Brembo "big" brakes for 550

To upgrade to 15" diameter rotors you will need atleast 19" wheels. You can get the Ferrari OEM GTC wheels that are made to fit the GTC Handling package kit that have 15.7" carbon ceramic rotors. Or you can add on aftermarket wheels which I would do. The Hamann PG3 wheels look awesome on the 550/575 IMO.

Just putting on larger rotors doesn't make a difference in stopping distances, not according to the people at Brembo, Alcon and AP. They all say in order to get real stopping distances decreased you need to do the full package of rotors, pads, SS braided brake lines and a quality brake line fluid like Motul RBF600.

I would try to order the GTC Handling Package brake option for your car if you want to spend the money.

 

Don't forget the tires! They make a HUGE difference! Not to mention most of those things are targeted at stopping repeatedly from high speed on a race track, I doubt with the same wheels and suspension settings adding bigger brakes would result in any braking distance differences in street driving. On the track over a session, yes... Unless you are planning on doing some really high speed runs that require a stop to 0, but I would put that in the track performance category and not the street driving category.

YMMV.
James

 

Are your calipers scripted with the Brembo logo vs. Ferrari? If so, you may already have one of the so called BIG brake kits. To confirm specs, consult a Brembo dealer.

 

i always thought Brembo's were standard?

 

More horsepower in the car it is often said that one must follow up with more brakes. I agree, but with a few corrections. Street speed depends more on the driver (if he like to keep the licence or not), than on engine output. If a 3000-pound car is to be stopped from 100 mph, we need brakes for that purpose. Not for how fast the car can reach 100 mph. On the racetrack more HP always result in a rise of the average speed, as the car always is used to its limit. Race car drivers knows exactly where to go off the throttle and start braking. This is not the case on the street. Road, sports car drivers must use a safety margin. This margin makes for more cooling time. So, I will not use bigger discs than just what is needed to prevent from overheating. Unnecessary disc weight reduces cornering power on rough surface road.

I will use the very best low temperature working pads. And no bigger or heavier calliper-pads than needed for even pad wear. The master cylinder system should be balanced for the callipers used. Of course, one can make a few laps at the track. And some very fast laps to, before it is time to stop and cool the discs down.


Powerfull braking, measured in G-force, is a complicated story, greatly depending on how the tires is loaded under during retard. The reason racing cars use huge brakes are to withstand repeated braking. In a way that newer occur on the streets. Big size calipers and fat discs does not produce higher braking G;s. No matter how big, red-painted and racy look the brake system is, it is impossible to create more stopping force than the available tire friction against the road. Pad area does NOT affect braking torque. Big discs and calipers does NOT create tire friction. Heavy braking force is a question of downforce, car balance, tires and a matching brake balance. So, very much attention has been paid to this matter, and, by making use of all four wheels and not only the front wheels, to stop the car. As known, the biggest rubber area is on the rear wheels of the car.
A Porsche GT-1 will brake around 1,05 G over 100-0 km/hr. However, from 200-100 km/hr you are heavely beaten by the GT-1 as this car has better aerodynamics and is lighter than a Ferrari 550/575M.

The Ferrari 550/575M is not an extreme supercar, it's a front engine touring car to be more comfortable than an Enzo or 360 and compete against the big Mercedes and BMW front engine cars. If you're looking for extreme power to weight ratio, supercar performance and braking than go get a Ferrari F50, Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT, Koenigsegg, McLaren F1 or Pagani Zonda.

 

Brake rotor size I think depends on the car's weight. A small Honda Civic shouldn't have big 15" inch or bigger rotors even if it's been souped up with engine mods. If all you plan on using the 550/575M for is just street driving and cruising around than all you will ever need for brake rotor size is 13.5" to 15" rotors in the front and 13.5" to 14" in the rear with 4-piston calipers on all 4 corners. If you are planning on doing extreme driving and take the car to the race race track to hammer it out than I suggest the GTC Handling Package/Fioranno to be installed on your car with the larger but lighter carbon-ceramic rotors and pads with 6-piston calipers. 4-piston calipers is all we will ever need for any street car if all we do is cruise around on the street. The Ferrari F50 has 4-piston brake calipers on all 4 corners and smaller rotors.

 

The F50 did not have Carbon-Ceramic rotor becuase the cost of them back in 1995 would have been huge. I bet a F50 with a set of CC or even 15" with 6 piston caliper, on a track would be a lot of fun.

