Bigger brakes
- Thread starter Mikey444
- Start date
what part of stopping performance are you trying to increase?
more resistance to fade?
shorter stopping distance?
Your correct that the brakes on the RX8 are already pretty amazing, the rx8 stops from 60mph in the same distance as a Mecedez/Mclaren SLR.
If you want to improve stopping distance, and increase fade resistance a little bit you should get some good tires, they will make a huge decrease in stopping distance, good pads will also help shorten the stopping distance while helping with fade resistance a little bit, lastly a good fluid (like motul) and some stainless steel lines will help increase fade resistance.
I would suggest trying some of all of the above first and then move onto a BBK kit if you still are not happy.
As far as a direct bolt on BBK, the only one I have seen is the Greddy Grex kit : its a 6pot caliper with 330mm rotors, i havent personal felt how well the RX8 Grex kit feels, but im sure it similar to the other 6pot-330mm kits they have for other cars. They have excelent fade resistance.
http://www.greddy.com/products/display/?Category=suspension&SubCategory=11
The thing to remeber with brakes is that even with a 12 pot caliper, you cant really apply much more stoping force to the brakes, as that is provided by the brake master cylinder. You can increase the leverage on the wheel with a larger rotor (and you need a larger/multi pot caliper to fit the larger rotor, and it also helps spread the braking force more evenly across the rotor.
Stainless lines and good fluid will reduce the 'spongy' feel of the brakes when they get really hot, as it will resist boiling untill a higher temp.
The brakes are already capable of stoping the wheel completly, so they have plently of power, but the tire is the weak link in the system, as it cant hold the road tight enough to use 100% of the power (just try driving at 50mph and hitting the brakes hard, you will feel the ABS fighting lockup).
Most of the big brake kits wont shorten you 60-0 or even 80-0 distance, since the weak link is the tires, what they will do is give you increased fade resistance over repeated braking (mostly due to the larger rotors and the drilled/slotted "vents". The BBK will shorten your stopping distance from higher speeds such as 100-0 or 120-0, ect.
If the car is mostly street driven you will want to choose a pad compound that is easy on rotors and also doesnt need a lot of heat to give good clamping.
Again I would suggest that you upgrade your pads and/or tires, as well as put on stainless lines and a quality fluid (motul/RBF600/Hawk SuperBlue, ect) and see how you like that.
New Pads will be 60-80 dollars per axle for a quality set (up to 120 per axle for a race style track pad).
New SS lines will be 100-150 depending on brand (as long as they are brass fitings, teflon lines wraped in SS sleves they are all the same, also look for lines that are DOT approved, or similar for your country).
Fluid will be around 30 for enough fluid to bleed the system and refill it
tires will be the biggest expense, 200-300 for a near oem size (i would run 255/35/18 or 245/40/18) per tire.
The big brake kit will run around 2500-3500 for most kits (and thats the front only) so you will still need to buy and change pads and SS lines in the back (some BBK do only the front but come with lines for all 4 wheels) and you will still need to get fluid and most important of all....you will still need good tires as they again are the weakest link in the system.
You can also look at upgrading to a 'oem' size rotor. Get one slotted OR cross-drilled BUT NOT BOTH! I can explain why if needed.
Also, stay away from the one peice all steel/iron rotors, they are often the same weight or heavier than stock. If your going to get new rotors anyway, spend the "little extra" and get a set that are 2 peice and have an aluminum top hat. This will help reduce unsprung weight, and often helps cool the brakes even more.
more resistance to fade?
shorter stopping distance?
Your correct that the brakes on the RX8 are already pretty amazing, the rx8 stops from 60mph in the same distance as a Mecedez/Mclaren SLR.
If you want to improve stopping distance, and increase fade resistance a little bit you should get some good tires, they will make a huge decrease in stopping distance, good pads will also help shorten the stopping distance while helping with fade resistance a little bit, lastly a good fluid (like motul) and some stainless steel lines will help increase fade resistance.
I would suggest trying some of all of the above first and then move onto a BBK kit if you still are not happy.
As far as a direct bolt on BBK, the only one I have seen is the Greddy Grex kit : its a 6pot caliper with 330mm rotors, i havent personal felt how well the RX8 Grex kit feels, but im sure it similar to the other 6pot-330mm kits they have for other cars. They have excelent fade resistance.
http://www.greddy.com/products/display/?Category=suspension&SubCategory=11
The thing to remeber with brakes is that even with a 12 pot caliper, you cant really apply much more stoping force to the brakes, as that is provided by the brake master cylinder. You can increase the leverage on the wheel with a larger rotor (and you need a larger/multi pot caliper to fit the larger rotor, and it also helps spread the braking force more evenly across the rotor.
