Great video... I own a 350z and even if i don't do track days ... i feel that que stock brakes need a upgrade to match the geat engine under the hood. But i think you guys made a mistake by " recommending" the EBC Blue Stuff ... they ARE NOT R90 approved ... I just looked at the EBC Web site and they are illigal for use on EU roads.
Thanks Jorge. The EBC brakes do make a good improvement. I saw that on the website too. Don't worry EBC are in the process of updating their website. I've been told by EBC that all Bluestuff pads are R90 approved now.
Road and Race thank you for the clarification... I know now what to order for my car... Your great work just made my life easier... I will keep watching your videos and " burning" money on my 350z... Keep up the good work
See kids, if you go racing always make sure your car has stopping power. I've always considered brakes to be the most important modification and this test demonstrated it. Keep up the good work!
i swear my evenings are awesome when i watch your stuff. No CLICK BAITING OR Stupid silly titles! Just straight to the point proper content! keep it up guys
Very kind of you to say Mabs. It's tempting to use click bait as it does sometimes get you more views but i think it hurts you in the long term so I try to avoid it as much as i can.
Enjoying your series on 350Z upgrades. Glad I don't live in UK with your salt/ winter car destroying issues. I'm driving a fifteen year old CLK280 V6 with no rust at all in sunny inland Australia. You inspired me to have my cars brake system fully bled and new fluid. What a difference that made. Thanks
Alright mate, I couldn’t help but notice that you have a hard time keeping your hands on then steering wheel while on track. Your hand should only be on the shifter when you need to shift. It’s not going anywhere otherwise. This helps when you really start to push the car and being able to have total control of the car. Keep up the amazing Z work, I tried to run EBC blues but I ended up destroying multiple sets in just a few track days. Hope you have better luck.
My Z's brakes on track where okay at best even with upgraded pads/lines/fluids etc and I kept getting issues with fade and pad float which isn't great when you're coming into Quary at 120+mph at Combe (see videos) The best thing you can do I pull the VDC fuel as with TCS turned off, it's only 70% off and cuts in hard. Pulling the fuse, or adding the switch mod fully disables it and improved brake/steering feel so much, it actually put me in control. It's a must for on track.
I enjoy watching your Videos. Keep it up! Just to clarify, overheated brake pads with good fluid will give you the same pedal feel (for the most part), but less braking. Brake system heating to the point of causing any water in the system to boil will give you the "pedal to the floor" sensation and the pit in your stomach fear sensation (and possible a need of a clean pair of pants). It's an Important difference to note for any track day enthusiast who is troubleshooting brake performance issues. The initial better brake feel with the new parts would have been a combination of lower compressibility of the pad material, combined with the lower expansion rate of the new brake lines making the pedal firmer. The new fluid would have little to do with it, as the water contaminated fluid would have the same relative compressibility as the new fluid until the water boils and things go to hell in heartbeat after that.
Imho the best first mods for a (possible) track day car are in this order: quality tires, upgraded brakes, adjustable coilover suspension, polyurethane bushings and/or upgraded front and rear stabilizers. Only after that stuff is sorted out you can follow up with power modifications. Unfortunately most people get this in the wrong order and start with the power mods and do the other stuff later or not even at all and get surprised why their car underperforms on a track.
I fitted brake ducts to the front of my Z4 track car and the difference in brake consistency and fade (on a similar sporty setup as yours) was enormous. Would be interesting to see your results with brake ducts
Cool, looking forward to it! Some silicone tubing (prices for the same stuff differs a LOT, so shop around), front inlets and adapter to your brake discs and hey presto. Lowered my disc and pad temperatures by at least 100 degrees, and my pads last a lot longer. I used to eat through EBC yellow stuffs in a few sessions, now my pads last for several track days.