 

Why would it be any more fun than stock over a short run? You won't over heat the stock brakes in a 20 min run session anyway. Well, I don't know maybe you are an F1 driver or some other VERY SERIOUS race driver and would, but I suspect again on a short track session you would never be able to tell the difference. YMMV!

James
Austin, TX

 

For the 550/575M Brembo offers;

Front Kit: 355x32mm (14") drilled or slotted rotors, with 4-piston calipers painted black, red or silver for $3795
Front Kit: 355x32mm (14") drilled or slotted rotors, with 6-piston calipers painted yellow, black, red or silver for $3995
Rear Kit: 345x28mm (13.5") drilled or slotted rotors, with 4-piston calipers painted black, red or silver for $3195

These kits include the rotors, calipers, hose and mounting hardware.

The other cool thing you can do is get the Ferrari lettering on the calipers instead of the Brembo letters. Another option is to have the calipers painted a custom color. If you have a TDF Blue 575M you can have the caliper painted TDF Blue and Ferrari lettering in white, or whatever you want. These options are $300 per kit. Let me know. Most of these kits are in stock but the custom caliper colors are done at Brembo and take about two weeks.

 

It appears that your car is fitted with the standard Brembo, (OEM manufacturer to Ferrari) calipers and rotors. Some of the aftermarket kits from Brembo, (predicated on rotor/caliper size and pad composition) will offer you a performance upgrade.

 

bbs you won't ever need a brake upgrade unless you take your car to the race track and do extreme driving. All you will ever need on the street is to replace the pads every few thousand miles. Do you really want to spend anywhere from $4000-$17,000 on a full brake upgrade? It's a waste of money unless you are a race car driver and plan to thrash the hell out of your car on the track.

 

I agree with TifosiF1. No sense spending that kind of coin unless you plan on making this a dedicated track car.

ketel

 

Just based on my humble experience, but when I got my 550 the first thing I noticed was that it accelerated much more effortlessly and more strongly than my 355, particularly from 120mph onwards. The second thing I noticed was that the brakes scared the living crap out of me!!!!!! At best I got one high speed brake out of them, by the second there was likely gonna be fade. The car had done 14k and i suspect they were original discs, so I put a new set of OEM discs on and after lots of calls, a set of the new Pagid Yellows (RS19's I think). The Pagid Blues I believe are actually the pads used in the Fiorano cars...so i was told. As such I think they only had about a 50C better heat range, whereas the Yellows have about 200C.

How did they fair...incredible, after bedding them in for 20mins by the end I was seriously gripping the steering wheel during breaking. Car had as much stopping power as it did grunt, which is always handy. I'm sure the big rotor kits improve on this but as others have said, how much do you want to spend and for what purpose. I wanted excellent road use with occassional track. I used a synthetic race fluid as well, you have to otherwise the pads will likely simply boil the standard stuff. On the track, 3.6 miles track with speeds up to 160mph, and complete mix between twisty and highspeed, nothing short of Porsche GT3 with slicks gave me hassle. Seriously, could outbrake an Exige with semi slicks..ok so the driver was crap, but not once did the brakes fade and the sessions were about 20-30mins at a time.

Other bonus is that apparently you would only get 1-2 track sessions out of the blues, but likely 3-4 and plenty of road use out of the Yellows. Great from cold, good bite and feel. Once dusty (don't generate huge amounts), you can get a bit of squeal but a jet wash clears that up generally.

I think my original set-up would have massively improved even if I had go standard pads, but for less money I got the Pagids and would without hesitation get them again. Hope this helps, just my humble experience!!

Jon

 

I put Brembo big brakes on my 550: 380's on the front and 355's on the back with 19" wheels. I had Fiorano, car was lightened, etc. I used the car for extreme driving and needed to be able to stop fast from high speeds. Brake, balance, suspension, tyres, etc are all crucial. I was super happy with the end result. Now the brakes on the new cars are so good no need to waste time on upgrades

 

I believe you said your car had stock wheels and the big brake kits would require larger wheels to accommodate. So my guess is you have stock.

-dsd

 

jonp which brake pads did you put on your car for the street that performed great and do they last long?

 

BB, I might be interested in your take offs F/R, depending on the price.

BTW, you know the pad sourcing trick with the Nissan right?

PS, give my best to the family.

