need to replace my front brakes, looking for any suggestions anyone out here might make, Also need to replace rear shocks, same thing looking for suggestions.

 

My 2002 XKR has the base brakes (not the Brembo’s).


I’m on my second set of ebc red stuff pads, about 66,000 miles total. I’ve used them on numerous classic cars for about 20 years and several 100,000’s of miles.

They are far superior to the OEM pads, with dramatically better stopping performance. Also, Low dust, and very easy on the rotors.

As far as the rotors go, I just order the basic rotors from RockAuto.com


I drive the car in a “spirited” fashion whenever traffic will allow, including giving the brakes a good workout in the curves. Admittedly I’m not racing, but nevertheless the car gets a good workout daily, and the brakes have never faded or been anything but superb..

Z

PS: I’m still getting good service from the stock shocks, which were replaced before my ownership began. There is over 70,000 miles on them so far. I’d recommend just replacing the shocks with stock units, they seem durable enough.

If your shocks have wires coming out of them they are the adaptive shocks and are fairly pricey, about $1,600 for all 4. Many people just replace them with the regular non-adaptive type, which is a substantial saving. I do have mixed feelings about the “downgrade” in replacement parts. It does cheapen the car somewhat, but reports are that very little functionality has been lost when the non-adaptive shocks are substituted.

 

I believe there are 3 distinct "levels" to our brakes during the life of the X100 series:

• There is the original system with the smaller rotors for '97 and '98 XK8.
• The rotors and (still single-piston) calipers were upgraded for '99 XK8 and XKR.
• There was the option of the much upgraded 4-piston Brembo calipers (in silver or red) and either plain or cross-drilled rotors starting later.

There is a bit of research involved, but it probably would not take much to upgrade a '98 to the better '99 setup. Rotors/pads have been around and should be pretty inexpensive by now. Now if you could only locate some guy that upgraded to the Brembo setup and has a set of '03 calipers waiting for a new owner, you would be in business...

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

This will answer all your questions inc video of stopping distances.