got an 86 z28 disc up front drum in the rear. car is beginning to become a drag car and its getting hard to stop from 125mph, need to upgrade my brakes. ive got weld prostars all the way around. 15x3.5 in the front and 15x8 in the back. what is an inexpensive upgrade i can do to help me slow down?

 

Drag cars dont' need a whole lot to slow down so I'd recommend a 12" C4 upgrade: 12" x .81" rotors and they'll fit your 15" wheels perfectly. They can handle street abuse as well, I beat the heck out of mine and they really suprised me. Mongoose runs that setup on his Formula and is very happy with them.

Ed

 

any links and what is the price on them. i think 12 inch brakes would be tight fit on my welds.

 

Yeah the thing about drag cars is, they only have to slow down ONCE per run. Every 20-30 minutes or so. Pretty easy, in the grand scheme of things. Very different from a closed-circuit type of course, where they might be slowing down every few SECONDS for a half-hour or more. Or even the street, where you might get up to speed and have to stop, repeatedly in a short period of time.

Large diameter rotors on the front are your friend. (clearly this leaves out your stock brakes...) You don't need cross-drilled, multi-piston, high-$$$ pads, cooling ducts, any of that; just, brakes that will absorb the energy of xxxx lbs x xxx mph, in xxx # of feet, without melting, ONCE. A larger rotor (more sq in of contact area, more mechanical advanatge on the tires) is the main thing that will help.

You are correct; if you have 15" wheels, you're going to be somewhat limited as to what will fit inside them. Rotors are xx.x" in diameter. Calipers are x.xx" thick. That's all got to fit inside of xx" ID wheels. Not to hard to see what the limits are, even for somebody as math-challenged as me.

I'll give you a quick hint: wheels are CHEEEEEP, brakes are high $$$, running off the big end into the trees at 100 mph is even higher $$$. Moral of the story: if the brakes you need won't fit under the wheels you've got, DITCH THE WHEELS, and get some that WILL accommodate the brakes you need. Don't waste your time on "I've got xxx wheels, what brakes will fit"; that's crazy stupid talk. Sell your inadequate wheels to the "greater fool" (yes there's ALWAYS one out there), buy the brakes you need, get wheels to fit.

 

ok forgot to say this is a street/strip car. as in i drive it to the track, carshows and cruise around maybe once a week. ive got weld prostars on because they are light and i can get skinnies for them. im not the only person running these wheels and im no im not the only one that wants to put bigger brakes on. i need brakes that will be fine for the street and slow me down at the back. dont want to get rid of my wheels they have only been on for a month or so. what is a link for that upgrade kit?

 

no link for the upgrade? if i were to upgrade my calipers up front would that help me at all? without going to a bigger rotor.

 

Convert the rear to disc brakes. I am in the same boat as you I had SVO drums on the rear and stock front breaks car use to stop ok at 140 mph. But after I converted it to manual brakes it did not work so good I just recived my new wilwood pro street rear disc kit and will be putting thes on along with some other parts to see if I can stop a little better. Look in the drag racing section I have a post on the rear brake set up.

 

wait until you get to 140 haha.......still stock brakes

 

What link do you need? The only way to really increase braking power is to increase the rotor size and therefore increase leverage. If you don't want to upgrade at this point, get better rotors and pads.

Ed

 

someone said there was an upgrade kit. want to see what it looks like.

 

get rid of the drums in the rear!!!!! i have stock fronts and aero space rears and my car runs in the 135-140 range and it stops ok.

 

I can do about 30 different kits front and rear so I'm sure we can hook you up. I'll send you a PM with my contact info.

Ed