If you're looking to give your S550 the same stopping power found on the mighty Shelby
GT350R, then you might wanna consider this extremely baller Ford Performance GT350R front
and rear kit for that 2015 or newer GT or EcoBoost.
Now, this kit is from Ford Performance and Brembo and will give you everything you need
to convert the front and rear setup on your ride to the same exact hardware used on the
best handling and best braking Mustang of all time.
Price point, as you might imagine, is gonna be a little steep at just south of four Gs
and the install according to the site will be for the more seasoned mechanics out there
due to the complexity of this kit.
So call it a soft three out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter and at least a half
a day to get everything in place.
Now right off the bat, I do wanna point out that this is a 100% complete upgrade for all
GT and EcoBoost owners out there and, guys, when I say complete, I absolutely mean it.
Ford Performance tosses in things like your IRS knuckles for both sides, new GT350 half
shafts, new e-brake or parking cables along with the brackets, and so much more.
And this is why the price point for this particular kit is gonna be a bit higher than your standard
big brake upgrades that typically just include calipers and rotors for both the front and
rear.
I also wanna point out that if you're shopping around for this kit specifically and you might
see it for sale somewhere else for about a 1,000 or so bucks cheaper, chances are you're
probably looking at the upgrade kit for the standard GT350 and therefore, that kit will
not include the extras like the half shafts, the knuckles, and so on which, by the way,
are necessary in order to retrofit everything here onto a non-Shelby model.
But with all that gobbledygook out of the way, what do you say we break things down
a little bit further?
Pun intended.
And let's start with the star of this kit, in my humble opinion, and that will be of
course the massive caliper and rotor setup that is included for both the front and rear
of the car.
Now, up front, these beautiful red six-piston aluminum calipers from Brembo preloaded with
your pads and all riding on the gigantic 15.5-inch cross-drilled rotors with the directional
veins just to help with any heat dissipation and cooling.
Now I know it might appear on the surface that this is a two-piece rotor at first glance
but that isn't the case here.
Instead, Ford Performance and Brembo decided it was important to put this extra detail
in here with the hat portion to again offer some thermal benefits over a standard one-piece
rotor.
Now even though the fronts will be handling most of your heavy lifting when it comes to
braking, it doesn't mean Ford Performance and Brembo skimped out on the rear setup.
In fact, quite the opposite, right.
Four-piston aluminum calipers back here, also done up in red, preloaded with your pads of
course, and then riding on the not so small 14.9-inch cross-drilled rotors in the rear.
So again, a major upgrade to hardware for EcoBoost owners and even those GT owners out
there who might've not grabbed that Performance Pack Brembo setup from the factory.
But as I did point out earlier, guys, this is more than just calipers and rotors with
the Ford Performance kit because in order to fit the upgraded Shelby parts on your Eco
or GT, Ford Performance did have to kick in some supporting components to make it all
jive.
Now, this does include things like your front caliper adapters, rear Shelby knuckles shown
here, your Shelby parking brake assembly and cables, in addition to your Shelby axel assemblies
as well or half shafts, and again, all of the necessary components to get everything
in place making this as turnkey as it gets.
Now one very important thing to point out here, guys, is that wheel fitment is certainly
going to be something to consider when stepping into this upgrade.
In fact, Ford Performance states that the stock 2015 and newer wheels will not fit,
even if you have a Performance Pack wheel.
Now it's not necessarily the diameter that is the issue here.
However, that still is important.
Nineteen inches or bigger but also the offset.
That's the crucial part as you will need to either run spacers to clear these components
or run an aftermarket wheel with a plus 35 offset or lower just in order to clear the
components.
Now as far as your install is concerned, well again, the site does go full three out of
three wrenches on the difficulty meter here and they call this at least four hours to
get completed.
I would think it's probably gonna take you closer to a full day.
That's because you do need to factor in things like not only bleeding the new brakes but
also replacing things like the knuckles, the half shafts, in addition to the e-brake cables
we mentioned earlier.
So expect a little bit more of an involved install compared to the other big brake options
that you might encounter here on the site.
But wrapping things up here, guys, if you wanna make a major and I mean major upgrade
to the stopping power on your S550 and also increase that appearance thanks to these beautiful
components, then be sure to check out the complete GT350R upgrade from Ford Performance
and Brembo right here at americanmuscle.com.