Just purchased a new to me 06 GT convertable. I have been reading the forum for a while though. One of the things I am interested in is the brake upgrade some have posted but have this question. Most of the upgrades center around installing the Brembo calipers with 15” rotors or a 6 pot kit. I also did see one upgrade with the newer stock Ford 4 piston upgrade using calipers from a 2017 GT. That seems like a lot cheaper way to go and while maybe not quite as good much better than just stock. But here are my questions. This will just be an extra weekend car so has anyone really measured the stop distances with a brake upgrade? Is this worth doing? Second will using the 4 piston Ford calipers with 14” rotors this work with typical 17” GT rims?

Thanks and I have lots more back reading to do. I know I will mostly center around handling. It will be interesting since my last fun car was a 99 mercedes SL.

 

As far as actual brake performance is concerned, there isn't any real need to go bigger than the 14" Brembos as found on the 2008-ish GT500 unless you've built a very serious track-only car.

Stopping distances will vary depending on several things, starting with your tire choice. Don't expect a Nitto NT555-shod car to stop anywhere near as quickly as the same car on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires (like what's on the newer GT350R's and Perf Pack Level 2 S550 Mustangs. Pad choice can matter - a pad with greater initial 'bite' will generally get you stopped in a little less distance because it builds your braking force a bit more rapidly and with less effort on your part. So also does brake balance, which is affected when you start replacing whole brake packages.

Honestly, unless you plan on adding at least a roll bar so that you can run it at HPDE events this car is only going to be street driven. Given that, you can get much better braking with a simple pad swap to either Carbotech's XP8 or G-loc's R8 pad compounds, and this is on your OE 12.4" front brakes. Been there.

Strictly speaking, those are entry-level road course track pads, but they're about as streetable as such things get. Cold bite is still quite good at least down into the mid-20°F range and they're not nearly as abrasive on your rotors as many of the other big "track pad" names (Hawk in particular). They will generate dust, and they can do some squeaking, mostly during gentle braking events (no different from any other track pad). I ran a number of HPDE track days on XP8 pads, and ultimately had to move up from those, but you won't be putting your car's pads to that much abuse unless you actually do start tracking your car. What most people consider 'hard driving' in their street-oriented sense isn't even close.

I've since moved up to Ford's 14" front brakes on my 2008 GT (M-2300-S).

It doesn't take too much to make these cars handle quite well. Wheels, tires, alignment, and a somewhat stiffer suspension are the big pieces, though at age 15+ I'm guessing that at least some of the bushings in the suspension are getting past their "best used by" date. For a street-driven-only convertible you don't want to go crazy with spring and sta-bar stiffnesses, alignment, or lowering. Some is fine, but more becomes too much rather quickly. One extra caveat for you is that some aftermarket rear stabilizer bars may not fit convertibles, as convertibles have extra bracing back there that you'll want to keep.


Below . . . 18x11 Forgestar wheels, 285/35-18 MPSS tires, adjustable front and rear sta-bars, Koni yellows, poly/spherical rear LCAs, about -2° camber . . . and still on the OE springs.






Norm

 

Another option that would be on the cheap side is to upgrade to 13'-14' GT front brakes. they are larger than previous years but not quite as large as the GT500 and you dont have to change the calipers. for the swap all you need is the 13'-14' GT front caliper brackets and the larger rotors, you would use your calipers as they are all the same (except for early V6 cars). the 13'-14' GT500 also added larger rear rotors with same (05'-14 all) rear calipers and mounts, Ford just extended the mounting flange outward to accommodate the larger rotors. there is a guy on ebay that sells adaptors to use the 13'-14' GT500 rear rotors on the earlier cars (I have them and love em'). as always, Norm is a wealth of info when it comes to the handling and performance upgrades for our ponies, I have picked his brain on several occasions and he's never steered me wrong, good luck!

 

Thanks guys. Likely will go the rotors, brake pads and the brake caliper bracket. that seems to be the most cost effective option. I did buy some michelin pilot sports since costco had a sale and they were cheaper than continental dws

 

I have purchased the Michelin Pilot Sports to begin and think the 13"14 brake upgrade seems to be the best for me along with the pads Norm suggested. Can someone tell me if this will work on 17" rims? and if so what is the part number for the caliper brackets. When I looked on Ebay it did not differentiate that. For the rotors I can simply measure them to make sure they are correct.. I also did the strut tower brace and a pan hard bar but I am dubious about the pan hard bar. Stock seems pretty stout. Norm, FYI the car only had 17,000 mile on it and it was an AZ car. My son who lives in SF area found it, went to look at it and purchased it for me. Then during a recent visit, my wife decided to drive it back to MI. Unfortunately what was a pristine car ran into snow in Wyoming, where they put sand and rocks on snowy roads. I now have a bumper with pit marks!!!!!!!! Well I am excited to have it for this summer, its loads of fun to drive. The car I replaced was a 99 Mercedes SL 500 which has 13" Brembos on it. That thing stopped nicely. I also never seem to leave cars alone so I am trying to break that habit with this one. We will see.