StopTech Big Brake Kit 328x28 Weights and Pics :)
 

What's it cost?

Very Cool... :) thanks soo much looks awesome.. soo by the weight.. it would appear I am going to save about 6.5lbs per corner over the stockers.. Not as much as I had hoped..but Better than stock :) and with much improved braking efficiency.. You Guys Rock.. Thanks again..


Bill

right at $1800... for the whole kit


Bill

I have these on my car, so much fun. Holding in my hands the ST calipers look to be a much better quality then the production brembos on my old sti.

Do these fit rpf1 17x9 +35? I know they won't fit +45.

I'm curious about this as well

depends on the rims spoke design.. it works on a 17x9 42 Rota DPT and Titan..

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...45168538_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/...77895324_n.jpg

Are the rotors floating?

Jow does it compare to the AP Endurance kit?

I'm uniquely qualified to answer this question...I was the sales mgr. at StopTech from 2003-2008, and I now work for Essex (the importer and distributor for the components used in the AP kits). Here's the breakdown as I see it.

Calipers

Anti-knockback springs
AP Racing has them, StopTech doesn't. People severely underestimate how valuable these springs are. After going through S turns, you'll have a much lower pucker factor in the next brake zone with the springs installed.

Piston type
StopTech= cast aluminum
AP= machined stainless steel
Stainless is far superior at keeping heat out of your brake fluid

Weight
ST-40 weighs 7.6 lbs. without pads
AP Racing CP8350 weighs 4.8 lbs. without pads...almost 3 lbs. lighter per side.

Dust Boots
StopTech is a street caliper, and as such uses dust boots. CP8350 has none. If you've ever run dust boots on the track, you'll find that they burn up and cause a big mess almost instantly. Their only value is if you're driving on winter or debris/dirty roads. As soon as they go on track they essentially lose all value.

Seals
Both calipers have quality, high temp seals.

Hydraulic protection
ST-40 has none, while the CP8350 has it for both bleed screw and crossover tube. This feature protects the hydraulics from track debris, and when you're swapping wheels.

High quality forged aluminum
The caliper bodies on the ST-40 and CP8350 are both high quality forged aluminum parts.

Pad choice/cost/size
Both calipers have tons of pad options. The pad surface area on the ST-40 is slightly larger, but they are a few mm thinner than the pads used in the CP8350. Overall pad mass is very comparable, but the nod goes to the thicker pads in terms of wear rate. On average, pads for the AP caliper are $100 less per set for the same compound.

Stainless Steel hardware
Both calipers have good stainless steel hardware.

Footprint/size
In addition to weighing much less, the CP8350 has a substantially smaller footprint and offers superior wheel fitment.

Finish
StopTech= painted. Look pretty, but will not look as good after hard use. Paint and powdercoat tends to change color dramatically at track temps. If you're driving through road salt, they will be better protected than anodized.
AP Racing= anodized. Look 'racier' (like what you see on full-blown race cars like C6R) and do not color shift nearly as much.

Bracket
Essex Endurance Kit has a super trick built in provision for brake ducting...nothing of this sort on the StopTech setup.
http://www.essexparts.com/media/cata...racket05_2.jpg

Rebuild Service
Essex offers a lifetime professional reconditioning service. For a $125/caliper you can send your calipers to Essex and have them rebuilt by the same techs who service NASCAR and ALMS teams. StopTech can rebuild, but I'm not sure how formalized their procedures, policies, and prices are at this time.

Discs

Design
Discs from both manufacturers are quality castings that are crack resistant and will last a long time under heavy track use. That said, the AP Racing discs are a heavy duty 70 vane internal construction, and patented J hook face slot are the #1 choice at the elite level of motorsports (NASCAR, ALMS, DTM, Super GT, etc.). The StopTech's are only a 48 vane disc with a conventional slot pattern.

Price
The AP's offer more features at a lower price. Replacement iron prices per disc are as follows:

• $159 Essex/AP Racing Sprint Kit (299x32mm)
• $249 Essex/AP Racing Endurance Kit (325x32mm)
• $305 for the StopTech's.

Disc hats
Both have a quality design and are made from aircraft grade aluminum. Both are optimized for weight and airflow.

Weight
Essex/AP Racing Sprint hat/disc= 12.2 lbs.
Essex/AP Racing Endurance hat/disc=17.2 lbs.
StopTech hat/disc= 14.6 lbs.