I planned making them at first, but I could get a set of Turner motorsport carbon adapters for cheap, so I went that route. DIY would be interesting for your channel though! After a lot of googling, I arrived at demon tweeks to be by far the cheapest and they have a wide range. I went with the APS silicone duct 76mm, and revotec inlet. If you can get those revotecs inlets fitted to a hole in your dust shield, you should have a decent diy adapter. From the front the modification looks really cool too. Fitting took about 2 hours to do properly.
Thanks Mike. Agreed but it does take a long time to do this. We did do these tests though on our Clio track car in Series 4 if you wanna check that out?
Road and Race sorry, I should have mentioned the hassle in doing that. Very time consuming process. I just think to improve fast street driving pads and fluid would be more than enough.
Great content, love the presenting style.. and the oh so 80s synth music! 👌🏼 Binge watching your vids.. I don’t have a 350Z (Mk2 Focus RS & BMW E63 630i Sport), but process and principles are all the same. It’s amazing how many people skimp on brakes.. Subbed
@@RoadandRacetv You're welcome, it's really great high quality content.. I have followed Gary's journey too.. shame about his Mk3 experience, but looking forward to his Mk2 vids.. Cheers
Nice Vid, as a 350Z owner i recommend you the Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads. For Rotors you should try to get your hands on JBT or Akebono (two-piece rotors with aluminium hub-->less rotating and unsprung mass), they work way better than solid one-piece Rotors. .
UK spec 350Z's come standard with Brembo 6pot calipers at the front (I think 4pot at the back). It would be great to know if uprated calipers would make a modest difference.
consistent but interesting how the stock setup was able to stop in a slightly shorter distance when they weren't hot. I thought they'd at least stop a meter quicker
Nice video! What time was the brake fluid in the car with the stock brakes? If it was old, there was water in it and explains why you had bad brakes when they got hot. Together with the performance brakes you changed the brake fluid. If you did the first tests with old brake fluid, maybe the stock brakes are not that bad as you suggest. Of course the grooved EBC brakes do a better job.
How is everybody else finding EBC pads? I never heard anything good about them. I'm using Hawk HP+ on my s2000 with stock rotor sizes (slotted like in this video) and they work well. More dust and squeal than a stock pad of course but it's proportional to braking performance gained
Great video, Great information. Maybe try some proper pads though like the ferodo DS3000!! I've used EBC before and thought they were pretty good but not amazing. I now run DS3000's on the front and DS2500's on the rear and they are leagues ahead of any of the EBC offerings.
Thanks Matt. Not tried the DS3000 but i did try the DS2500 on my M3. They were quite cheap to buy but overheated and faded after only a few laps on the track.
Did you keep this brake upgrade also for normal road use, or do you swap back and forth between road and track days? How bad or good is the brake dust issue? Thanks.
Thanks Jon. Nothing set in stone but likely coilover suspension, stiffer sway bars, some gentle weight reduction, iphone integration, bucket seats, brake cooling, exhaust and engine mods for more power.
Thanks for the response. Had you already upgraded calipers prior to this test, or did your Z's stock package include Brembo calipers? Were those therefore 12.76" discs? My 2004 350z was not equipped with Brembo calipers, and my disc size are 11.65x0.95" front and 11.50x0.63" back. I'm thinking about keeping the stock calipers and upgrading to the same or similar EBC discs and EBC Yellowstuff pads as my Z is primarily road driven with an occasional trip to the track (2-3 x year). Are you in a position to comment: do you believe that keeping my stock calipers (perhaps getting new piston and seals at some point) and upgrading to EBC discs and pads will yield better performance? Thanks so much.
I would it find better if you would compare new standart Breake equipment with new racing stuff. Because of the bad conditions of the standart breake are shown. With new OEM parts it would be much better.
The standard brakes were in good shape. The pads had plenty of material left and the discs were no more than half worn. I don't see how new ones would have performed any better.