Stainless lines and good fluid will reduce the 'spongy' feel of the brakes when they get really hot, as it will resist boiling untill a higher temp.
The brakes are already capable of stoping the wheel completly, so they have plently of power, but the tire is the weak link in the system, as it cant hold the road tight enough to use 100% of the power (just try driving at 50mph and hitting the brakes hard, you will feel the ABS fighting lockup).
Most of the big brake kits wont shorten you 60-0 or even 80-0 distance, since the weak link is the tires, what they will do is give you increased fade resistance over repeated braking (mostly due to the larger rotors and the drilled/slotted "vents". The BBK will shorten your stopping distance from higher speeds such as 100-0 or 120-0, ect.
If the car is mostly street driven you will want to choose a pad compound that is easy on rotors and also doesnt need a lot of heat to give good clamping.
Again I would suggest that you upgrade your pads and/or tires, as well as put on stainless lines and a quality fluid (motul/RBF600/Hawk SuperBlue, ect) and see how you like that.
New Pads will be 60-80 dollars per axle for a quality set (up to 120 per axle for a race style track pad).
New SS lines will be 100-150 depending on brand (as long as they are brass fitings, teflon lines wraped in SS sleves they are all the same, also look for lines that are DOT approved, or similar for your country).
Fluid will be around 30 for enough fluid to bleed the system and refill it
tires will be the biggest expense, 200-300 for a near oem size (i would run 255/35/18 or 245/40/18) per tire.
The big brake kit will run around 2500-3500 for most kits (and thats the front only) so you will still need to buy and change pads and SS lines in the back (some BBK do only the front but come with lines for all 4 wheels) and you will still need to get fluid and most important of all....you will still need good tires as they again are the weakest link in the system.
You can also look at upgrading to a 'oem' size rotor. Get one slotted OR cross-drilled BUT NOT BOTH! I can explain why if needed.
Also, stay away from the one peice all steel/iron rotors, they are often the same weight or heavier than stock. If your going to get new rotors anyway, spend the "little extra" and get a set that are 2 peice and have an aluminum top hat. This will help reduce unsprung weight, and often helps cool the brakes even more.
I've seen the stock brakes fade on track. If you're looking to do any sort of road racing, then I'd suggest upgrading, but this is from my own experience and with a 7, not an 8.
Stoptech has two different kits for the "Sport Suspension" (I thought it was all the same...?).
Their 328x28mm is 1800-2000 depending on options. They also have a 355x32mm kit from 2600-2800.
Also, stay away from any drilled rotors completely. Again, if you're doing any sort of racing, then there's a much greater potential they'll crack.
Stoptech has two different kits for the "Sport Suspension" (I thought it was all the same...?).
Their 328x28mm is 1800-2000 depending on options. They also have a 355x32mm kit from 2600-2800.
Also, stay away from any drilled rotors completely. Again, if you're doing any sort of racing, then there's a much greater potential they'll crack.
VR RX7 R1 said:
so you have or have not experienced fading with the RX8 on track....?
Even for fairly long HPDE events, where youll get 30+ mins on track at a time, a good fluid, pads and SS lines do very well on stock brakes with the larger RX8 Sports brakes (the ones that come with the sport package and up).
I'm looking for an all around upgrade, tires as well. I think the link KYliquid you gave me should help me out enough, it's also kind of an appearance thing. The only thing I will never touch is stock suspension, the height is perfect and the roads are terrible here and cant go any stiffer.
EDIT: Only one problem with that Greddy site is that it wont let me do any online shopping since I am in Canada
EDIT: Only one problem with that Greddy site is that it wont let me do any online shopping since I am in Canada
Seen, not driven. This was at an event at Gingerman last year. I've yet to take an 8 for some laps.
I'm not saying that they're not good, but I personally would upgrade based on my experiences with the stockers on the 7 which would be a good comparison to the 8s.
I haven't looked that hard into them either. I didn't really realize that there were different sus/brake packages. I thought they were all the same. Good to know.
I'm not saying that they're not good, but I personally would upgrade based on my experiences with the stockers on the 7 which would be a good comparison to the 8s.
I haven't looked that hard into them either. I didn't really realize that there were different sus/brake packages. I thought they were all the same. Good to know.
You cant compare an RX-7 to an RX-8 in any way except for the fact that they both have rotary engines and note that it's not even the same engine. They are two completely different cars. I personally find the RX-8 better balanced just needs some better tires and a litle bit more umph!!!