Even though the Endurance discs are heavier than the StopTech discs, the calipers in the Endurance kit are substantially lighter, offsetting the disc weight. Therefore you get the higher thermal mass and cooling of the 32mm wide AP Racing disc, with it's 70 vanes, but you don't suffer a weight penalty on the kit overall.

Wheel Fitment
I believe our Essex Comp kits sit inboard of the StopTech setup by about 5-7mm if I remember correctly, offering more wheel clearance.

Brake Lines
Both systems came with a high quality set of brake lines.

Summary
When we put our Essex Competition Kits together, we tried to look at every piece of the StopTech system and produce something that eclipsed its performance, all while keeping the costs down. My past employment there put me in a perfect position to accomplish this task, and I believe we have succeeded...more technology, higher specification, lower running costs, better fitment, etc. :thumbsup:

A final note on pricing...even though our Endurance Kit is a bit more $ than the StopTech kit, the running costs equal out very quickly. You'll save at least $100 per pad change on the Essex kit (and the pads on the Endurance or Sprint kit are 3-4mm thicker vs. the ST kit). You'll save another $50 per iron disc replacement vs. ST. I also firmly believe that the pads and discs in the Essex kits will last longer due to all of the heat reduction features listed above. The Endurance kit also has the brake duct provision, so that's one less thing to buy if you're going that route.

In terms of the Sprint Kit vs. the StopTech's...the replacement discs are $159 vs. $300. So when you need spare ST discs you're looking at about $600 vs. $300 for the Sprint Kit. That's more the initial price difference between the two kits, and doesn't take into account the laundry list of additional features you get with the AP kits.

^Haha Cant get a better answer then that, Very good info.

@JRitt my vehicle is primarily street driven, but does see occasional track duty. From my understanding, the AP kits do not fair well in daily driven conditions. Is this true? That's the only thing keeping me from purchasing an AP kit.

JRitt doesn't get on here much so I'll offer this: It depends. The roads and the conditions of them will make a big difference. The pistons are still sealed on the AP kits, they just don't have the extra dust shield.

As far as I recall, it's really salt that's the biggest issue. and partially (entirely?) due to the anodized aluminum caliper (vs painted/coated?). I'm not sure if other road conditions may also cause AP to be less idea for a daily.

In reality, it doesn't matter what the finish is, salt can find its way into anything and make itself a catalyst for material transfer. If it's not the caliper face itself, it'll be something else that will take some exposure.

Don't know if this is the right place, but would a nickel plated caliper hold up better than an anodized one? Is cost the only reason not to do that?

I went with stoptechs mostly because my car is street driven with the occasional track event. I was concerned that with the AP kit I would forever have loud brakes (see thread about this here) which being honest, would cause me to not want to drive my BRZ on the street. They are constantly tearing up the roads around me and it's very dusty. I don't drive my car in the winter but I will drive it late into the fall and early spring. The dust boots in the stoptechs don't seem to be a huge track liability like JRitt makes it out to be. They haven't been any issues for me but do look around. JRitt makes the exact same stoptech vs. essex speech on every forum I've come across. I'm sure either would be a great piece of kit but I just don't see enough benefit (~6lb less weight) from the sprint kit to pick that over a quiet, much more street friendly stoptech kit. I'm all about weight loss too but the trade offs don't seem worth it. I don't want to spend $400 on pads just to find something that'll be quiet on the street for a short amount of time before I have to rebed them. I don't want to rebuild them every year because they are internally caked with dirt.

That's exactly the information I was looking for. Thanks! I am leaning heavily on the Stoptech kit for the reasons you mentioned. Being more street friendly means more to me than being more track oriented as it is street driven 95% of the time.

Any feedback from those that have used these heavily on the track?

For the price difference between these and street friendly AP kit and the brake pad price difference, these StopTechs look like the better way to go (I'm not interested in the Essex Sprint/Endurance kits for the reasons mentioned above).

Thanks

Thanks for the info! Looks like Ill go with Stoptech.

Just ordered mine from the SpeedFactory

I'd love to see if the StopTech dust boot survive track use.
I would assume StopTech would know by now that they need heat resistant dust boot.
I have tracked my porsche heavily and the dust boot survived. I say survived, not look like new ;)
I think AP racing is better for the track but resale value of the stoptech is guaranteed to be easier.
I will certainly end up with the Essex because I only track the car but I like the reputable stop tech brand. many of my friend track stop tech on the track and are very happy with them.