Especially for the Pads the age is important. 10 year old pads with half of material on the plate could be so worse. because they are harden up and become crumbly. Also brake fluid, age is important. Ive changed the old fluid to new one after 6 years. OEM to OEM and that was such an improvement. However, your tests are great. I dont want to criticize your vid. Also the work is fine. Hope to see a new upload soon! :)
I'd say oldish brake fluid make a big difference too(dot is higroscopic, there is no such thing as race and non race dot 4), he mentioned the brakes feeling mushy, which also sudgests the brake lines weren't in their best condition ;)
I don't really have any experience with 5.1. To be fair I don't really see it around. Have you used it? EBC wanted us to review their fluid anyway so that's what we've done.
Are you sure you can use an IR-Thermometer on reflective surfaces like brake disks? I believe it will give you really, really odd measurements, won't it? Also, I believe you might want to reconsider the position of your hands on the wheel when on the track. Wouldn't that make quite a decent bunch of episodes: Compare both of your performance on the same track in the same car over an event. Then, you get an instructor and we will see how much your driving improves compared to Gary's who has to continue on his own. Imagine you would come to Germany and then we would find an instructor and then do exactly this. If only I knew a motorsports instructor we could ask, hmmmm...
Hey Oliver, how's things? No idea about the IR-Thermometer. Seems to work fine but I'm not an expert. It's the only thing I can think of to measure the heat unless you have any ideas? I like your idea for the show! Let me know if you find that instructor! ;-)
I believe the measurement on reflective surfaces is wronged because ambient IR light, from the sun for example, is reflected by the surface and interferes with the measurement. I saw people treat the surface they wanted to measure with black spray paint beforehand but that is not an option here. Anyhow, maybe the difference is not that big and we can just ignore that for this purpose :-) I will keep the instructor idea in mind and will contact you in time in 2019 I'd say.
EBC BlueStuff do NOT have R90 certification according to their website. Your assertion that they do is dangerous, misleading and could possibly invalidate insurance policies. Be careful chaps, and do your fact checking if you do make proclamations.
I saw that on the website too. Don't worry EBC are in the process of updating their website. I've been told by EBC that all Bluestuff pads are R90 approved now.
Great video... I own a 350z and even if i don't do track days ... i feel that que stock brakes need a upgrade to match the geat engine under the hood.
But i think you guys made a mistake by " recommending" the EBC Blue Stuff ... they ARE NOT R90 approved ... I just looked at the EBC Web site and they are illigal for use on EU roads.
Thanks Jorge. The EBC brakes do make a good improvement.
I saw that on the website too. Don't worry EBC are in the process of updating their website. I've been told by EBC that all Bluestuff pads are R90 approved now.
Road and Race thank you for the clarification... I know now what to order for my car... Your great work just made my life easier...
I will keep watching your videos and " burning" money on my 350z... Keep up the good work
See kids, if you go racing always make sure your car has stopping power. I've always considered brakes to be the most important modification and this test demonstrated it. Keep up the good work!
Big thanks Jose!"
no point in going fast if you cant stop
1. Performance Tyres
2. Brakes
3. Suspension
Then power, aero, weight reduction etc.
i swear my evenings are awesome when i watch your stuff. No CLICK BAITING OR Stupid silly titles! Just straight to the point proper content! keep it up guys
Very kind of you to say Mabs. It's tempting to use click bait as it does sometimes get you more views but i think it hurts you in the long term so I try to avoid it as much as i can.
Like to thank the guys for their efforts.
You guys are naturals in front and behind the camera. Always quality content.
Thanks as always James.
Enjoying your series on 350Z upgrades. Glad I don't live in UK with your salt/ winter car destroying issues. I'm driving a fifteen year old CLK280 V6 with no rust at all in sunny inland Australia. You inspired me to have my cars brake system fully bled and new fluid. What a difference that made. Thanks
Alright mate, I couldn’t help but notice that you have a hard time keeping your hands on then steering wheel while on track. Your hand should only be on the shifter when you need to shift. It’s not going anywhere otherwise. This helps when you really start to push the car and being able to have total control of the car. Keep up the amazing Z work, I tried to run EBC blues but I ended up destroying multiple sets in just a few track days. Hope you have better luck.
