By Brembo GT BBK with BM6 Caliper for 2020+ C8 Corvette
If you’ve been following along with our YouTube channel, you know we’ve got a 2020 C8 Corvette and we’ve been testing a bunch of new mods, taking it to the racetrack, and really beating on it. We’ve been having a lot of problems with the brakes, and the brakes seem to be the weak point on the C8 even though we’ve got the Z51 performance brakes.
At the racetrack they were starting to fade, they warped the rotors, and we had to upgrade the pads to get those to work better. The G-Loc pads had been great in the car, not quite as much of a problem, but we still had managed to overheat the system and we went into limp mode and lost half of a track day at Laguna Seca. We had to flush out all the fluid, and it seemed to be a little bit better after that, but we still had brake fade issues. The problem here is that the brakes are the weak point on this Corvette. I first noticed it on the street and then that definitely came true when we went to the racetrack.
If you’re planning to push the performance of your Corvette, and you want better braking performance, you’re going to want to know the new Brembo GT System with the BM6 Caliper, and this is the kit we’ve chosen to upgrade the brakes on our C8 Corvette. We make these articles and videos so that you can learn more about the performance products in the aftermarket, and in addition to that, we sell all of these products at great prices. We have over a million top name-brand products at Motoroso.com where you can reach us on live chat or you can call us toll-free at 833.MOTOROSO that’s 833.668.6767. Let’s dig in.
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VIDEO: SOLVING THE C8’S WEAK SPOT WITH BREMBO’S BIG BRAKE KIT
You’re probably already well aware of the fact that Brembo is the manufacturer of the Z51 brakes on the Stingray, but this is not going to be the pinnacle performance that Brembo can offer. Since this is an OEM system, they had to keep the cost down, but when the Z06 comes out it’s going to have to have way better braking options. It’s a four piston caliper up front and a 350mm rotor and they work pretty well for street driving, but if you’re gonna push it, and especially if you’re gonna take it to the racetrack, you’re gonna want some better braking performance and that’s where the Brembo GT systems come in. These GT systems come in three different configurations.
There is the traditional M6 caliper which is very traditional looking and it’s the technology they’ve been using for a long time. It’s a cast monobloc caliper and you can get it for $4,000 with a 350mm rotor, or you can bump up to the 380mm rotor for $4,600, but for $100 more, you can bump up to the kit that has the new BM6 caliper and this is what we’ve chosen for our C8 Corvette. There are a lot of reasons you’re going to be excited about this and this is what you need to know.
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The BM6 Caliper
The first thing we’re going to talk about is the BM6 caliper because it’s really the star of the show. Brembo is a big company and they have multiple manufacturing facilities in Milan Italy, but the factory where their most advanced manufacturing processes occur is their motorsports factory. While the traditional M6 caliper is made in some of their other factories, the BM6 comes out of their most advanced motorsports engineering and manufacturing facility. What that means is, even though this is a monobloc cast caliper that comes in at that cast price, it features some of the technology you would find in a much more advanced billet or forged caliper.
4D CASTING
The traditional M6 caliper from Brembo is obviously an excellent product and still available, but it’s made using traditional casting technology. In this new factory, they’re using 4D casting technology—I don’t know what that means, but people with much bigger brains than me have figured out a way to get billet and forged caliper type technology into a cast caliper which comes in at a cast caliper price. Specifically, they’ve managed to enable the fluid to move throughout the caliper without the need for any external bridge piping, which is a very popular feature you’ll find on traditional cast products. On this caliper, everything flows internally, which means no exposed piping that could potentially be hit and damaged by a rock—just a nice extra safety standard.
APPEARANCE
Additionally, they’ve been able to go down from two bleed valves which are fairly exposed to one very subtle, and almost hidden, bleed valve which means less opportunity for potential damage. Now, this might be a little bit vain because it has nothing to do with performance, but the 4D casting has allowed Brembo to go crazy with the design of this caliper. It doesn’t look like any other brake caliper out there. This caliper looks smooth, organic and weird, and looks like an alien fist grabbing the rotor. I think it’s going to give the car a really unique look and it’s going to look fantastic peeking out from behind our forged wheels.
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LARGER ANNULUS ROTOR
Of course, there are performance benefits to this 4D casting technology because it enables this BM6 caliper to accommodate a larger annulus rotor. The annulus is the distance from the outside edge of the rotor to the outside edge of the carrier. This annulus is 62 millimeters compared to the 54 millimeters of the traditional M6 system’s rotor—that is a 15% increase in total potential braking surface area, allowing you to have more braking forces from the same size rotor.
SUPPORTS THICKER ROTOR
Furthermore, the BM6 caliper can accommodate a thicker rotor. The 32mm rotor in the traditional 380mm is what you’ll find on the traditional M6 system, but this caliper can accommodate a 34mm rotor. That extra 2 millimeters of the rotor is going to give you a slightly heavier rotor, but it is also more material that can help with heat dissipation which is critical in braking performance.
It’s also worth noting that the BM6 GT System is the only system that can offer that 34mm rotor in the 380mm size. Even the GT-S and GT-R systems are relegated to the 32mm rotor in that 380mm size. I don’t know how to quantify this—and I’m certainly not going to be able to feel it—but this casting process also yields a much stiffer caliper design, which distributes the forces more evenly throughout the whole caliper. The moral of the story is that for $100 more than the traditional M6 caliper, you can get this BM6 caliper and all those major performance upgrades, and it looks killer.
