Noticeable difference between PBR and 4-pot calipers?

[Stupidnewbie]

I seem to have angered the forum Gods by not having anything to say for the last few weeks and it told me to post something, so here it goes, haha.

I will be running the new ATS spindles and I'm deciding what I want to run for front brakes. I'll most likely use a stock C5 rotor, but I'm wondering if there would be a big advantage to running something like a Wilwood Superlite 4-piston caliper over a PBR on the stock rotor. Eventually I may upgrade to a larger rotor/6-piston setup but the budget isn't there right now. Anyway, thanks guys!

[chicane67]

?? Difference with a Superlite 4.... no, not really. A six pot, yes.

The C5 - PBR 2 pot calipers are plenty for a street chassis. For the money involved, the only worthy upgrade would be something like a six pot AP or a six pot Alcon...... other than that, the 2 pot Corvette PBR's are choice.

[ProStreet R/T]

I agree, either sack up and go monobloc 6 or stick with the pbr. And honestly 90% of the time the PBR will be sufficient. Unless you do a lot of track days/racing I wouldn't bother.

[ProTouring442]

Won't the C6 Z06 brakes bolt in place of the C5 stuff? I think they are a 4 or 6 piston caliper. Might be a nice compromise.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"

[chicane67]

Dont waste your moola on 'mono blocks'.

The late model FEA designs kill them in price and have the same, if not better performance in some cases, performance.

Yup, the C6 Z06 brake bolt right on. But they are plagued with their own problems.....

[PTAddict]

If you're going to be doing track days, do some surfing on corvetteforum.com. The stock C5 rotors are apparently notorious for cracking under hard use. The only fix seems to be aftermarket two piece rotors like StopTech.

Otherwise, the PBR calipers can work pretty well. I just ran a track day at Portland International Raceway with my Baer Track/Touring setup (PBR C4 calipers), SBS Pro-Track pads, Wilwood 1" master and 8" dual diaphragm booster. This combo worked remarkably well, with great feel and no fade. The pads were noisy on the street at first, but after being used hard on the track most of the noise is gone.

[fast Ed]

I've been using the Mustang Cobra 13" rotor / PBR caliper setup on my 95 T-Bird SC (~3,800 lbs.) for about 4 years now. Works great with OEM Brembo rotors, and off the shelf Ford pads.

The car usually sees a couple of open-track events every summer, which I run on used Hoosier race radials from the Grand-Am Cup series. No issues so far, other than relatively quick pad wear on the tight tracks. But that's to be expected with OEM pads and sticky rubber on such a fat pig. Going to try a set of the basic Hawk pads for this year, see if they stand up any better. I'd prefer to just throw pads on it at the track once in a while, rather than killing my rotors.

Next year I may try something larger, partly for more performance, partly for more brake bling.

cheers
Ed N.

[funcars]

I found a large difference going from stock PBR's with 13 in rotors to Wiulwood GN-III's with slightly wider 13 in rotors (with aluminum hats) in my 90 corvette. When I ran hard at the track with the PBR's I could overheat them and the pads showed quite a bit of taper too. The GN-III's work much better and the big pads are reasonably priced too. If you plan on a lot of track time and you have a heavy car get the best brakes you can.