My Z's brakes on track where okay at best even with upgraded pads/lines/fluids etc and I kept getting issues with fade and pad float which isn't great when you're coming into Quary at 120+mph at Combe (see videos) The best thing you can do I pull the VDC fuel as with TCS turned off, it's only 70% off and cuts in hard. Pulling the fuse, or adding the switch mod fully disables it and improved brake/steering feel so much, it actually put me in control.
It's a must for on track.
I enjoy watching your Videos. Keep it up! Just to clarify, overheated brake pads with good fluid will give you the same pedal feel (for the most part), but less braking. Brake system heating to the point of causing any water in the system to boil will give you the "pedal to the floor" sensation and the pit in your stomach fear sensation (and possible a need of a clean pair of pants). It's an Important difference to note for any track day enthusiast who is troubleshooting brake performance issues. The initial better brake feel with the new parts would have been a combination of lower compressibility of the pad material, combined with the lower expansion rate of the new brake lines making the pedal firmer. The new fluid would have little to do with it, as the water contaminated fluid would have the same relative compressibility as the new fluid until the water boils and things go to hell in heartbeat after that.
Thanks Micheal, glad to hear you enjoy the videos.
Good job guys ;)
Nice done EBC on supporting this channel!
You are the best youtube channel when it comes to comparisons! Great, I love the content!
Good accuracy in the measurements of braking distance...
Great improvement you have made for circuit use.
Yes! Since I mapped my Audi TTs to 330BHP the brakes are a little spongey.Performance brakes and pads needed guys.Great video 🏁🍻
Great video.... you guys need more subs!
Imho the best first mods for a (possible) track day car are in this order: quality tires, upgraded brakes, adjustable coilover suspension, polyurethane bushings and/or upgraded front and rear stabilizers. Only after that stuff is sorted out you can follow up with power modifications. Unfortunately most people get this in the wrong order and start with the power mods and do the other stuff later or not even at all and get surprised why their car underperforms on a track.
That is a beautiful 350z its rare to find that version and in mint condition as far as exterior and interior goes.
Really helpfull tests ...happy to see you both again
Thanks Raheel. Gary was driving trains that day so managed to get him behind the camera!
Road and Race hahah waoww he is a train driver and he is fastest driver on the roads also 👍
Haha :) 0-60 brakingtests :)
Thanks for making these clips. Very nice to watch and very informative. Greetz from Holland!
Your videos are amazing to watch, you deserve more subs and views, one of the best automotive channel's
So kind of you to say. Thanks mate.
It's the truth, can't wait to see you're next video
I fitted brake ducts to the front of my Z4 track car and the difference in brake consistency and fade (on a similar sporty setup as yours) was enormous. Would be interesting to see your results with brake ducts
Yeah, good idea. I'll add it to the list.
Cool, looking forward to it! Some silicone tubing (prices for the same stuff differs a LOT, so shop around), front inlets and adapter to your brake discs and hey presto. Lowered my disc and pad temperatures by at least 100 degrees, and my pads last a lot longer. I used to eat through EBC yellow stuffs in a few sessions, now my pads last for several track days.
Good to hear. Did you make the adapters yourself?
I planned making them at first, but I could get a set of Turner motorsport carbon adapters for cheap, so I went that route. DIY would be interesting for your channel though! After a lot of googling, I arrived at demon tweeks to be by far the cheapest and they have a wide range. I went with the APS silicone duct 76mm, and revotec inlet. If you can get those revotecs inlets fitted to a hole in your dust shield, you should have a decent diy adapter. From the front the modification looks really cool too. Fitting took about 2 hours to do properly.
Dont all vehicles have them? My 09 golf and '14 Transit van both do!
Great stuff, video flew by as always, cheers guys.
Thanks as always mate.
Smashing video as always lads.
Cheers mate!
Great video guys - enjoying this journey so far!
