights, another great idea from Ford!

 

[sonic77]

Originally posted by SuperSonic
I think the brakes on these cars are great. All I did for now was upgrade the pads to Hawk HP Plus and it improved the feel dramatically. If you are worried about fade, upgrade the brake hoses to braided SS lines, change to high temp brake fluid and put on a brake duct kit, that's what those holes are for next to the driving lights, another great idea from Ford!

Do you know if anyone makes a duct kit for these cars? I was thinking about fabricating something myself, but I'd like to see what's out there.

 

[SonicVenum]

Since you're thinkin track, and it's a good price, go for it.

Oh, and while you're at the track hunt down a Vette (C5), and smoke his ass.

 

[Cobra-R]

The number of pistons in the caliper does not neccessarily make one brake better than another. If Paul (svtguy) see's this, maybe he will jump in, but he told me his PBR's (with a pad upgrade) on the 03 actually felt better than the Brembo's on his 00R.

 

[351MachOne]

KHsonic03... I posted this topic a couple of days ago... I found a 4piston brembo kit on www.partshopper.com. However I was looking at the Willwood kit on Steeda's page.

I agree that our brakes suck. Our cars cant even outbreak an SS. 70-0 in 182 FEET?!?!? are you kidding...

I said in my previous post, the brakes are unchanged from 2001, yet we have roughly 100 more hp.

By the way... If ANYONE here reads Popular Science, there is a FANTASTIC article on brakes in the new issue. Everyone who thinks their brakes are adequate should read it.


http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37364

 

[VintagePorscheG]

There was an immediate difference felt with Hawk HPS brake pads...

I agree. For $100 it was a great upgrade from stock. I almost wreck everytime I drive my truck now because I step on the brakes and nothing happens... lol

 

[KHsonic03]

You can buy a brake duct kit for our car from Sean Hyland. It is the carbon fiber kit found on the 2000 Cobra R. It's expensive, however. I understand that the amount of pistons in a brake kit doesn't necessarily matter, but if you take a look at the Wilwoods, the brakes have a very good design, and if you were to put a $5000 Baer caliper next to the $1243 Wilwood, I don't see why anyone would spend the extra money on the Baer. I did some more research, and it seems that no one makes a rear kit for our cars (with a parking brake). I think I will probably be going with the Wilwoods up front, and the Eradispeed rotors in the rear. But I still am not exactly sure.

 

[Cobra-R]

Originally posted by Cobra-R
The number of pistons in the caliper does not neccessarily make one brake better than another. If Paul (svtguy) see's this, maybe he will jump in, but he told me his PBR's (with a pad upgrade) on the 03 actually felt better than the Brembo's on his 00R.

On further thought, it was TerryM from the Cobra R forum that told me about liking the PBR's (on his 95R ) better than the Brembo's on the 00R's. :gt:

If you guys are talking about these upgrades for street use and looking for a mod to spend your money on, cool!! If you really think that a upgrade in brakes is needed for the street, don't waste your $$. In that case, upgrade your pads to a HPS Hawk or something along those lines. You will have very good performing brakes that will be more than good for the street. Add stainless steel brake lines, that is a more worth while mod.

KHsonic03,
How can you look at calipers and determine that one is better than the other? (just curious)

 

[Gatorac]

I was just doing some serious looking at different brake kits. I went to corner-carvers.com and learned a lot. It seems for the track the Wilwoods were not the greatest. There are a couple of kits available that use the bigger Brembos or even the Porche calipers for around $2k.

I have the Bear big brake kit on my 92 GT. The cross drilled rotors that came with it cracked pretty quick. IF YOU ARE GOING TO OT THE CAR, DO NOT GET CROSS DRILLED OR SLOTTED ROTORS. Those are bling bling only. I replaced the rotor with the Eradispeed (Bear makes the only rotors that will fit this kit) and installed Panther XP pads. At the last track event they did pretty good. No fade. I do have cooling ducts on this car.

My wife drove the 03 and the fluid boild pretty early on and the dust boots melted. They are fine for the street with upgraded pads but won't last long on the track. Ditch the splash shields and add some cooling ducts first. She's going to run the car at Sebring May 2 and we'll see how well the cooling ducts and Panther Plus pads work.

 

[351MachOne]

Originally posted by Cobra-R
The number of pistons in the caliper does not neccessarily make one brake better than another. If Paul (svtguy) see's this, maybe he will jump in, but he told me his PBR's (with a pad upgrade) on the 03 actually felt better than the Brembo's on his 00R.

The Cobra R is how much heavier than an 03?

The numbers dont lie, our cars take 180+ feet to slow from 70mph. If our brakes are good why can a vette do it in under 160??

More than the horsepower of the engine is the amount of work your brakes can do... Imagine if you could stop TWENTY (20) Feet shorter and avoid an accident, or road debris, pedestrians walking on 4 lane hwys, etc.

PLus, if you add ANY more HP you should ALWAYS upgrade your brakes accordingly... Brake systems should be 4 times stronger than the HP of the car.

Have you ever felt Porshce Brakes? Oh my... talk about eyeballs to the windshield. I had an RX-7 with heavy duty 4piston Alum Race Calipers (STOCK!!), and you could stop that thing on a dime...