Almost time for brakes, trying to decide what to do.

[ORRadtech]

'18 EcoBoost Premium convertible, 50k miles, DD in downtown Atlanta traffic. No track or strip but enjoy driving the mountain roads north of here.
The stock brakes have been fine but I think I'd like to do an upgrade when it's time.
6 pistons are out of the question. Besides being overkill for my use I'm not changing to 19" wheels.
So, my realistic options are;
1- complete front & rear caliper/rotor change to the standard 4 piston GT (EB PP) brakes.
2- just front to 4 piston and leave rear be.
3-up grade just the rotors and pads in stock configuration.

1 seems like a bit of overkill too and the rears seem hard to source.
2 seems a good choice but do I really need it when the stock have been ok for me so far. Also, if I trade it later for a GT convertible, I'm concerned about passing that to someone who may not understand the changes I've made.
3 is what I'm leaning towards right now. Power stop has a 4 wheel upgrade with drilled & slotted rotors with their z23 pads for my stock calipers that looks good

So, would 4 pistons up front make that much difference over just rotors and pads considering my use?

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[Labradog]

That PowerStop setup is for parking at car shows.

 

[ORRadtech]

That PowerStop setup is for parking at car shows.

Meaning?
Are the stock rotors/pads better?
Any other suggestions for an improvement in rotors/pads?
If you're just being snide that's not helpful.

 

[ModularKid21]

I had the 4 pistons on my non pp car before I went to the 6 pistons and the 4 pistons had great stopping power. I can’t comment on how much better they’d be over the base eco brakes, but I imagine they’re significantly better.

As far as what to do when it comes time for you to replace the brakes, being honest with yourself about how you’ll use your car will give you the answer. Also keeping in mind that your car will only stop as fast as the tire will let it. So if you’re rolling on 50 series all seasons and you don’t drive the car hard when you do hit the twisties, I’d probably just upgrade pads and rotors in the stock configuration.

Me personally? I always push for upgrading brakes as they often seem to be overlooked when considering upgrading a vehicle’s performance. I’ve owned a lot of cars, and I’ve known people who’ve owned a lot of different cars. But I’ve never heard someone complain about their brakes being “too good”

 

[Monopoly]

No track then go GT non PP fronts. In the GT they stop really well on the street. I'm sure there's specs posted somewhere online.

 

[Flyhalf]

If No track use your brakes are good enough
You can buy different pads for a better initial byte. Gloc or powerstop are a common choice for many
Rear not important in our cars.
By the way. You can put some 18 with 6pistons. Apex wheels is one great option

The biggest problem for your car are the reverse rotors. Instead onntaking some fresh air. Ford decoded to reversebthem trying to get air from the outside of the tire..well nlt too much air going through them. So if spirited drive..you might suffer some hard pedal. Also dont forget to a dot4 fluid. Have fun!

 

[TeeLew]

If you can engage abs with your current brakes and tires, you don't need anymore stopping power.

For street driving, I can't really see the need for the OP to change the system much. A high quality front pad with good, fresh fluid is more than good enough for the street.

For the track, I disagree with your first sentence. Engaging the ABS is a relatively trivial task. Bite, modulation, heat management, pre-ABS bias, bias migration, release characteristics, etc. are all meaningful. Engaging the ABS will likely hurt your braking performance and it's hard to get a car to turn into the corner if it's rattling the ABS. If the brake system is really strong without the ABS, it's great to have it there to catch you if you make a mistake (it avoids a flat-spotted tire), but we're generally best off avoiding the intervention if we can.

 

[TeeLew]

My first statement wasn't with respect to track performance at all.

Ok, that makes sense.

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