The stock brakes are just fine for street use and "easy" driving school/casual track use, but if you go to any track day and look inside the wheels or check the message boards most guys who track their C6-Z06's replace the brakes as one of the first things. I've seen Stoptech, Brembo, and AP on C6-Z06's at the track and all guys said they were a vast improvement over the stock brakes. One of the guys I spoke with said the 2-piece Brembo front rotors were something like 7 lbs lighter EACH than the factory rotors-- that's huge! They also said the stock brakes were fine on the street but their issues showed up on the track.
Push them hard and you run into pad taper issues, pad replacement is more expensive than "conventional" 2-pad calipers, the rotors are HEAVY (and to top if off one is vaned the wrong way.)
What are you *really* after in the car? If you want good brakes for not a lot of money go with C5/C6 standard PBR's. They are damn fine brakes and don't have the pad taper issues, pads are cheaper, etc. They just don't look as "bling" as the C6-Z06 brakes but are probably the BEST brakes in terms of price/performance out there for street cars that see occasional track days. To do much better than the C5/C6 PBR's you're now into the territory of AP, Stoptech, Brembo, and so on and are probably looking at least $2K per axle. The only real issue I've ever seen with C5/C6 PBRs is the same issue you see with any streetworthy caliper with the extra dust seals-- if you don't take a cooldown lap you'll melt the dust seals when you park the car. This isn't an issue on racing calipers because they don't have the extra external dust seals that "street" calipers have.
I have driven a C6-Z06 and found the brakes to be adequate for my "test drive" which was on the *street* which did admittedly include several very fast stops from high speed. They did not fade and the pedal felt good. I did not experience or witness any of the issues that the brakes have-- which always appear on the track during prolonged heavy use. Also, after test driving I did not ask my friend if I could put his car up on the rack, pull the wheels and mic the pad thickness. Although I would have done it if he said yes.
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Originally Posted by Leadfoot1
It comes on a 70K dollar car for x sakes!!! It has to be at least better than my four wheel drums and at least better than a stock 12" set up????????
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Not a good line of argument. Ford shipped their $150K GT's with defective control arms (14K in parts alone), undersize rear sealing areas on the crankshafts causing rear main leaks (believe it or not a speedi-sleeve was the warranty repair!) and some had improperly casted heads. Doesn't matter how much the darn thing costs, it can still be screwed up from the manufacturer either as a defect or a design flaw.