Roy

Would have been interresting watching Kimi go head to head with Vettel....but it robs another competitive team of a top driver meaning Lotus would probably fall back and not be challenging and making good racing...and I think Kimi would have struggled with quali pace and ultimately ability to beat Vettel. You are all speaking of Dan as through he is a 100% No.2! He is quick in quali and at Silverstone given a chance showed like Bottas he is very mature and able to race wheel to wheel and be tough in defending but not stupid...and can also put decisive moves on people when you have a tyre/speed advantage. I will wait to the 5th GP next year to see how much a No.2 Dan will be. At the moment I think he has the potential to have the sort of quali pace to put him on the same row if not higher than Vettel and from there we can see how it all goes. I am VERY happy that Kimi stays at Lotus and Dan has the potential to put himself up against the best benchmark in F1 at the moment. Surely that is the challenge of any young, arrogant sportsman...to test yourself against the best. NOT to only position yourself against people you know you can beat

Pretty pumped that Dan looks to be lining up in a good seat for 2014. Now for Lotus to confirm Romain and I am set for guys to barrack for next year

I take it based upon reading your post that you have not had a huige amount of success with the dramas you were having. I have some brand new Tomei 2.4L pistons that if you want I can have a hard think about price I am after and sell to you. I have been keeping them for an R31 coupe I will one day buy but sounds like you may need them mroe than me. They are only 81 or 82mm though from memory.

There is nothing either APP, or AP CP5555 about those calipers. They use the same pad shape...thats it. My calipers use a Porsche pad, just like many Harrops do...does not mean they are a Porsche caliper. If you are going gung-ho then 355 with a good caliper can fit in SOME 17" wheels. 343mm is a much safer bet for rotor size and 17" wheels....but even then some 17s wont clear 343s if they are a cast design wheel. That leaves you with the far more common 330-332mm rotor size and the plethora of setups that opens up to you. Frankly, pick budget and just go shopping...and wouldnt bother upgrading the rears. They are generally the same rotor size as std, just a little wider (2mm) and the caliper pistons are a tad bigger but you are hardly chasing more braking from the rear of a Skyline. If you have cash and done every other mod to reasonably get pace from the car then grab some rears if you can find them cheaply but hardly needed, especially if purchasing rears means you penny pinch on the fronts. If you want my 2c and you have the cash, then grab a genuine AP 6 pot kit running 343mm rotor. Otherwise just grap one of the Taiwanese kits with a 330mm rotor for 2k odd...loads of people run them with great success

As always the answer is it depends. You are odds on going to have all sorts of problems if you are going from a semi metallic pad to a ceramic style pad. From there you can also have problems when simply changing pad compounds. Best bet is that when you go from your street pad to a race pad make sure you do a weeks worth of kms on the race pad in light duty drives. The cold pad will generally not get up to temp and be rather abrasive. Give the rotors a good wipe down with some brake cleaner and then on the way to the track (or night before) follow your usual bed in procedure. Like wise when switching back leave the race pad in for some street driving to wip pad deposits off using the high friction-cold pad then swap over to your street pad and bed them. It worked ok for me when I was running Hawks vs RB74s. But frankly that was back when I ran 280mm std brakes and I think with any half decent brake setup then you can quite easily get a pad that serves both purposes these days

...and RBR buying out the Spaniards Fezz contract. I cant see this happening as no way Fezz woudl allow Alonso to compete against them in another car next year. Alonso woudl have to forfeit a lot of money and it woudl have to be covered by RBR. Not going to happen...not for a guy that is likely to cause political tension in the team...hell more than Webber did. Kimi woudl be plain sailing...Alonso not so much. But if it does happen says a lot about the Vettel to Fezz rumours!

Budget and what 17" wheel.?

Some pearlers in here.. http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/119541.html

LOVE your swaybar...and understand the reasons for the oil tank but think you should try and stick all weight between the axles..not hanging well in front of the front axle

Safe cars with airbags...who needs a helmet?

holy sh1t!

