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With the zinc plated rotors, it is important to drive normally and gently for a few miles to wear off the zinc plating. You can tell when this happens because when you drive on the zinc, it makes a horrible scraping noise.
Do not drive hard at this point or you will embed the zinc into your new pads and will risk juddering or uneven braking for quite a while after. After you wear off the zinc, you can then bed your brakes as normal. Nowadays, new pads do not require an elaborate bed in, just a few hard stops from 60-10 mph with a short drive of perhaps a half mile to a mile between stops will do it.
You can see how the taller brake pads really increase the brake swept area over stock as well. As we said in the rear, the zinc plating must be carefully scraped off with light driving before the pads can be bedded.
More swept area, more mechanical advantage and more thermal capacity with only a small gain in weight with an overall lower net weight is a win-win situation here. The proportioning is kept the same to keep the car’s electronic controls happy, and it looks good while getting rid of the cracking stock drilled rotors.
So far, we have not had the time to flog our car’s brakes to really test them out, as we are still working on things and have yet to do the car’s baseline chassis setup and alignment. What we have noticed is a way better brake pedal feel as far as firmness, a lot better initial bite in response to brake pedal input, a complete lack of squeaking and squealing (especially when cold) and way less brake dust than before.
When you also include less overall weight that is both rotating and unsprung, things are even more appealing. Anything to shed weight on this car is a plus, and so far our mods have shaved off close to 45 lbs. Maybe we can get the GT-R below 3800 lbs without sacrificing anything if we are careful.
Our GT-R’s underpinning are coming together fast. Stay tuned in our next edition of Project GT-R, we finish off our suspension by making it fully adjustable, get rid of all the rubber and modify our front geometry with help from the folks at Whiteline and SPR Parts. We want to gain more front grip, increase stability under braking and eliminate wheel hop.
7 comments
Great article! I can’t seem to find a dealer who sells the kit without including new calipers as part of a big brake kit.
Would you mind pointing me in the right direction to purchase the set?
Thanks so much!
Sure, all you need to do is follow the handy links in the article! The supplier is https://www.racetechnologies.com/
Thanks Mike.
I actually did look at their website and these are the two 405 rotors I found, but they come with new calipers: https://www.racetechnologies.com/products/compare/GT-S-1N-.9543A+GT-R-1N-.9543A
I could not find the option you showed with 405 rotors that used the current calipers on the GT-R.
Do you have a specific link to that exact setup?
https://www.racetechnologies.com/products/brakekits/2014/nissan/gt-r-r35-0?vehicle=9422, check it the top of this page.
Thank you. Unfortunately, I have a 2009 and it doesn’t show those as an option on the website for a 2009.
I am not sure why. It only shows 405s available in a complete kit.
Do you know why?
It probably is because the 2008-2012 GT-R uses a 380 x 34mm rotor. In 2012 the front rotor size went to a 390 x 32.8mm rotor. The Brembo rotors will fit the older cars but a thicker caliper spacer (and possibly longer bolts) should be used. I would call Race Technologies and ask them if they have the thicker spacer.
Hi Kojima san! Can you let us know how these brakes have performed compared to stock after real world use? And perhaps if you’ve taken them to the track how that was.
I’m about to order these same rotors and RT TS20 pads based on your review! Also were the pads noisy or dusty? Hopefully less than stock rotors/pads but curious how they compare to say AP J Hook + Endless MX-72 pads. Thanks!