I'm in the market for better brakes for my 97 Camaro SS. I got my engine work done, now I need to stop a little faster nowadays

I was thinking about getting a Baer kits for the fronts. I believe they were quad piston calipersa and 15" rotors?!?! I could be wrong, correct me if I am. . . But I saw someone with the kit and they were HUGE and they fit inside 17" wheels (I have 17" ZR1s BTW) I'm not too keen on removing the ABS just yet, I know these cars stop ten times better without that baffle filled POS. But what I'm looking for is something like that Baer setup, huge rotors, maximum pad displacement and a descent bolt on kit (I can do fabbing).

But I figure I'd ask 20 questions before I do this and make a wrong buy. Awhile back I read a post about someone saying baer brakes being terrible. I also want to upgrade the rears too, but that can wait seeing how this stuff costs money these days . . . But I would like some insight on this matter. I was thinking about doing the LS1 conversion, but if I'm going to spend some money, I might as well spend a bit more for something alot better if possible. Just gimme some recommendations guys. . .

 

Plese take a look at our kit, $824.95 shipped and for that price you are getting braking that is similar to the BAER GT+ and GTP systems, which are upwards of $1200 but also use the C5 caliper.

Lots of info here:http://www.nashvillespeed.com/Fbody/...s/brakekit.htm

Keep in mind this is more braking performance than the LS1 upgrade, and its all 100% new parts as well, not salvage yard stuff.

 

I'll keep that in mind. . . But is it just for the front brakes?!?! I can get a the Baer kit for $700 brand new. . . I'd like to know some people who've compared them both, because C5 calipers are also another pick for me as well. . . Anyone have any opinions on the Baer system?

 

I'm assuming for $700 you're looking at the Baer track kit. The only thing I'd say about it is that the Track kit uses the C4 caliper, which isn't that strong of a caliper. It would be fine for a street setup and light autoX but the C5 caliper is much stonger.

Our kit boasts all OEM GM parts, which keeps replacement costs down. New C5 rotors are $50.....Baer's are almost always much higher.

The upgrade is for the fronts only. 99% of the time even racers don't need a rear upgrade, the fronts do 70% of the work. The cheapest rear upgrade you could do would probably be to go to the LS1 F-body rear brakes, which are actually a little larger than C5 rear brakes.

 

Actually I don't know which kit it is exactly. . . Buying from a buddy who knows some people, he's got a set on his and I'm going to hafta say their definitely not the C4 type, he's got 17" wheels and the rotor takes up almost the whole wheel!! and the caliper surface area is twice that of the LS1s. . . But I wanna know if their a good buy before I order them, because someone said Baer sucked a long time ago, I wanna make sure I'm not buying junk. . .

I'll post what kinda baer kit it is when I talk to him next, but I wanna say he said the rotor where 15" or something. . . I can't remember. . . I'm just getting into brakes and wanna get some feedback on all kinds of brakes. . .

 

No way a 15" rotor will fit in a 17" wheel. There'd be no room for the caliper. The c5 kit fits with 1/4 inch left between the caliper and the inner wheel surface.

The Baer track kit has a 13.1 inch C4 rotor, whereas the C5 rotor is 12.8, but the c5 rotor is thicker. I'm assuming from what you're saying you are focusing on appearance over performance.

Any Baer kit will be fine for the street. Our adapter bracket is made very similar to theirs, but its thicker (and therefore more rigid) and is built to tighter tollerances.

 

This is the Baer Track kit - http://www.go-fast.org/z28/MyParts/brake4.jpg

I've been using it on the road course quite a bit, and some autocross, and am quite happy with it. No problems with the calipers. I don't know how it compares to your kit, but your positioning it as "fine for street" isn't something I'd say. Heck, lots of folks are using the stock setup, then upgrading to the LS1 kits, for a good "open tracking" setup. Now if we're talking heavy duty *real* racing, sure, none of these are the best. But the Track kit is quite nice. IMO.

Dave

 

The pic of that track kit is definitely not the one I saw. . . His was cross driller/slotted 2 piece rotors, and they were MASSIVE and literally took up all the space in his 17" wheels. I can't compare the calipers to those in the pic, but I believe they were slightly bigger. . .