Big thanks Andy!
Road and Race are you guys at Bedford again soon? I try to get up there when I can in my turbo mx5 would be good to see the comparison!
I'll be at Bedford on 10th September (Javelin Track Days). Would be good to see your MX5.
Great video, would have been interesting to see the difference the fluid, fluid and hoses and finally the pads made. R90 was interesting!
Thanks Mike. Agreed but it does take a long time to do this. We did do these tests though on our Clio track car in Series 4 if you wanna check that out?
Road and Race sorry, I should have mentioned the hassle in doing that. Very time consuming process. I just think to improve fast street driving pads and fluid would be more than enough.
Great job Neil i love your 350z GT :)) thanks from Merseyside
Cheers Richard!
Great content, love the presenting style.. and the oh so 80s synth music! 👌🏼
Binge watching your vids.. I don’t have a 350Z (Mk2 Focus RS & BMW E63 630i Sport), but process and principles are all the same. It’s amazing how many people skimp on brakes..
Subbed
Big thanks Wayne. Glad you’re enjoying the series. Some nice motors you have there, especially the RS. Gary from Car Focused got his yesterday.
@@RoadandRacetv You're welcome, it's really great high quality content.. I have followed Gary's journey too.. shame about his Mk3 experience, but looking forward to his Mk2 vids.. Cheers
Nice Vid, as a 350Z owner i recommend you the Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads. For Rotors you should try to get your hands on JBT or Akebono (two-piece rotors with aluminium hub-->less rotating and unsprung mass), they work way better than solid one-piece Rotors.
.
Great vid as always 👌🏻
Would be nice if you also stated the cost of the upgrades
What about calipers? You guys think they make a difference? Nice review
Thanks James. Good question. EBC are currently developing a big brake kit for this car so I'll see if I can get one to test the differences.
UK spec 350Z's come standard with Brembo 6pot calipers at the front (I think 4pot at the back). It would be great to know if uprated calipers would make a modest difference.
Another great video, nice to see the chief tester back on the scene. Think the Nissan needs a turbo/supercharger.
Thanks mate. Glad to hear you like Gary back! Would love a turbo or supercharger. Maybe someone might " donate" one to me...?
consistent but interesting how the stock setup was able to stop in a slightly shorter distance when they weren't hot. I thought they'd at least stop a meter quicker
why are the rotors coated black at first if it just wears off?
Nice video! What time was the brake fluid in the car with the stock brakes? If it was old, there was water in it and explains why you had bad brakes when they got hot. Together with the performance brakes you changed the brake fluid. If you did the first tests with old brake fluid, maybe the stock brakes are not that bad as you suggest. Of course the grooved EBC brakes do a better job.
Thanks mate. We put fresh fluid in the system before we started the tests.
How is everybody else finding EBC pads? I never heard anything good about them. I'm using Hawk HP+ on my s2000 with stock rotor sizes (slotted like in this video) and they work well. More dust and squeal than a stock pad of course but it's proportional to braking performance gained
Such a nice test! Now I want to buy these brakes :D
Go for it!
Great video, Great information. Maybe try some proper pads though like the ferodo DS3000!!
I've used EBC before and thought they were pretty good but not amazing. I now run DS3000's on the front and DS2500's on the rear and they are leagues ahead of any of the EBC offerings.
Thanks Matt. Not tried the DS3000 but i did try the DS2500 on my M3. They were quite cheap to buy but overheated and faded after only a few laps on the track.
Did you keep this brake upgrade also for normal road use, or do you swap back and forth between road and track days? How bad or good is the brake dust issue? Thanks.
Yes, I keep it. Dust is a little worse than normal pads but not a problem
I want a longer video. 👍🏻
Glad to hear it!
The Nissan is just getting better and better , how far are you going with the mods ?
Thanks Jon. Nothing set in stone but likely coilover suspension, stiffer sway bars, some gentle weight reduction, iphone integration, bucket seats, brake cooling, exhaust and engine mods for more power.
can´t wait for the next vid....
