Performance Brakes

Every so often you will come across someone that craves speed, power and wants to experience G-force more and more in every blip of the throttle. To be honest I am one of them. The thrill of putting your foot down on the accelerator only to be forced into your seat and have it followed by the biggest smile you can possibly make! Yes, I crave that feeling and I try to push the limits with every performance part that goes into my cars. But, there comes a point where that hard acceleration requires a hard stop and this is what I want to talk about today.

Upgrading your brakes is a must when adding power, but with upgrades comes some downsides that some may seem as a problem but most will feel is a justifiable trade off.

High Performance Brakes are a Critical Part of Your Build

For me when I start to customize and upgrade I always start with suspension and brakes. But like many other modifications there are some things that people may not like but most find to be a fair trade off. When putting slotted brakes on your car or drilled brakes you’re going to get the pads to bite better with the fresh and clean brake material the slots will provide. If you happen to go that extra bit further and put on steel braided brake lines now you are heightening your brake feel and sensitivity.

The Downside to Performance Brakes?

Here is the down side, if you have Coilovers with pillow-ball mounts or solid mounts they will transfer the noise of the slots or holes going by the pads and it can be less then desirable. Also I want to note that performance brakes will always dust more then regular brakes will.

Totally Justifiable

Now, why I’m saying that some of us feel this is a justifiable trade off is, we rely on the brakes to slow the vehicle down. Yes, performance brakes will dust more, wear out quicker and sometimes can be noisy. But the end result of stopping when you need to is much more valuable then to worry about needing to clean your wheels more often or having to replace the brakes a little sooner.

Don’t be afraid to stop! My brake setup of choice for the average tuner that wants to have better brakes that don’t make too much noise is Stoptech brake pads and slotted rotors with steel braided brake lines and Motul brake fluid. As your build progresses your need for stronger pads or Cryogen treated rotors may increase but this is a great place to start.

Please remember with every powerful car needs powerful brakes.

Ryan K. Fray
Simone Performance.