best budget brake upgrade

[Chadly B]

ok.....purchasing a g-body in the very near future, and the goal (of course) is to have a fast multi-purpose car, I want to autocross, drag race, and we have a 2.3 mile road course and 1/8th mile strip all in the same place about 60 miles from here....now....the deal is, It will see some street time, lots of drag strip time (because most of my experience has been crewing/ crew chiefing a low 9 second alcohol burning vega wagon) and whatever autocross and road course time I can scrape in......so, rather than a gigantic brake set with 6 piston calipers and 13" rotors (which I, of course, would love) what would you guys recommend based on this type of usage? They absolutely have to work well on the street and I don't want to look like a total idiot on the autocross, but I also know, after a few passes in a small block vega wagon with stock front discs and a dirt track engineered set of g-body discs on the back of a ford nine inch trying to slow down at 140 miles per hour....that I'm going to want something that works well......sorry for the novel, just trying to be specific.....

[67zo6Camaro]

May I suggest using some type of OEM set-up like a C5 rotor and caliper. The C5 rotor has a large surface area (13 x 1.25) and used with a power boost you can get amazing braking. The parts are typical and common enough that you can get them over-the counter or even from a salvage yard. I run this set up on my car, the only difference is that my rotors are from Baer, but they are the 13 x 1.25 standard vett size. I use a 9" power brake booster. My car weighs around 3000lbs and it stops hard with no fading noticed.

Thats my 3 cents and Im sure there or some other good options that will be offered.

Brett

[Apogee]

I agree with Brett and would suggest putting your money into your front brakes since they're going to take the brunt of the abuse anyway. It's fairly easy to put together a brake setup that will do everything reasonably well, however it's important to keep in mind that they'll probably do nothing excellent since everything is a compromise. Drag racing and road racing are at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to braking...throwing in that it has to work well on the street and Auto-X only makes things that much more involved. The big rotors up front will slow you down (pun intended) at the drags due to the additional rotational inertia, but that's the price you pay to have brakes that can handle the abuse of a 2.3 mile road course. Pad selection typically becomes a factor, particularly if you intend to run race tires on the road course.

For the rear, I'd either stick with drums or throw on some small discs to allow the inevitable 15" drag wheels and tires. The S10 truck discs can be pieced together fairly cheaply, as can the SVO Exploder type kits if you plan on running Ford 9" housing ends. There are other low cost options as well that clear 15's and might suit your budget and vision for your build.

Tobin
KORE3

[Samckitt]

I am going to be switching my front brakes here soon & will have a set of 13" rotors & C5 calipers up for sale soon.

[Skip Fix]

Also consider if autocrossing more that one at the road track the brakes do not need to be as heavy duty as fade is not as much an issue with shorter lower speed "laps". I know lots of guys who even switched back to organic pads vs semi metallics as they did not have time to warm up and grip like the organics do at cold temps.

[Samckitt]

I got an email that someone sent me a private message on my brakes. But i don't see it. Try again please.

[Chadly B]

wasn't me.......but, I am curious, so I'll shoot you one.....

[85GPLEf41]

I got an email that someone sent me a private message on my brakes. But i don't see it. Try again please.

Wasn't me either, BUT i am interested on how you did your rear Vette swap on the 8.5 rear. I recently got my 8.5 and already have C6 rear calipers as well. What brackets did you go with and are you're parking brakes functional?

[Samckitt]

I cheated a bit with the rears. I have the F body "LT1" style calipers currently. I got the brackets from Baer. I want to go with the C6 rears so I'll have to change everything. The C6 rears I think are better but emergency brakes on them will be harder to figure out. Current ones are built into the caliper unlike the C6. I think Kore3 or Ed Miller has, or are developing brackets.

[85GPLEf41]

I spoke to Tobin from Kore3 a while back and he said they were getting ready to release a kit for the g body rear, but it was still going to be a while before it's released..I did look @ Flynbye's brackets but it seems to leave the E-brakes out of the question.I really don't care about them BUT it would be nice to be able to use them. If you figure it out before me let me know on how you did it.

[DoABarrelRoll]

How are the Corvette rear brakes different from the 4th generation (ls1) F-body brakes?

[BOBBYA312]

Front brake size is also gonna be limited by ft wheel size.Got an idea of what size wheels/tires in ft.I had an 86 gran prix 2+2 ( fast back) that I ended up putting the impala 12" brake ft spindles on and used the 1LE ft rotors.Used the Hotchkis tubular uppers and was able to get the factory 15" wheels on it.To do the bigger C5 brakes in ft you'll need 17 or 18" wheels.

[wrkcar]

How are the Corvette rear brakes different from the 4th generation (ls1) F-body brakes?

Parking brakes