I would say that the rx8 has better brakes than the rx7 (from driving both stock (sport RX8 and my Touring rx8 and an R1 and R2 package rX7).
The rx7 gets fade much earlier than the rx8 (stock for stock) and it takes longer for the fade to go away.
The rx8 I drove on the track you could feel the fade coming on, but after a 'easy/cool down' lap...they came back pretty strong, the RX7 needed a few more cooldown laps...
but, i do have to keep in mind that with the extra power/less weight from the rx7.....we were braking from speeds 25-40mph FASTER than the rx8.....so given the exact same conditions (speeds, ect) they are pretty even, but the larger RX8 rotors do fight the heat better.
Mikey444.....titan sells a lot of stuff that they dont list on the webiste, I think they only have like 3 rx8 products on the website...give them a call or shoot them an email
Geoff@TitanMotorsports.com
The rx7 gets fade much earlier than the rx8 (stock for stock) and it takes longer for the fade to go away.
The rx8 I drove on the track you could feel the fade coming on, but after a 'easy/cool down' lap...they came back pretty strong, the RX7 needed a few more cooldown laps...
but, i do have to keep in mind that with the extra power/less weight from the rx7.....we were braking from speeds 25-40mph FASTER than the rx8.....so given the exact same conditions (speeds, ect) they are pretty even, but the larger RX8 rotors do fight the heat better.
Mikey444.....titan sells a lot of stuff that they dont list on the webiste, I think they only have like 3 rx8 products on the website...give them a call or shoot them an email
Geoff@TitanMotorsports.com
Well I finally found an upgrade kit out there for just under 2000$ This includes 4 piston calipers for the front, upgraded discs and pads for all four corners and stainless steel brake lines. Now I just need to convince myself that I really do want to spend 2000$ to upgrade my brakes.
Any comment/suggestion from KYliquid is greatly appreciated before I purchase this kit.
The next upgrade I would do to the car is a heavier duty clutch and lighter fly wheel when the stock clutch is out. And tires, well whenever they wear out.
Any comment/suggestion from KYliquid is greatly appreciated before I purchase this kit.
The next upgrade I would do to the car is a heavier duty clutch and lighter fly wheel when the stock clutch is out. And tires, well whenever they wear out.
Last edited:
Roywhitep5
Member
- :
- 2007 350z
the stock rx8 brakes stop so hard that i felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out of my head. "upgrading" might throw off the balance of the car
what tires are you running, and what pads.
I would suggest you get better tires (your going to use the better tires anyway) and consider getting Stainless Steel brake lines and upgraded fluid (about 150-200 for lines and fluid) and last change out your pads, you WILL notice a huge difference in braking power and feel with lines, pads, fluid and tires. If your still not happy with it then get the BBK (big brake kit). You can still use the tires and fluid, and the lines and pads can still be used on the rear, so your really only "losing" about 100 bucks on the lines and pads for the front...if you still want to go BBK.
I would also suggest trying to find another RX8 to ride in with a BBK, and see how you like it, I have lots of customers that have unreal expectations from some of the BBKs. They spend 2-3K dollars on them and are upset when they findout that their 40-0 or 80-0 distance/time is INCREASED....while they dont take much notice of the fact that their 140-0 is REDUCED by half as much, and the fade is gone.
It really depends what the car is used for, but many BBK's make performance (stoping distance, feel) WORSE in day to day driving, cold stops (no heat in the system) or lower speed braking/ABS braking.
Its just something to think about.
I would suggest you get better tires (your going to use the better tires anyway) and consider getting Stainless Steel brake lines and upgraded fluid (about 150-200 for lines and fluid) and last change out your pads, you WILL notice a huge difference in braking power and feel with lines, pads, fluid and tires. If your still not happy with it then get the BBK (big brake kit). You can still use the tires and fluid, and the lines and pads can still be used on the rear, so your really only "losing" about 100 bucks on the lines and pads for the front...if you still want to go BBK.
I would also suggest trying to find another RX8 to ride in with a BBK, and see how you like it, I have lots of customers that have unreal expectations from some of the BBKs. They spend 2-3K dollars on them and are upset when they findout that their 40-0 or 80-0 distance/time is INCREASED....while they dont take much notice of the fact that their 140-0 is REDUCED by half as much, and the fade is gone.
It really depends what the car is used for, but many BBK's make performance (stoping distance, feel) WORSE in day to day driving, cold stops (no heat in the system) or lower speed braking/ABS braking.
Its just something to think about.
