I have a 91 Z28 with front disc rear drum set up. Seems fine to me, stops with no problems. But....I am in the middle of a suspension rebuild and will start building a new motor this week. It will see some occasional track use in the future. Debating a brake upgrade while I am it.....
I have been reading up on brake upgrades for the last week (rear drum to disc, 1LE, PBR, C4, 5, etc...Corvette, Wilwood, Baer, etc....).
Everybody seems to have opinions on which is best, some have spent a lot of money and put a whole lot of work into their upgrades....what I can't seem to find is any comparisons between the performance of the different upgrades and how it compares to stock.
Has anyone gone out and measured stopping distances? (I realize minimized brake fade is a huge consideration for track use...would love to hear some feedback on that as well)

 

Don't forget about wheel/tires. Whatever wheels you want to use have to fit over the brakes. Plus, it doesn't matter how huge your brakes are if the tires aren't up to it so you may need to spend a few more bucks there too.

 

you are right. But I have looked and looked and don't see where anyone has tested their upgrade to see what they really got out of it.

 

I have not seen a comparison but a good start would be to look at the donor car test results. as to the aftermarket ones the vendors should be able to give some guidance.

Budget is a BIG part of the equation. Anything bigger than 12" rotor will require at least 17 and perhaps 18 or bigger wheels and tires. As to the "bang for the buck" the best and cheapest route (a '91 drum brake car should have a 10 bolt rear) is the front and rear brakes from ANY '98 - 2002 Camaro - Firebird with 4 wheel disk. The fronts are the same v8 or v6 car. rears are disk only on the v8 cars I believe. I like the new LS1/CTS-V - 2010+ Camaro Brembo adapter the best.

Stock 16" Z wheels fit and the parts are cheap and the car stops on a Dime use E-Bay Brakemotive rotors and Hawks pads. Unless you are going to all out track the car they should be all you need...

The link to the adapter plates is... http://lukeskaff.com/?page_id=355

 

I have one of the first production Baer 13" track kits on my Camaro - we tested it and it was giving consistent 60-0mph stops in about 105ft with 245-50-16 summer tires. Today that would still be considered world class - even more impressive since there is no ABS system.

There are so many brake kits out there, it may be hard to pick a kit that makes sense. I'm going to help - go for a 13" kit and upgrade your wheels to 17" with a 275-40-17 tire - it increases braking power by another 4 to 6% vs. 245-50-16 sized ones.

 

you are right.... that is impressive... the 2015 Z06 does it in 99.6 feet....so, 115 is damn good for an aftermarket upgrade...not to mention no ABS....

 

I can only give my experience with brake fade on my 92 RS with front disc and rear drums. I have no issues in autoX but when I did a large course those top of 4th (or 5th if i choose) 90-100mph straightways into a second gear corner are a nightmare for the stock brakes. They get real hot and smelly and slow the increasingly worse. The big track I was at was an oval with and infield road course so when I came off the back straightway into the infield course is when that would happen, the next few corners were faster, the brakes would cool and recover the rest of the way around the track only to be cooked exiting the back straightway every time.

I have an 01 SS donor car for my LS swap and will be using the brakes from it. I'll try to get some numbers with the stock brakes and then again with the 01 SS brakes.

 

Actually it was 105ft.

Tires have a lot more to do with braking than just about anything else - not enough front tire = not enough friction to stop quickly.

I had seen a GMHTP test a while back where they had a 4th gen, upgraded the front brakes (with a 275-40-17 tire) and were getting about the same 105ft stopping from 60. Next they put more aggressive road racing radials and pads on the car and it was in the 90ft range. Wish I could locate it!