Wilwood’s Corvette C5 and C6 Big Brake Kit
First things first. We all know how much we love speed and acceleration. I distinctly remember the first time I rode in a really, really fast car. I couldn't have been older than 15, and I was hanging around a local speed shop when I should have been in Mrs. Bateman's Trigonometry class. Rather than enlightening myself in the sense that Mrs. Bateman would have preferred, I was getting ready to learn my first lesson in forced induction, and the magical feeling that torque and acceleration bring to the road when applied correctly. I had been recruited by a "shop hand" to help bleed his brakes. Regardless of what city this was in and what kind of car this was, behind a set of beautiful wheels sat a set of beautiful, big, glossy, perfectly engineered brakes. These were a far cry from the puny stockers his car had been equipped with when it left the factory some years earlier. These were real brakes. My first reaction, aside 
from an open mouth, was pure joy that I should be so lucky at the tender age of 15 to witness such beauty in the automotive world surrounding me. Long story short, we bled the brakes, he popped in new pads simultaneously, and we went for a spirited drive to bed in the new pads. It was on this drive that I experienced sheer, blistering acceleration like never before in my young life, but what impressed me more was the absolute, retinal detaching, braking that followed each fierce jaunt of acceleration. His tires didn't lock up. His 60-0 distance would have been alarming to the parental unit had she known where I actually was. I had never experienced stopping power like this before. When we returned to the shop, he explained to me that you should never modify a car to the point that its power that outperforms its braking capabilities. This made perfect sense to me. Why would anyone modify a car to go faster than they can safely stop it?
Corvette engineers, whilst increasing the power of the LS motors near the end of 2005 didn't lose sight of that fact. They designed the stock brakes to be quite effective when driven on the street, in a relatively mild, safely controlled manner. But honestly- who hasn't taken their 'Vette up to the mountains on some "spirited" drives? To those of you who track these fine machines- (turn 10A at Road Atlanta never ceases to be a big braking turn after the back straight!) have you never felt the groan and moan of your stock brakes being heated to the point of fading on the track? That feeling of your brakes saying "I can't!" is no more encouraging than sliding into the kitty litter, or hitting gravel at the apex of a turn in the mountains. But thankfully Wilwood has the answer to our quandary of spirited driving: Really Big Brakes.
The simple laws of braking are- the more surface area your brakes have (rotors and pads together in particular) the faster they can slow your 3,180 lb beast down. The more effective your brakes are, the safer your stopping capabilities are, the lower your lap times, and the less stress on your stock set up. If you're looking for the end of your braking woes, your need look no further. These brakes are six pistons strong up front, and 4 pistons strong out back. Along with being gorilla strong in the piston department, these fine fellows rotors range from a respectable 12.19" to a massive 14.25" in diameter in the front. For those than can't quite grasp how large this is- the stock wheel size for most economy cars is a 14" wheel. This means the rotor alone for these brakes is bigger than the entire wheel of the Corolla. It should also be noted before I delve any deeper into the technical aspects of this kit, that it will fit BOTH the C5 and the C6. Pretty awesome, huh? We thought so.
The amount of pure engineering in these brakes is astounding. These brakes are fully compatible with the OE master cylinder and maintain the ABS. Radial mounting and the option for two different piston volumes only begin to hint at the structural engineering feats accomplished when Wilwood decided that having the most structurally sound caliper was of the utmost importance. The caliper is constructed of Forged Billet Superlite (FSL) and starts 
weighing in at a feathery 4.4 pounds. The caliper body is the product of FEA computer design and stress flow forging technology. FEA technology allows the designer to test the prototype in a computer environment to determine the optimal structural design within the dimensional parameters of the component. Stress flow forging produces a part with the internal grain structure of the metal aligned in the direction of the flow of the body contour. The results are a caliper with superior clamping efficiency and ultimate strength against fatigue, stresses, and distortion under load. Pretty phenomenal stuff. All of this engineering generates big brake clamping force with six differential bore stainless steel pistons. Stainless steel is used for its high resistance to corrosion and low thermal conductivity that reduces the heat transfer from the pads. The differential bore pattern balances pad loading to help maintain even pad wear. High temperature bore seals provide long service life and maintain their resilience to provide positive piston retraction on release. Two options for overall piston volume make it simple to match the calipers with master cylinder output and rear caliper size for correct bias proportioning. Just to get 
a feel for how these bad boys look behind a wheel, I have a picture from hotrodandrestoration.com below.
All in all these brakes are some of the best on the market, and provide the most bang for your buck as far as aesthetic styling behind your wheels, and giving the most serious stopping power available to us on the market. The track and show enthusiast should be eyeing these pups with the utmost confidence and a dream of stopping on a dime - every time.
Until next time, keep it under the limit,
-CN