Well after many years of hard street driving, and a HPDE track days, it looks like my calipers finally spread a bit..

Here is what the rotor looks like after the track day from last weekend.. Notice the uneven wear??



Its the C5 setup and they have admittedly been quite good to me, but now I think its time to move on to something new. A friend that is big into CMC (3 time champion) is selling a Wilwood SL4R setup with a bunch of extras for a deal I could not pass up.

I guess I should end this with saying "Keep an eye on your calipers if you drive your cars hard or attend track days!"

 

I'm assuming there's supposed to be a picture?

 

yea that red x indeed spread quite a bit...

 

LOL.. I hotlinked the image address from my mobile me account and apparently it only showed up for me... Should be fixed now though.

 

yup it works now.

yuppers looks like if ya keep that caliper you'll be buying rotors quite often

 

Yeah, its not just that side.. its both sides..

Getting that Wilwood SL4R setup tonight.. Should have that kit on by the weekend! w00t!

 

Got my new kit.. Got it from a friend who had it on his race car for a whole 3 races.. He got too good of a deal on a Stoptech kit to pass up on so he passed his Wilwood kit on to me.

 

^ I'd be curious to know what your buddy thought of those versus stock/C5 setup. I had a buddy that I did HPDE events with and he switched to 4 piston Wilwoods on his SRT-4.

He got annoyed and took them off after a couple DE's because he was going through pads much faster than the stock setup. I think he said something about the Wilwood pads being a lot thinner than the stock pads. So even though the pads for the Wilwoods are cheaper it wasn't worth the headache in the long run of changing pads far more often.

 

I'm glad you noticed your calipers were spreading before they got too bad. Hopefully the Wilwoods are good to you! Now you can use the C5 calipers as wheel chalks in between sessions

 

I think it really depends on the pad compound that your running more than anything. A lot of people dont like the Wilwood Poly-Matrix pads for whatever reasons. My friend loved the Raybestos ST-43 race pads in the C-5 setup but said that he hated them in the Wilwoods.. He did however find that he LOVED the DTC-70's in the wilwoods.

As far as pad longevity goes, I don't think that there was any issues. I have a set of DTC-70's that he ran on these for 3 race weekends and they still have about half their life left.

 

Yes, very true..

During the last track day it was quite odd.. It was like the pedal was firm, then while under brakes around half way through the braking zones, the pressure in the pedal would seem to build up and push back on my foot a little bit and the car would slow quicker... It was controllable and almost predictable after a few laps, but not confidence inspiring.. Im really wondering if that had anything to do with the calipers becoming paperweights..

Im just happy to ditch the PBR's and go to a proper 4 pot. I know they are nothing like your AP's, but I think they will be fine for me for now, or at least until I can justify some Stop-Techs...

 

almost ANYTHING is better than PBR's When I was spreading PBR's on the regular (before they allowed our 4piston setups), I'd go less by wear on the rotors, and all by feel. But the sensation I got was not like you described; basically I put my foot to the floor and hope the car stopped it would get very mushy feeling and even bleeding the brakes I couldn't get a firm pedal. Upon starting to spread I could just get a firm pedal, but after another session, no longer.

Also be careful on the Stoptechs, I know a couple Corvette guys I race with are very disappointed in their ST setups, and both of them have very good long time relationships with ST and have always liked ST on their other cars. Not sure if it's limited to just the Corvette or if it's a GM thing, but the ST's don't work on the Corvettes..just an FYI!

 

Wow.. Interesting.. Looks almost like SSBC rotors.

 

Is there anyway to avoid calipers (PBR) not to spread other than not racing the car?

 

Not really.. Its an issue that is inherent to the design. GM improved the standard design with the C5 calipers by adding strengthening ribs across the top. They then improved this even further with the C6 calipers by adding even more material to the top and to the back to stiffen it up even more..

The C5/C6 setup is still spreadable though, as can be witnessed by my photo. The only way to cure caliper spread is to switch to a different caliper system altogether like I did.

If your going to push the car on HPDE events, its a likely possibility that you will be dealing with this someday as well.