"The reason I have GTI brakes on my car is because I tow with the car, and the extra weight could potentially overcome the stock brakes."
Just an FYI... as you increase speed you are also increasing the amount of braking power needed to stop the car. I will add to that by saying that stopping or slowing safely requires modulation if you are setting up for a turn (as opposed to panic stopping). Big brakes provide that. I have driven my car at the track with stock brakes and with modified Golf R brakes and the difference is amazing and I can brake much later coming in to turns. So I have larger brakes for spiritied canyon driving and track use. Driving non-spirited in town driving, stock brakes work just fine.
maximum friction provided by the tires does NOT increase as speed increase. So if your stock brakes can overcome the friction provided by the tires that you are using (by locking it up), you have adequate braking power.
setting up for a turn and spirited canyon driving are both testing the consistency of the brakes under repeated use. I suspect your Golf R brakes truly shines when you are several laps in, and the stock brakes would have overheated by that point.
https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=6446_6565
Here's some tests done on a Z, there is a nice table at the bottom with the numbers.
Even though the article made it sound like the 332mm stoptech made the car stop much faster from 100mph, the stopping distance only had about 1.5% difference(the temperature was drastically different, which again, points to consistent braking power under repeated use), and that was the average of 10 runs.
Granted, the stock brakes on the Z, regardless of model, is going to be significantly better than what's on the Golf. But to me, the tests performed by that article demonstrate that the stopping distance is NOT (significantly) shorter with a big brake kit.
Anyways, this is all internet debate, each person's experience may be different. I am merely going to point to the data, the readers can drawn their own conclusions.
Peter
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