The Rotor
Next up let’s talk about the rotor in this GT system. The stock rotor on your car is a solid iron design, which means that it’s going to transfer all of the heat directly into the wheel hub which can cause premature wear. This is a two-piece rotor that sits on an aluminum carrier that has several performance advantages, the first and most obvious is going to be weight reduction.
LIGHTWEIGHT
Aluminum is a lot lighter than iron and it’s going to lower that rotational mass that doesn’t need to be there.
HEAT DISSIPATION
Another major advantage is going to be heat dissipation. It’s going to help pull heat out of the actual iron rotor and it’s going to do a very poor job of transitioning that into the wheel hub, which you don’t want. This rotor also has an air gap down the middle with vents that help funnel air through the rotor down the middle to help keep the system cool.
FLOATING TWO-PIECE ROTOR
This is not a full floating two-piece rotor but it is a floating two-piece rotor that sits on H-bobbins with anti-rattle springs so you get the performance of a floating rotor without that annoying rattle that would drive you nuts driving around town.
TYPE III ROTOR DESIGN
Brembo rotors come in three different design options: you can get their full drilled rotor, the traditional slotted rotor, or their very unique and exclusive Brembo, Type III slotted rotor. The curves of those vanes definitely have some effect in keeping the pad clean and maybe there’s some measurable performance difference between that and the traditional slotted rotor. But if I’m honest, the reason we chose these is that they look unique and they’re going to look killer behind our forged wheels. This rotor also has a corrosion-resistant zinc coating.
REAR AFTERMARKET BRAKE SYSTEMS
Brembo recently released their rear GT brake kit with 380mm rotors and the BM6 caliper. These kits are available in the same rotor slot designs and caliper colors as the front kits but are relegated to that 380mm rotor size. This proposes itself as an excellent option for exceptional brake performance and stunning appearance in both the front and the rear of the C8 Corvette.
CHECK OUT THE FRONT AND REAR GT KIT FOR THE C8 HERE!!
The Pads
The brake pads that are gonna come in this GT system are the FM 1000 pads. These are pads that Brembo says are perfect for both street and track, so they’re gonna perform at the racetrack and stand up to that punishment, but they’re going to be good on the street and they’re not going to be very loud. Racing brake pads can make some pretty gross noises and you don’t always want them on the street. They do make street pads that you can drop in and they make racing pads that you can put in, but these pads are a good balance.
Of course, the aftermarket is also going to make replacement pads for these calipers, including our friends over at G-Loc Brakes. They’ve got a whole range of street and motorsports pads that are low-dust and made from organic materials that are very environmentally friendly.
Other Components
This kit of course is going to come with the necessary billet aluminum mounting bracket from Brembo, which is just by itself, a gorgeous piece of metal. It also has all the mounting hardware and the banjo bolts that you need to do the install. It doesn’t come with stainless steel replacement braided brake lines as many GT systems do, but Brembo has determined that since 2014 the Chevy Corvette has come with extremely high quality and high-performance brake lines, which is nice because it makes the install a little shorter and easier. Those brake lines are going to perform at the level that you need since most of the work coming from the BM6 caliper
If you have stock brake fluid in your system, you’re going to want to get some Brembo replacement fluid that doesn’t come with this kit. You will want to flush the whole system with proper brake fluid because it’s going to make a big performance difference when these brakes heat up.
Wheel Fitment
This one’s important, but a little bit of a bummer. None of the Brembo GT big brake systems are going to work with your OEM front 19” wheels. These OEM wheels are bulky; they don’t have the barrel or the spoke clearance to fit these systems. Not even the 350mm rotor version—which is the same as stock—since the caliper is too big, so you’re gonna need aftermarket wheels. If you’re spending this much money on brakes and you’re doing these kinds of performance mods, you probably already have aftermarket wheels anyway. If you do need help, you can get the schematics, contact us, and we’ll give you the cross-sections so you can see the size of these calipers and then figure out what wheels they will work with.
We went with the Forgeline GS1R forged fronts, and those have more than enough room to accommodate even the largest of all the Brembo big brake kits: this BM6 system. If you need help figuring out how to get the right brake and wheel combination, hit us up at Motoroso.com; we’re happy to help.
The GT-S System
Brembo also offers two other options in their GT line of products. First up is the GT-S system. This is only $100 more than their regular base M6 traditional calipers, but it has a hardened anodized coating which comes in black only and a hardened steel piston so it can stand up to that extra heat generated at the racetrack. If you don’t care that your front calipers are black and your rear calipers are going to be red, and you know you’re just really going to be driving this car super hard at the racetrack and generating those extreme temps, that’s an incredible value, and you’re going to want to consider that GT-S system.
The GT-R System
You can also look at the GT-R system. This is when you move to a billet monobloc caliper, with all the internal fluid movement, and all of Brembo’s top-of-the-line technology. That comes in a 350mm rotor for $8,400 and a 380mm rotor for $9,000.
Of course, we are an authorized Brembo dealer and we stock over a million other top name-brand products at great prices, so if you like what we’re doing here and you found this article helpful, why not shop at Motoroso.com. Don’t give your money to some big mega-retailer that just doesn’t care, we are here to help you. Thanks for reading.
