Valgorite

Hey All,

Looking for some advice to upgrade the factory brakes on a 2006 GT.

My main goal is looks, while at the same time not sacrificing safety.

The car is street driven (spirited) and not track or race driven. Looking online to some baer or brembo brake systems it's thousands of dollars - something I'm not able to handle at this point (and I'd rather put the $$ into other mods to be honest). I've had some people suggest buying a set of shelby gt500 brakes off of someone who has maybe upgraded theirs - anyone know anybody fitting this bill?

Alternatively, is there a decent option for replacing the rotors with a drilled/slotted (high quality to avoid cracking) rotor that someone could recommend? What about calipers? I've got a local shop that'll do a good powder coat job for a reasonable rate so I'm fine with non-painted calipers.

Lastly - I'd like a low-dust brakepad recommendation, there are a lot of pads out there and honestly, I don't know what's a good one and what isn't.

If there's another thread that contains this information please point me there, I searched a bit though the forums but was unable to find the information I'm after.

Thanks!

ejanderson05gt

I'm no expert on braking systems at all, but I've heard that, especially on street-driven cars, the biggest bang for your buck would be upgrading the lines to SS and some better brake fluid. I can't recall where I saw this, but high performance pads, such as Hawk HPS, can actually boil your stock brake fluid under extreme, repetitive braking. Again, don't quote me on this, just something I think I recall reading. Maybe one of the track guru's can comment on that.

SpartaPerformance

If you're going for appearance, performance and budget then I would recommend stainless steel brake lines, completely flush out the current brake fluid and replace with DOT-4, get those calipers powder coated being he's giving you a good deal. It's not really needed to get crazy with pads. In my experience there really is no "good" inexpensive slotted or drilled rotor that wont crack so my recommendation would be a premium stock replacement rotor like Centric or Raybestos or even O.E.M. and a Centric 105 series set of brake pads.

Lil_Chef

if appearance is your main goal you could just do caliper covers. and if you want that high performance look slotted rotors could be had from brenspeed for about 500 dollars. that would be about 700-800 (depending on your caliper cover color) dollars total. or you could do the GT500 brake system which could be had for just north of $1000.

nemosgt

Just be advised that the Shelby brembo kit will not fit with any of the other mustang wheels. Also your mini-spare will not fit over those calipers.

The OEM brake pads and HD Ford brake fluid will work fine for your purposes. (no track days). For looks you could paint/powder coat the calipers or look at the MGP caliper covers as a low cost alternative. The MGP covers look great, but be prepared to take some flack.

Cheers.

jahudso2

Don't worry about the braided brake lines. I installed them and could tell absolutely no difference. Hawk HPS pads on the other hand make a huge difference. I managed to boil my brake fluid with the HPS pads, so if you like to do higher speed auto-x events or drive very aggressively on mountain roads, I would suggest some ATE superblue or TYP 200 brake fluid.

BigDinTexas

I just swapped my brake rotors for some Powerslot rotors and Hawk HPS pads... Looks a lot better. Braking isn't noticably better, but I don't hammer the go peddle much either.

I did this mostly for looks, and it definitely looks better.

I got all 4 rotors (they are directional, so there are 4 part numbers, unless you order the kits) for $371 shipped to my door from LightningMotorsports.com from Baton Rouge, LA... I posted to see if anyone had used them (lightningmotorsports) in the past and no responses, so I went ahead and took a chance. They were professional and I received the order drop shipped from Centric in about a week. I would buy from them again.

I ordered the brake pads from Amazon. They typically have good prices and free super saver shipping.

I did the install myself. Just be sure to have the proper brake caliper compressor tool for the rears... Fronts, you can use 4" or larger C-Clamps...

Good luck and have fun.
Don

dagamore

brake upgrade from cheap to expensive,

press pedal harder, free
change out fluid to new dot 3
change out fluid to dot 5
better pads
better rotors
better pads + rotors
better pads + rotors + fluid
better pads + rotors + fluid+stainless lines
bigger brakes


but if you really want to see your stopping power improved, get better tires, more grip in your tires + larger contact patch will stop you faster every time.

loots06

I did the following upgrade, hawk gps pads front / rear, ss braided lines front / rear, dot 4 brake fluid with a complete brake system flush. Total cost about 500 bucks. Results no more brake fade. If all you want is looks then just do the caliper covers.

allinon72

Anybody have the Baer Eradispeed +2 kit? Basically adds 2" to the diameter of the front rotors and comes with a new caliper bracket that reuses the stock caliper. Can't find many people with it.