I will take your 355mm rotors off you. Talk to Chris at Racepace...doing his own kit yhese days....or just go buy whatever Just Jap are branding their Taiwanese stuff

Yeh its odd. I have never asked the question. Perhaps ring Project mu distributer and ask why their R34 and brembo equipped 380Z pad numbers are different. But they are the same pad shape so go with whatever is cheapest...which is why I recommended the 350Z stuff. I ran 350Z DS3000s with the R33 GTR setup I briefly ran

A few people have spoke of trying it but unless you have ABS I say it will end up a bit of a nightmare as the EVO brakes use a piston size as big./bigger than FPV Fords which is waaaay bigger than anything Nissan ever intended for this cars.

Thats why Hamo left. ..Nandos sponsors wanting to make the Mac drivers look like they have crapped their dacks in an ad campaign. Mark Webbers Canberra Milk commercial has more credability than that!

So a 355mm rotor is half the story. You need to make up your mind over the brand and check the hat offset. Manufacturers use different height hats and different thickness hats...all offseting the rotor differently that means you need a bracket to offset the caliper appropriately. If you dont have rotors than the link DJ posted is a good option. great quality rotors and hats and can buy the brackets off them.

bumpage

MAD for taking away the ABS ! I read in a jap magazine that the AD08R are the same compound as the AO50...differences are tread compound and the changes required to allow for smaller tread blocks. So should be pretty close to AO50 if setup right

So still in Sydney until coming weekend so happy to negotiate up until i get them out of my friends garage

I wouldnt go out and buy 5000s. If you have them already then great...but not worth the $1300 or whatever the going price is. std is fine

Yeh, it varies so much car to car and person to person. It woudl nto be strange to have trouble on street but not a track. Depending on the roads and the tracks etc. But on a track like PI and Winton there is only really one or two stops that rqequire you to brake for more than 3 seconds...on the road you often cant carry the corner speed you do on the track so need to brake more frequently for longer periods without the high speed bits between that really gets the cool air flowing, If the thing is borderline on the street though than I expect you are right and you will struggle on a track like Sandown. Places like Winton and I suspect you will be ok, well at least a lot closer to ok. Frankly, I would throw a set of pads and good fluid at your current setup for your first few track days. Minimal cost and will give you a chance to just get out there and see what you like re feel in brakes with a different pad. Having had numerous setups on my car and I can tell you about 90% of brake feel and performance is the pad. I suggest something like a Hawk DTC-70s...high temp race pads that you can get cheaply through the US for Brembo equipped 350Zs....you will most likely get a soft pedal from boiling fluid than fade from over cooking pads and rotor temps. So just take an extra bottle of fluid to the track and give it a light flush every session once things have cooled down. Since you need to change pads anyway to start doing track work than thats a sub $500 solution to getting out there and being able to enjoy the car and get a feel for just what brakes you are going to need. You could find the money saved on brakes could be far better spent on suspension or tyres

You really need to know what rotor you are running..then its the obvious answer...run the bran bracket that you are running rotor wise. OR go and get them machined up which can be the cheap or expensive option depending on circumstances

So you are in Melb? So how many track days are you seriously going to be doing every year? If its 2-3 then that is very different to 7-8. Places like Winton are far easier on brakes than Sandown and Calder...are you going to do Sprints or just drive days? What are you running in the way of pads and fluid now?

First things first...by the sounds of what you are doing...std R33 GTR Brembos will be fine. Have a look at Ant's vids. Seriously quick track car with similar ir not more power than you in his full weight daily driven car on semis. He ran std setup for a long gtime with DBA 5000 2 pce rotors. The car had a bit of an appetite for rotors and pads, but thats because he does so many bloody track days! https://www.youtube.com/user/Ant1997GTR?feature=watch I think you need to just throw some good quality pads and fluids in the car and get out there and go from there. Std kit is pretty damn good if onky doign sprints and fun days

Yeh, sounds pretty poo as now with turbz they are going to have uber torque and will gear them accordingly