Kevin M

iTrader: (12)

The IP Address is: 66.126.26.55. The host name is: mail.brembo.com.



Nice. If you want to pick a fight with Stoptech, at least don't pretend to be an impartial third party.

Steppin Razor

iTrader: (5)

Actually, what I wrote was "technically inferior," which is a true statement.

To get back to your question regarding OE fitments, we have been selected as the supplier for TRD's brake kits and we have been working with them for three years now. That's not too bad for a company that is just 5 years old, but you're right in saying that Brembo has a much larger presence in the OE market. Brembo is an $800 million company that's been around for over forty years, and as a result they are able to allocate the resources necessary to secure large OE deals and deliver large amounts of product at very reasonable prices to the OEMs.

StopTech cannot, and does not, argue that we are a better OE supplier than Brembo, as that would not be a true statement. Unfortunately, that statement was never made by any person representing StopTech and truly has zero relevance to this thread.

Our calipers are squeeze forged in Taiwan by a CNS, QS 9000, ISO 9001:2000, ISO14001, and ISO/TS16949 accredited company whose customers include Mitsubishi, Toyota, GM, and Volkswagen. They are able to supply us with parts that are of impeccable quality at a cost that allows us to price our kits very competitively. The raw caliper halves are then delivered to our facility in Torrance, California where they are CNC machined, anodized, painted, assembled, individually tested, packaged, and shipped to our customers.

This thread is not based on opinions or marketing fluff, it is based on numbers and technical facts that cannot rationally be argued.

The prices I quoted ($2494 front + $1435 rear = $3929) were for the Brembo 328mm Front BBK and 316mm Rear BBK for the WRX as listed on www.tirerack.com. Let's go over some of the features of the StopTech kit that are technically superior to that of the competitive Brembo kit.

The Brembo kit comes with a one-piece rear rotor. The StopTech kit comes with a two piece, floating rear rotor that will allow the rotor to last longer, crack less, and produce less radial pad taper (due to no coning).

The one piece rotors that come with the Brembo rear wheel BBK are 31% heavier than the two piece rotors that come with the StopTech rear wheel BBK (13.0 lbs vs 17.0 lbs).

The AeroRotors that are used in the front and rear of our BBK have a superior vane design that substantially increases airflow over more air than the Brembo non-directional "tear-drop" vane design. To clarify, the non-directional vane design is only used in the rear wheel Brembo BBK. Our AeroRotors still flow more air than the rotors that Brembo uses with their front wheel BBK.

The Brembo kit only comes with drilled rotors from the TireRack website (it may very well be available with slotted rotors elsewhere). Drilled rotors crack sooner than slotted rotors when temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit are seen on a regular basis. The StopTech kit comes with slotted rotors, which perform better than drilled rotors. We also offer drilled rotors for those who prefer that look and who will not be subjecting their brake systems to 900 degree heat on a regular basis.

The Brembo kit comes with red, black, or silver calipers up front and gold calipers in the rear. The StopTech kit comes with matching colors on the front and rear calipers.

The Brembo kit uses the "Elise" front caliper and the same rear caliper that comes on the USDM Subaru WRX STi. The StopTech ST-40 caliper is stiffer than the Brembo "Elise" caliper. I will not comment on the stiffness of our ST-22 vs the STi rear calipers as we have not tested the STi rear calipers. I will push to have the testing done, however.

Piston sizing could be the most important topic in this post, as the front calipers on the STi use 40/46mm pistons with a 326mm front rotor, and the front calipers on the Brembo 328mm front wheel big brake kit use 36/40mm pistons with a 326mm front rotor. Normally, that wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but due to the fact that they advocate the use of the STi rear caliper and rotor with their aftermarket BBK could introduce bias problems. I will have to run through the calculations tomorrow morning because it's 7:40PM and I think 12 hours is enough for today.

Have patience, there is much more to come. I'm not even close to being done.

Thanks,
Tim Kelsch
www.stoptech.com

doubleurx

iTrader: (1)

Round 1 - Stoptech!

Steppin Razor

iTrader: (5)

That is correct, Alex.

The tough thing about that kit is that it uses 38/44mm pistons, which creates way too much front brake torque. The other points regarding front to rear color matching, caliper stiffness, and rotor airflow still apply. We also never

For reference, we have a 332x32mm front wheel BBK for the WRX that retails for a hundred dollars more than our 328x28mm kit (a full THOUSAND less than the Brembo 332mm kit ) and is technically superior.

I would like to continue the listed technical advantages that the StopTech BBKs possesses over the competing Brembo kits.

A very important factor to consider is how well the manufacture will support their product after it's sold. At StopTech, we (Matt Weiss in particular) take a great deal of pride in providing customer service that is second to none. We have been known to go far above and beyond the call of duty in order to ensure that our customers are happy. We also have a very knowledgeable staff that can answer the most technical of questions over the phone.

Cost and availability of replacement parts is yet another factor to consider when buying a big brake kit. At StopTech, we currently stock 19 different street and race friction compounds at competitive prices to satisfy the requirements of our customers. We also stock 328x28mm, 332x32mm, 355x32mm, 355x35mm, 380x32mm, and 380x35mm rotors in plain, drilled, and slotted configurations at prices that are 20-30% below those of Brembo's. It's important to note that Brembo does not include mounting kits in the price of their rotors, whereas StopTech does (Brembo does not include a mounting kit with their rotors, but they do recommend using a new mounting kit when rotors are replaced)

Let's take a common example: 332x32mm brake kits with slotted rotors.
StopTech: $235 per rotor including mounting hardware.
Hawk HPS Pads: $107
Total cost to replace front pads and rotors: $577

Brembo: $349 per rotor + $85 for mounting hardware.
Hawk HPS Pads: $119
Total cost to replace front pads and rotors: $987

Seems in this case that the Brembo setup, that is technically inferior, is 71% more expensive than the StopTech setup.

In the next installment, I will have the bias numbers for the Brembo four wheel kit. Unfortunately, I have a ton of other things to do...

Tim Kelsch
www.stoptech.com