I took today off to handle some business, and came home about noon or so. About 20 minutes ago there was a quick knock at the door and when I opened it I found presents waiting Brought 'em in (obligatory box shot):


My new toys arrived - A8 brake upgrade kit with the Powerstop slotted/drilled/vented cad-plated rotors and TT caliper carriers, plus Hawk street compound pads:


I also ordered new valve cover gaskets since my car has been consuming some oil and it's a change that has never been done on this car, plus it's an excuse to take part of my engine apart and dress it up in the process. I also had to order new lowers for both driver's-side doors, since one of mine was cracked anyway and I lost the other one when I was powersliding in a snowstorm last month and hit a chunk of road salt (thankfully, the only casualty was that lower - no door damage):


Now the part that sucks is that the weather is crappy and I still have my Z in the garage awaiting pickup, so I can't exactly install this stuff today:


Oh well, at least it's here. Now I just need some dry asphalt or a borrowed garage for a bit to do the install. Even so though, I'm very happy. The brakes look fantastic and they're beefy as hell - I have a feeling that this will be a nice upgrade from OEM, especially since my right front is getting really low. Money well-spent in my opinion - the whole order including shipping was $590.25 and it arrived two days after shipping out. ECS was great in every respect - the rep on the phone was cool, everything arrived as ordered, and it arrived exactly on time for what I was told to expect. Very happy with them and will order again with zero hesitation

 

Congratulations on the purchase! Those rotors look very big! Do they clear stock wheels?

I can't wait to see them on.

 

i hate you, but you still haven't gotten that trunk lip hehehe.seeing that BBK makes me wanna get one, i'm always afraid my brakes are to weak for the weight if the car. and 600 bux isn't that bad for all that. and how the hell did you find a whole chunk of salt to hit? i've seen like 3 inch heaps of it on my street but a whole chunk that took off the trim? man idk how you do it but you rock lol.

 

Speaking of which, hiwords where did you get your trunk lip?

I know there must be your post somewhere which I didn't see.

 

i never said i had one lmao. but if i do get one i'll get it from ebay and paint it myself.

 

LOL.

I was gonna ask if you get the painted one or the unpainted one.

 

well if you do get one get it unpainted because who knows wut kind of crap paint they used and how they prepped it. plus their paint is going to be dark then our cars cuz it's fresh paint.

 

Heheh, Hiwords - little do you know the lip spoiler and headlights will be on the way as soon as I decide to order them. I have the money and it'll be soon, but I have earmarked some higher priorities for some other things recently so those are going to wait just a little bit. The rotors look massive out of the box though, and I think they're going to make a good difference. Once they are on, you should take my car for a run and try 'em out and see what you think of the Hawk pads and A8 brakes. I'm betting a nice feel and some improved stopping.

Kriptonik, as for what you asked, yes the setup is made to fit under the OEM 16" wheels - no bigger wheels or spacers are required. During the job, I'll put an OEM rotor down next to the new one and post a pic of it to show the size difference. It's only an inch larger in diameter, but that still equates to a decent increase in surface area, and the extra torque-arm effect of moving the caliper out farther from the center of the rotor (plus using a better pad composition) should make the difference in stopping power noticeable.

 

Oh, and as for the chunk that took the lives of my left side lowers, it was a big f*cker - maybe fell off a plow truck or something. I just happened to find it at 30+ mph and 45 degrees of tail-out lol. Good thing lowers aren't expensive, but all the same, when I heard that impact, I stopped driving like an idiot and went home to check out the damage. Thankfully, only the lower paid with its life. Everything else is fine. Oh, and I'm ordering the paint for the lowers from Paintscratch.com - if you want to order some too, we can order together and maybe get a little break on the shipping costs.

 

that sounds super, maybe we should start a group buy cuz i know there are tons of ppl who want to paint their lowers