I'm fan of Stoptech and their products. We put the ST-60 kit on a friend's 500whp 135i, and in a day at Laguna he melted the dust seals. That being said, Laguna is know to be a very hard track on brakes. The next time out at thunderhill, he had no issues. It's going to be very car/driver/track/pad dependent as well. I've got another guy with an e46 m3 on a Stoptech kit as well with no dust seal issues, and a couple days at Laguna Seca.

I think the AP sprint/endurance kit is a better choice for the track still, but for a dual duty car, I think the Stoptech kit is a great option that comes in at a nice price point.

Installed the kit from @FT-86 SpeedFactory yesterday and discovered that the @Touge Factory brake cooling backing plate is compatible ! Yay!

Pedal feel is light years better than stock.

Next track event is Thursday.

I'll be sticking with Carbotech XP12s since I like them and they cost the same for ST calipers as stock. I noticed that several brake compound companies charge a lot more for the ST caliper vs stock; in some cases almost double!

We've been tracking our ST-40s on both our Project BRZ as well as our Spec86 Cup car. Very good results. On the Spec86 Cup car we have used the Hawk HP+ pads and have been happy with the bite they provide on track. On the Project BRZ since it's a Dual purpose as opposed to the Spec86 Cup car the Stoptech Street Performance pads that came with the kit are being used. Initial bit on them in not as good on track but due to the larger than stock pads they work great on track and provide low dusting and no noise on the street.

These will likely become the Spec Brake kit for the Spec86 Cup Road Race Series.

-mike

I have the Stoptech BBK too. Not a hardcore track guy, have only done 1 track day with them. My car is boosted, ran it on map 1, 380 WHP.

I used the Street Performance pads and they behaved great. They did not fade at all, great pedal feel, one of the sessions my instructor drove the car harder than me and love the brake feel.

Legit question, how come melting the dust boot on these is a concern, yet with other things I've tracked with stock calipers the OEM dust boots aren't a problem?

Some people take their car to the track and work the brakes hard enough that it's a concern. Those peope like to make it seem that anyone driving the car faster than my grandmother will also melt dust boots.

There are advantageous and disadvantageous to each kit, as well as subjective conerns over appearance. Buy what works for you.

We've run Stoptechs on many of our project cars in the past and we have a front and rear trophy kit on our Project WRX. Dan runs them on his ridiculous GD chassis STI.

Stoptechs are not a rare sight at the track. They work very well. :)

- Andrew

I've been hardcore tracking cars with dust boots for 15 years and never had a concern about the boots cracking. They don't "melt" as as some have alluded; they simply crack on the outer edge.

So, for me, it is not a concern. As far as I can tell, only people that sell race kits make it a concern.

Excellent, that's what I suspected. Thanks for confirming.

It just means you've never gotten them hot enough to have that type of failure.

Just because you've never done it, doesn't mean someone else hasn't.

Melting dust boots with ANY car or caliper is a concern. The question is, how hot are you getting your brakes? If you're not getting them hot enough, then you'll never melt or burn off your dust boots.

On the other extreme, I've ran my OEM S2000 calipers without the outer dust boots for nearly 5 years, without issue. If I replace the dust boots, I literally burn them off in one track day. Not melt, or crack, but burn them off and all that is left is ash.

In the realm of this discussion, for these cars (not s2000s or misc race cars) these kits are more than enough even for high levels of skills.

Mike

Update:
- Brake feel is worlds better than stock (on the same XP12 pads)
- No brake fade (on NT01 and Star Spec tires), despite running faster than ever before (due to some coaching ;)
- After 4 days the pads are less than half worn; used to go through XP12s in 3-4 track days
- More likely to squeal louder than stock calipers with XP12s

UPDATE:
- XP12s lasted 7 days on NA power with TF brake ducts (double what I got with stock brakes and the pads are the same price :)
- Dust boots look great

UPDATE:
- Another 6+ track days on the XP12s but now with JRSC power :) Switched to APR duct kit since TF would not work with JRSC
- Dust boots still look fine after 12 track days
- Rotors look good too.

Brake feel is really nice and clearly the brakes are no where close to being over taxed.

Very pleased, and the cost was great too ($1800 and easy to install)

UPDATE:
- 5+ track days on the XP12s
- Dust boots still look fine after 17 track days
- Rotors look good too.

Does anyone know if the ST40 calipers are just direct bolt on? Like I can get diff size rotors etc? Thanks guys

No, if they were direct bolt on, how will you space your caliper for the different size rotors?