Project C7 Corvette Stingray Z51: Improving Stopping With a Chevy Performance Big Brake Upgrade Kit

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The Chevy Performance rotor is a two-piece part with an aluminum alloy hat. The two-piece construction saves a lot of weight- about 4-5 pounds per corner over a solid iron rotor.

This weight is unsprung and rotating weight, so removing it has a larger positive effect than simply removing that much weight from the chassis. The iron friction ring of the rotor and the hat are bolted together.

 

The friction ring of the rotor is set up to be fully floated on the hat. This is done with this special hardware that fastens the friction ring to the hat.

These spacers bolt solidly to the friction ring face but allow about 0.012″ of free play between the friction ring and the hat. Special steel lips prevent the movement of the spacer from digging into the softer aluminum.

In a race car, free float is not an issue, but for a street application the rotor can bang around and make noise when the brakes are not in use. For this rotor, you can see that there is a spring clip right under the nut that applies tension on the hat to prevent the rotor from moving enough to make noise.

Free floating the rotor helps because your typical one-piece rotor distorts like a cone as it gets hot. This reduces pad swept area in extreme cases and can make for a long and mushy pedal and uneven pad wear in less extreme cases of brake overheating.

Floating the rotor can also reduce a rotor’s tendency to warp under repeated heating cycles of hard use.

 

The Chevy Performance rear brake system is also quite a bit bigger than either the base model or the Z51 option brake systems.

On a C7, upgrading the rear brakes is important due the car’s 50/50 weight bias. The C7 carries more weight in the rear than most cars. The rear rotor is a whopping 365mm in diameter and 25mm thick.

 

The Brembo rear caliper is a 4 piston unit that is identical to the Z51 rear caliper except for the mounting ears which are offset more to accommodate the larger rotor diameter.

The caliper piston size and all other dimensions that we could measure are the same between the big brake kit and the stock Z51 caliper.

 

Like the front caliper, the rear caliper has a large anti-rattle clip putting tension on the brake pads to keep them from banging around making noise.

 

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15 comments

  1. Thank you for the video and article regarding the Stingray upgrades. I have been looking at the Chevy brake upgrade but was hesitant due to Chevy performance article stating that the brake upgrade was not compatible with the z51 stock wheels for clearance. I saw your car in the video and read the article that you used the stock wheels. Therefore I wanted to ask if you had any trouble with the stock z51 wheels fitting the upgrade? Was a spacer needed? Thank you for any help or detailed pictures regarding brake clearance with stock z51 wheels.

    Reply

  3. Which are you referring to as being heavier, the OEM units or the upgraded units? Do you know the actual weight of the upgraded calipers and rotors?

    Reply

  6. What is the GM part number for this kit? My local GM Performance dealer was quite confused! The entire C7 project series was amazing and gave me inspiration to upgrade my 2019 Z51.

    Reply

  8. So you did the video showing the b4 the Z51 brake upgrade. What about the after video (I can’t seem to find it). Also it appears that there are disclaimers for using this upgrade kit and it appears the spacer is not available.

    Please advise.

    Thanks in advance..

    Reply

  9. Hi,

    Thanks for the article !! I love it.

    So everything bolted up fine with original z51 bolts and no adapters required ?

    All I would need is ZO6 Calibers, Rotors, Brake Pads and Brake Lines for Front and Rear?
    In addition to 5mm spacer if running z51 wheels.

    Reply

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