Latest News

Mar 12, 2018

R32, R33, R34 Brembo Brakes : Brake Upgrades : Brake Downgrades




Brakes:  Overlooked by most.  Sort of important if you want your car to stop.  Also important, tires, but this post is about brakes. We have an entire post on the Sumitomo brakes that came standard on the R32 GT-R.  I realized that I have not put much specific brake information about the Brembo brakes that come on the R32 Vspec and Vspec II , R33, and R34 GT-R.  There are also upgrade brake kits such as the F40 (332 or 343 mm), F50(355 mm), and R35(380mm 09-11, 390mm 12 up) calipers and rotors, which are popular swaps for these cars. 

How to Identify Your Brakes: 

This is important. With cars that are over 25 years old, there is no telling what brakes are actually on the car. Even though it "should" be something, or seems like something, it might not be. 

1. Remove brake pad and trace the outline from one pad.  This will give you a shape that almost any decent race brake shop can identify.  Friction Material Standards Institute number. FMSI number

2. Measure rotor diameter and thickness- front and rear

Without doing this, you really are just guessing. 

R34 Brembo Brakes (Gold) 4 pot/piston. 
The R32 Vspec and Vspec II got a brake upgrade in the form of Brembo calipers, and larger rotors front and rear.  324mm x 30 mm Brembo front vs a 296 mm x 32 mm Sumitomo/Nissan front. 


From the now defunct Webbers RB Guide page. 

  • Std Brembo R32/R33/R34 rotors are 324 x 30 mm front
  • Std Brembo R32/R33/R34 rotors are 300 x 22 mm rear
  • Vspec N1 Brembo R34 rotors are 322 x 22 mm rear




OEM Brake Pad Part Numbers





R32 GTR V-Spec / R33 / 34 GTR with Brembos
Master Cylinder diam (mm)26.9 568.32mm²
Front Caliper Piston(diam x qty)(44+3Cool×2 ... leading pistons smaller then trailing 5309.29mm²
Front rotors (diam x thk)324×30
Rear Caliper Piston(diam x qty)40×2 2513.27mm² ratio FR = 2.1125
Rear Rotors (diam x thk)300×22
Brake to master ratio13.76

Brake Master Cylinder for Nissan Skyline


OEM Brembo 4 piston Brakes (Gold) on the Show or Display R34 GT-R
R33 Brembo 4 piston (Black) with 324/30 mm rotors front on an R32 GT-R. 17 inch Vspec wheels

R34 N1. Monoblock Brembo brakes

DBA two piece rotor


Brembo F50 calipers on the bluecar : 355 mm (13.97 inch) rotors 4 piston FMSI D372, D447, D609

R34 with R35 brake caliper and rotor upgrade. 6 piston, and 380/34 mm rotors
R32 GT-R with TE37SL wheels over 6 piston - 380 mm R35 brakes
















R35 Brake upgrades and information. 

Project Mu Brakes


Fully custom color matched rotors and calipers

There are lots of companies out there that make "brake upgrades" for cars. 6,8,12 piston. Some other crazy things. Not much impresses me.  If its not Brembo, AP, Alcon, or Performance Friction, I don't want to have to deal with it. Endless and Project Mu have some decent stuff, but the prices are fairly over the top  The right tire, driver, brake fluid, and brake pad go a long way. More than most drivers will ever need.

420mm front rotors with 6 piston calipers on the all wheel drive Super Taikyu R35. 

Brembo Caliper Guide

P/N Description
First Digit: Kit TypeThird Digit: Disk TypeFifth to Seventh Digit:
1 = Street Front Kit0 = No Rotor in KitKit Revision Designation
2 = Street Rear Kit1 = Drilled 2-Piece Rotor001 - 999
3 = Race Front Kit2 = Slotted 2-Piece Rotor
4 = Race Rear Kit4 = Drilled 1-Piece Rotor
5 = Slotted 1-Piece Rotor
7 = Smooth 1-Piece Rotor

Second Digit: Caliper TypePiston SizesFourth Digit: Rotor SizeEighth Digit: Side Designation
0 = No Caliper in Kit4 = 11.5 to 12 inchesA = Both Left and Right Sides
1 = Lotus-Type 4-Piston36 - 405 = 12 to 12.5 inchesL = Left Side
2 = F40-Type 4-Piston38 - 446 = 12.6 to 13 inchesR = Right Side
3 = F50-Type 4-Piston40 - 447 = 13 to 13.5 inchesNinth Digit: Caliper Color
9 = Porsche 4-Piston36 - 448 = 13.6 to 14 inchesBlank = OEM Colored Caliper
A = GT2 4-Piston (Lotus-Type)36 - 409 = 14 to 15 inches1 = Black with White Logo
B = GT1 4-Piston (F50-Type)40 - 442 = Red with White Logo
C = GT3 4-Piston (Mini Jag)28 - 303 = Silver with Red Logo
D = Mechanical Parking Brake
E = OEM Cast(Cobra has 36/40 mm pistons)
F = BMW / Lotus -Type 4-Piston36 - 40(Black Only) (Different mounting then std lotus calipers.)
G = GT8 Street 8-Piston(Cast Mono-Block 4 pads / caliper)
H = GT1-S 4-Piston36 - 40(F50-Type)
J = GT6 Street 6-Piston(same pad as "N") (SUV Cast 2-piece Caliper)
K = Billet Race Caliper
M = 6-Piston Cast Mono Bloc Caliper(Xa571m4 pads available as "Narrow Mount Mono 6" from Porterfield.
N = 6-Piston Cast Mono Bloc Caliperfor Tall Annulus Rotors like EVO VIII (207.9551.13 pad)
P = 4-Piston Cast Mono Bloc.(F50 Pad)

Buy USA Legal R32 Skylines at Importavehicle.com!

Buy-R.com for Nissan Skyline GT-R and GT-R parts.






2 comments:

Amrit Sidhu said...

Not all standard R34 GTR use same size rear rotors. The series 2 R34 GTR have N1 rear brakes and therefore use 322x22mm rotor.

Amrit Sidhu said...

The series 2 R34 GTR (non-vspec) use N1 brakes as standard. Therefore, those are 322mx22mm rotors in the back for Aug 2000+ R34 GTRs.