PS2, we banned one of the trolls in your other thread.

 

I have a 2000 550 with the upgraded Brembo GT package. It's worth every penny when you are going 160 mph on the back straight at Sebring; you are ready to turn in and you are asking yourself the question,"Is this thing going to stop?". The stock brakes are questionable the GT brakes at that moment are "priceless".
If you are driving around town. It's not worth it. If you do a track events once in awhile, it's worth it.

I also drove a 575 at Sebring for the day. The brakes worked great, but I warped both front rotors.

 

You needed a better cool down lap! I have done that before. A track I was doing a TT on was about 3.5 miles and so they didn't do a cool down lap after the checkers, you just pulled off at the end of the front straight and so I got back to my wheelchair and stopped the car and took a breath and then opened the door and started getting my legs out so I could get in the wheelchair, took a deep breath and what I smelled was NOT reassuring! SUCK! That was practice too...then I had to race on the warped rotors! The wheel would nearly shake out of my hand when I hit the brakes. Still got 3rd in class (out of 6 or 8) and whipped a tuned R/T10 Viper like a red headed step child and I had never driven the track before. The two guys ahead of me drove out there all the time. NICE!

James
Austin, TX

 

HI there, mine were Pagid Yellows, as far as I'm aware they are RS19's but I think things were slightly re-designated at the time and the one's I got were the newer compounds etc. On the invoice it shows as U1427-RS29 but they were definitely painted yellow not orange. If in doubt speak to a good brake shop that knows Pagid, I spoke to Performance Braking in the UK, tel 01600 713 117 They were great, owner spent his career developing brake systems for car companies so knows what he's talking about and their advice was spot on.

During the pre delivery service on my car it had new front brake ducts as they were squashed, so worth checking, all new rubber brake pipes at the discs as they were full of crystallised crap, possibly due to garage queen or mixed brake fluid, and new OEM pads. Hence whilst a pain to get hold of I stuck with the Selenia Extreme 5 so as not to risk mix contamination (dot4 fluid, good race fluid, cheaper than Castrol SRF but most things are, but then most things don't have the SRF wet performance rating, no major as you just flush out every 6-12months).

So after scaring myself several times just how crap the standard was I went with new Pagid front pads, OEM new front discs and brake fluid flush with race fluid. Simply amazing on track, no fade at all and could get to lock wheels if I wanted to at high speed such was the friction level of the brakes. In my humble opinion I can't really see the point of spending the money on a big brake kit if you do road with 1 or 2 track visits as you likely won't run slicks and therefore likely couldn't use the extra braking anyway. By upping the performance by putting in higher temperature range pads versus bigger discs, for my type of use I likely get just as much braking but I just need to ensure they cool down properly on a track and never do things like just stop after thrashing on the road or put handbrakes on etc..quick way to warp the disc, it will be getting to 600-700c!!!

Day to day I've had no downside, awesome from cold, only difference you notice is that they produce less dust than standard but as it builds up you do stand the chance of more squeal at low speed. Jet wash fixes this. Technically they are a race pad and haven't gone through the road tests as it's uneconomical for the manufacturers to do so due to volumes, so should you leave them in the car all the time, technically no but then would I prefer my road tested system back in there, err no, it's dangerous!

Pagid pads are cheaper than OEM as I think they are the same as the Nissan 350's, I think, oh that and Ferrari creams you on parts prices! So if your discs are in very good condition then how can it hurt to try a set at $300-400 for pads versus $4000 +new wheels and tyres and higher running costs going forward for big brake kit. If someone already spent the money before you then great, but just my humble it's all about friction levels, tyre grip and use. For road use and now and then track use I can get the same friction levels that the tyres can cope with just via a pads and fluids change, they are afterall Brembo discs OEM anyway. The larger discs to me just allow the possible of creating even more friction if you used the same level of uprated pads as they can dissipate the heat over a bigger surface area...but as said, if you are already producing more friction than the standard tyres can cope with then how will this help...you just then move the bottleneck and now need to change the tyres.

Re the original question, apologies as this has strayed a little, I think the standard OEM are Brembo front and AP rears from memory. For what it's worth I had no apparent issues with the standard rear brakes and pads, you can get uprated pads but I thought I would see how the front upgrades faired on track first, and had no issues. They may be bigger tyres at the rear but at least 70% of the braking and weight is on the front when pushing hard on the middle pedal.

Jon