Phanni

Something like 85% of braking is accomplished with the front brakes. All one has to do is check the size of the respective front and rear brakes to understand the truth in this statement. Now my question is, why does the Z06 have the 'brake ducts' at the rear, in an attempt to cool those brakes and and nothing going into the front brakes where most of the braking and heat should occur?

Yeah I know they look kinda cool, but is there really a function?

Cozmo

All C5s have front brake cooling ducts.

Dominic Toretto

Front brakes do have cooling ducts through the bumper. Besides, if you can cool the rear brakes, why not?

Phanni

Because they really don't get 'hot' in a street car?

Bell

Just check out the two small openings on the lower outside corners of your front bumper. Guess where they go...

Rogue Leader

Yes but they do get hot if you track it, which GM expects of some of the corvette's owners. Do SUVS really need 30 inch Tires on the street where they spend 90% of their life?

All C5's do have front brake ducts, those openings under the turn signals.

Dominic Toretto

And we really don't need a HUD also.

Bill Dearborn

If anything the ducts should work better than they do now. I crack rear rotors on my Z more often than I crack the front ones.

Bill

DeeGee

I guess because most of us don't even get close to using the full potential of this car. The brakes issue would have become apparent from high speeed testing. I watched great a while ago when they were testing the C6 at the Nurburgring. Some of the snags they discussed would never even surface for most of us. It was a fascinating insight into the depth of assessment that goes on.

Phanni

Otay, that's the best answer answer so far. The ol' 'it's bettter to cool them and not need it than to not cool them and reallly need the cooling' response..

0TheRadioFlyer97

The rear brakes are much smaller than a the fronts but are subject to the same amount of pressure from the pads when braking. This results in a rotor that gets very hot with substantially less surface area for cooling. Consider that the ZO6 was based on a Le-Mans car and you'll find that the rear brake cooling was part of getting the car to last at high performance levels for an extended period of time.

...and yes the do look cool.

X-Factor

What makes you say that? I've seen brakes in street cars before that were LITERALLY glowing red....and not from an LED ricer mod.

bucwheat

Maybe he has one of those furin carz.

0TheRadioFlyer97

you can do that? Sweet.

Non-Z brakes can get just as hot if driven hard. It's simply that the Z was designed to be driven hard.

X-Factor

Fair enough. I'm not going to assume anything about a car that I haven't so much as DRIVEN let alone own.

Phanni

That brings up another topic. Is there any difference between the Z brakes and the standard brakes? (other than red powder coating)

Glennm27

.... days da truth

Glennm27

Not a thing

AU N EGL

Most Z06 race cars remove the inner rear brake ducts to run 315 or larger tires. the Brake duct opening in the rocker pannel is were many guys mount the trans and diff coolers.

The front brake ducts dont go out to the spindles. without that duct extension ( DRM) the cooling is a moot point.



Even racing the rear brakes never get hot enough to need extra cooling.

Phanni

So my question wasn't a dumb as several seemed to think?
Thanks.