Were only the front brakes upgrades, keeping the rear stock, or all four? Thanks.
All 4 mate.
Thanks for the response. Had you already upgraded calipers prior to this test, or did your Z's stock package include Brembo calipers? Were those therefore 12.76" discs? My 2004 350z was not equipped with Brembo calipers, and my disc size are 11.65x0.95" front and 11.50x0.63" back. I'm thinking about keeping the stock calipers and upgrading to the same or similar EBC discs and EBC Yellowstuff pads as my Z is primarily road driven with an occasional trip to the track (2-3 x year). Are you in a position to comment: do you believe that keeping my stock calipers (perhaps getting new piston and seals at some point) and upgrading to EBC discs and pads will yield better performance? Thanks so much.
I would it find better if you would compare new standart Breake equipment with new racing stuff. Because of the bad conditions of the standart breake are shown. With new OEM parts it would be much better.
The standard brakes were in good shape. The pads had plenty of material left and the discs were no more than half worn. I don't see how new ones would have performed any better.
Especially for the Pads the age is important. 10 year old pads with half of material on the plate could be so worse. because they are harden up and become crumbly. Also brake fluid, age is important. Ive changed the old fluid to new one after 6 years. OEM to OEM and that was such an improvement. However, your tests are great. I dont want to criticize your vid. Also the work is fine. Hope to see a new upload soon! :)
I'd say oldish brake fluid make a big difference too(dot is higroscopic, there is no such thing as race and non race dot 4), he mentioned the brakes feeling mushy, which also sudgests the brake lines weren't in their best condition ;)
But still, the difference would be just a bit smaller, still huge.
Did you do the front as well? The video only showed the rear disk and pad install. Just curious.
Yes, all four.
Road and Race Great! Dumb question I know. ;)
No problem!
nice video
Is there a reason why you didn’t go with dot 5.1?
I don't really have any experience with 5.1. To be fair I don't really see it around. Have you used it? EBC wanted us to review their fluid anyway so that's what we've done.
'Super DOT 4' is a higher specification than DOT 5.1. DOT 5.1 boils at 270 C, BF 307+ Super DOT 4 is a race fluid that boils at 307 C
Thanks for clearing that up Adam.
Are you sure you can use an IR-Thermometer on reflective surfaces like brake disks? I believe it will give you really, really odd measurements, won't it?
Also, I believe you might want to reconsider the position of your hands on the wheel when on the track.
Wouldn't that make quite a decent bunch of episodes:
Compare both of your performance on the same track in the same car over an event. Then, you get an instructor and we will see how much your driving improves compared to Gary's who has to continue on his own.
Imagine you would come to Germany and then we would find an instructor and then do exactly this. If only I knew a motorsports instructor we could ask, hmmmm...
Hey Oliver, how's things?
No idea about the IR-Thermometer. Seems to work fine but I'm not an expert. It's the only thing I can think of to measure the heat unless you have any ideas?
I like your idea for the show! Let me know if you find that instructor! ;-)
I believe the measurement on reflective surfaces is wronged because ambient IR light, from the sun for example, is reflected by the surface and interferes with the measurement.
I saw people treat the surface they wanted to measure with black spray paint beforehand but that is not an option here.
Anyhow, maybe the difference is not that big and we can just ignore that for this purpose :-)
I will keep the instructor idea in mind and will contact you in time in 2019 I'd say.
Cool. Thanks for that!
Get a support bracket for the brake master cylinder will help for a better braking,brake pedal will be more firm e response z1motorsports.com
❤️
👍
EBC BlueStuff do NOT have R90 certification according to their website. Your assertion that they do is dangerous, misleading and could possibly invalidate insurance policies. Be careful chaps, and do your fact checking if you do make proclamations.
I saw that on the website too. Don't worry EBC are in the process of updating their website. I've been told by EBC that all Bluestuff pads are R90 approved now.