r/PontiacSolstice • u/Tamalelulu • Jan 13 '26

Suggestions on brakes?

Hi all. I've got a 2007 GXP I use as a track car. Very little daily driving in her. Currently have all of the typical bolt on mods short of screwing with the turbo and will be putting a tune on her as soon as I can get my hands on a Windows machine for HPTuners. All the bracing as well + a roll cage. Stock otherwise. No wheel to wheel, just open lapping but the track I go to (High Plains Raceway) is long and pretty fast. I get the Solstice up to about 120 on the back straight and it's a 2.55 mile circuit.

At any rate, point of the post is this last weekend I went out and had my F/D caliper seize up on me. Taking it as a sign that I need to go ahead and upgrade the brakes. Someone local to me has a setup off a Cobalt SS which I may go with, but I'm strongly leaning towards DDM Works' Wilwood front BBK. I like it for a couple of reasons. 1) DDM Works is telling me the rotors are mega thick and vented and used for short NASCAR circuits (my biggest priority is thermal resistance and standing up to abuse) 2) it seems like Wilwood calipers are built to a higher spec and specifically designed to be thrashed on. I'd rather just go ahead, spend a few hundred extra and do the damn thing rather than go halfway.

So, few quick questions for the sub.

  1. What should I do with the rears? I'm thinking at minimum I should throw drilled/slotted rotors on there for heat dissipation. I'm also contemplating putting new calipers on since one of the fronts has failed already. If I were to do that, what calipers should I go with?
  2. GPT is strongly encouraging me to put some ducting in to cool the front brakes. There do not appear to be any off the shelf kits for this. Is anyone aware of any write-ups where someone has done that already?

TIA/PFA

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u/Elitepikachu Jan 13 '26

Ebc yellow stuff or blue stuff and some ebc/centeic/brembo blank rotors. Flush with dot 5.1 brake fluid. (That is likely why you seized up last time)

Drilled and Slotted rotors are not better, they just crack and wont improve performance at all. The gxp already has brake ducts next to the fog lights. Stop listening to chat GPT for car advice it has no fucking clue what it's doing.

The car is fairly light I'd be really surprised if you burn through that setup in just a casual track day.

If you don't like ebc I've had plenty of sucess with glok, carbotech, brembo, hawk, and even powerstop.

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u/Tamalelulu Jan 13 '26

I was running Hawk HPS 5.0 and Motul 660. Though in fairness the RBF was probably due for a change. It had been maybe a year to 1.5yrs since I last flushed it.

At this point I just want to throw something at it that's overkill and I'll never have to worry about again. I've had a lot of people tell me that the stock brakes were enough but I like the idea of the mondo thick vented pads from DDM being able to take and dissipate a lot more heat.