Ap Racing 6 Piston Or Brembo F50 4 Piston Kit?

[Sayajin]

Okay guys. I am currently looking at 2 different big brake kits for my GTR33 and I wanted to get your guys opinions on what to get.

Initially I was looking at the AP Racing 6 Piston kit. However I have a friend who is currently selling his Brembo F50 kit for about the same price I was going to spend on the AP Racing kit. I know that the F50 kit comes with the floating rotors and the AP racing comes with larger calipers. While I know that the number of calipers is not always the decisive thing for stopping power, I think it would make a difference in high quality brake kits.

Which one do you guys think will have the most stopping power? Thanks.

-Sayajin

[Roy]

Are both kits using the same size rotor? Personally i would go AP. I assume the APs are CP5555

[Sayajin]

Actually I think the AP's are slightly bigger. I believe the Brembo are 355mm and AP are 360mm or 365mm.

-=Sayajin

[phunky_monkey]

I would think the AP kit would come with 2 piece rotors too, so that shouldn't be any difference between the two.

Is the F50 kit new or used?

From what I've seen I'd go the AP kit

[mrchams]

I would go AP for the simple fact they are sold here and AP have mechanical support which makes purchasing parts and brake pads alot more easier to source.

[phunky_monkey]

Looks like he's from the US mate, and I'm pretty sure Brembo are available there quite easily.

[Roy]

..but really. Buy whichever you like best... i doubt there would be considerable difference between them...but gut feel is APs are the better buy. You only havbe to look around how many 2nd hand APs do you see on th emarket compared to the F50?

[Nathan_G1]

its all up to you.......have you researched into both from there websites and people who intall them?

ive got R33 GTR brembo's with upgraded floating rotor kit and i always thought they were shit, but in actual fact theyre really good, F50 kit would be frikn amazing in comparison.........

[djr81]

For my 10 cents AP.

A question for you: What type of connection is there between the rotor & the hat on the AP disc? They promise great things for the strap drive.

A second question: Compare & contrast such things as piston area & pad size. This will tell you which is more appropriate for you car.

A third question: Price up the replacement of the rotor only. They will wear out eventually & it is best to find out now if there is a substantial difference in prices between the two.

[Beer Baron]

i know this is a bit OT, but can someone confirm for me the difference between floating rotor and not floating? I understood all skylines use a floating rotor (ie the rotor is just sitting on the hub), one piece of two piece they are still a floating rotor. but now I'm not so sure. I know it's a basic thing, but it bugs me as I have nfi if I am using this term correctly or not.

oh, and if it were me I would take the AP kit over the F50 kit. djr81s advice is sound too. price up some replacement rotors before buying either kit.

[djr81]

i know this is a bit OT, but can someone confirm for me the difference between floating rotor and not floating? I understood all skylines use a floating rotor (ie the rotor is just sitting on the hub), one piece of two piece they are still a floating rotor. but now I'm not so sure. I know it's a basic thing, but it bugs me as I have nfi if I am using this term correctly or not.

oh, and if it were me I would take the AP kit over the F50 kit. djr81s advice is sound too. price up some replacement rotors before buying either kit.

Not knowing what the hell I am talking about never stopped me from expressing an opinion.

Try this, pretty straight forward.

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/faq_rotorsystems.shtml

[Beer Baron]

cheers, well it shows what I know! I had the theory half right. I always thought it meant a rotor that is not fixed to the hub so it can expand with heat, but I can see it's a little more specific than that. and of course means that no 1 piece and most 2 piece are not 'floating'.

[sav man]

the guy who made my brake brackets explained it to me (he also makes knock off harrop floating hats).

He showed me that floating rotors join to the hat via slidible tab's instead of just being bolted on, this means that when the roter heats up and expands, the tab's will allow the rotor to grow outwoods instead of warp.

[phunky_monkey]

Not knowing what the hell I am talking about never stopped me from expressing an opinion.

Try this, pretty straight forward.

http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/faq_rotorsystems.shtml

Thanks for that, turns out I didn't know what it was either!

I always thought it referred to a 2 piece rotor, ie floating on the hat. Now I know!

[Garage Menace]

Something to consider,

My old man has an 750hp street driven R32 GTR with 8 piston Brembo monoblock fronts on 375mm rotors, and 6 piston rears on 350mm rotors that are fully floating (overkill I know) and were built by an engineering company that does a lot of V8 supercar work (along with various other high level motorsport work). These brakes are considerably better than those fitted to V8 supercars (they are limited by the rules) and are similar to those run by Le Mans cars (minus the carbon rotors most of them use).

Point of this post is that while they stop unbelievably with the semi-slick road legal tyres that are fitted to the car, the floating discs rattle constantly at low speeds (all speeds actually, just the sound is masked by the engine and road noise at normal speed), to the point that it sounds like the suspension is falling out of the car causing everyone in the vicinity to actually turn around and look at you. The noise (and attention) gets very annoying after a while, and can be quite disconcerting.

In addition, as per my point re the tyres above, any high level brake kit will be severely limited by the tyres that are on the car. You will not get anywhere near the capability of the brakes unless you have top quality (sticky) tyres fitted.

Realistically, if this enquiry was about a GTR (I forgot considering this post has turned into War and Peace), I would save your pennies and instead use top quality pads, fluid and lines, and maybe increase your rotor size the next time they are replaced while retaining the factory calipers, unless you are prepared to commit and do the whole lot properly.

Hope this helps.