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| The billet aluminum Stoptech race caliper brackets relocate the caliper from the top of the rotor to the front. This reduces the effects of piston knockback on the brake pedal. The higher bleed position also improves caliper bleeding. The bracket also comes with a longer brake line. |
To improve our kit especially for race use, we asked Stoptech to use their Trophy kit race bracket. The race bracket relocates the caliper lower to where it is perpendicular to the ground. The reason for doing this is that the brake system will be less sensitive to piston knockback. The 350Z has weak hubs and the bearings quickly develop play, especially when being driven hard on the track. The play is not perceptible when trying to wiggle the wheel by hand but under load, the wheel and rotor wobble, knocking the caliper pistons back inside the caliper. This makes the brake pedal long and mushy.
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| GTI’s Costa Gialamis applies locktite to the caliper bracket bolts. This is always a good idea for these parts. |
When using a big brake upgrade, the big rotors exaggerate the problem making it worse to the point where you have to pump the brake pedal many times per lap. The weak hub bearings are the Achilles heel of the 350Z. Most of the play is oriented from top to bottom because of the tire’s side loading. By lowering the caliper, it does not see the large movements it would see if it was mounted on top of the rotor. By being perpendicular, the caliper is also easier to bleed completely as well. There is also a self centering moment created by the caliper’s lower position that improves stability as well.
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| The rear caliper brackets are a tight fit to the spindles. Sometimes forging flash interferes with the bracket seating properly. Here Costa Gialamis grinds the flash down so the brackets will fit. This is pretty easy to do and could even be done with a hand file. |
The most important reason why we selected Stoptech brakes is that they carefully engineer the proportioning of their systems to exactly match a car’s stock hydraulic system. On stock brake systems with a single master cylinder, the brake’s hydraulic proportioning is largely controlled by the caliper piston size. The larger the piston the greater the hydraulic force applied to the brake pad, the smaller, the less. Stoptech duplicates this OEM like match with 19 different possible combinations of piston size to make precise proportioning possible without having to resort to a racecar like dual master cylinder system with a balance bar. Stoptech pioneered this ability to fine tune the piston size in the aftermarket. Many things are considered when choosing piston sizes; stock master cylinder bore diameter, car size and weight, weight distribution, brake pad size, rotor size, tire size and wheel size.
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| The main reason why we like Stoptech so much is their correct proportioning ensured by a wide range of properly sized pistons. By getting the hydraulic force proportioning right, you don’t need a balance bar and twin master cylinders like other racing brake systems. Also notice the dust seals. Many racing brake calipers don’t use them. This shortens their service life when used on the street. |