But a part of my question is, how much of an improvement over the LS1 brakes are they?!?! And anyone have any opinions on Brembo?!?! I'm looking not for the best in the world, but some pretty damn good brakes. . . Like I said I'm just in the market for the fronts right now, I'll worry about the rears later. . .

 

Prospeed Motorsports makes a porsche/brembo kit that's probably about the best you can buy for an F-body but it will set you back $2000.

Dave, I guess I should get specific. The problems with the C4 caliper that I have heard of is the same problem with a lot of other calipers. After extended track use they can begin to spread. Obviously it doesn't happen to everybody since your Track kit has held up well. For that reason alone I'd steer away from the Track kit if I were going to do serious racing, but there's plenty of people who do use it for that and it works fine.

 

So Chris, the pic I posted is a "C4 caliper"? I really don't know, I'm not trying to be annoying. Baer used to deliver the Track kit with the older style finned caliper, which had some spreading problems (I had those, and had the issue), but that's been ~4 years ago now. Since that point, they've been shipping the calipers in the pic, and I was under the impression they weren't the same as on the C4, though they use the same pad. I haven't heard of any of the spreading issues on these newer style calipers though.

Stealth, go out to Baer's web site and find the brake kit you saw. I don't think anyone's going to be able to guess whether an un-named brake kit is better than an LS1 brake kit.

Dave

 

I didn't realize they changed the caliper. So that may have fixed the problem. That caliper still looks a lot like the C4 caliper but I guess Baer had some changes made for increased rigidity?

The first I ever heard of issues with the Track kit caliper was about 6 mos ago. Before I was ever selling the C5 kits, I was looking to upgrade my own brakes. I was down to either the LS1 setup or the Track kit. I started what became a huge thread in this forum discussing the pros/cons of each, and out of that thread came Bob Bishop and his C5 adapter brackets, which I later began retailing. I came away from that thread with the impression that the Track kit calipers were not terribly durable, but that may simply be from colletive memories of the old caliper.

PS--no annoyance taken I think I oversimplified the issue so its good we are fleshing it out. I definitely want to be more accurate if possible.

 

Sounds good, Chris. Here's a pic of the "old" caliper they used to ship, with all the fins: http://www.go-fast.org/z28/MyParts/brake3.jpg - the new one is beefier all around, and has no fins (I guess a trade-off between better cooling and not spreading?). The overall "depth" of the caliper is the same, it comes to touching, or 1/4" away from a 17" wheel, depending on which wheel.

Dave

 

Yup, the new caliper definitely looks stronger. Beefier = more heat sink material, but I would assume the lack of fins would hurt the ability to dissipate that heat.

I think that's why the C5 rotors are .3 smaller in diameter, it allowed them to make the C5 caliper beefier and have full width stiffening/cooling ribs w/o requiring 18" wheels.

I think the C5 caliper would be a better choice if you were going all out, but not many people are ever going to push their cars that far anyway. Our bracket is definitely sturdier (1/2 inch plate vs. Baer's 3/8ths plate, and larger standoffs too), which I do believe is an advantage because the caliper is located more precisely and more rigidly. But the Track kit is a bit cheaper than the C5 kit.

 

I think that the first picture shown is the same caliper that comes on Mustang Cobra's from 96-99? I think the rotor is only 1.1" thick on it.

I can tell you for sure that a 15" rotor won't fit a 17" wheel. I doubt if it would fit a 18" wheel. A 13" rotor fills out a 17" wheel pretty much.

Also, Baer doesn't make a 14", 4piston caliper, kit for $700. No one does. If you can get one for twice the price, buy it! Most Baer kits with that type of hardware are in the $2500 range and up. $700 might get you 2 replacement rotors, but that's about it.

George E.
Prospeed/Porsche kit brakes

 

You can call Precision brakes. They can custom build you a Wilwood system. Last time I got a price, it was $950 for a 13.1 inch 2 piece rotor with 4 piston caliper. A 6 piston caliper was around $1100. A 14 inch 2 piece rotor with 4 piston was around $1600. A 6 piston was around $1800. They also have ready to run systems as well.