Greetings CTS owners. TCE Performance Products of Tempe, AZ is returning as a supporting vendor to the forums after being absent for over a year!
Who is TCE? Owned and operated by Todd Cook, TCE has been producing Wilwood based brake kits since 1993. Starting with the SHO and moving to the very popular Impala SS we have expanded the line over the past five years to now include about a dozen different platforms. We lead the market in kits such as the Lightning truck due to our value and design. TCE prides itself on offering reasonable pricing with extensive customer support in helping YOU pick the kit that best suites your needs. We do not sell ‘box’ kits as each kit is picked and packed to your order. We offer a number of different kits for the CTS for this reason. While selling brakes is a way of business we also race. This means we DO have seat of the pants experience and do more than simply take phone orders. TCE also supplies a few local and national level club racers with kits for competition. While not the biggest and talked about we often beat the pads off better known names in club racing as well….generally at hundreds of dollars less too.
The kits: TCE has been offering CTS kits for some time but not actively marketing them. Until now. We have produced a well packaged low profile kit for wheel clearance utilizing a 13” x 1.10” rotor, a wider and beefier 13” x 1.25” rotor kit with full size calipers and if market requests it; a larger 14” kit similar to the well received kit we offer for the Magnum/300C. While priced near $1600 all kits are shipped complete with Wilwood six piston calipers, our own hats and rotors, pads, hoses, brackets and all necessary hardware. We do not supply brake fluid. Pricing can be even lower for those who are looking for a budget kit if we substitute the four pot FSL into the kit. Options are what TCE offers that others may not.
We are one few to offer a rear Big Brake Kit for the CTS as well. This kits design retains the stock parking brake while offering managed brake torque, enhanced thermal capacity as well as extremely good looks to compliment the front kit. Unfortunately due to production costs the retail price is simply higher than we’d hoped. If we can further reduce this cost we will surely try.
The components: TCE has been a Wilwood dealer for about 12 years and has influenced some of the product offered today. We pushed for the need to have a low profile six pot caliper for customers with low clearance wheels. We made suggestions in how to get into the big truck market. And we have grown with them in offering the most extensive line of kits and caliper options for many vehicles today. The
Billet Super Lite Six is the base caliper for many of our kits as it offers differential bore design, light weight, easy pad service and affordable cost. Our rotors are made to our spec by one of the largest rotor producers in the USA today. All ‘BASE’ kits are sold with a heavy duty, directional vane design rotor; they are stress relieved in a second heat treating process, gas slotted for enhanced performance and locally zinc plated for corrosion resistance. Our hats are our own and by using strategic offsets and bolt patterns we can share the hat with many other platforms thus keeping costs down. Most kits use our own laser cut steel brackets to further reduce production costs. Some use aluminum radial mount brackets where needed however. All TCE hoses are built to our need by a top Goodridge hose dealer. Kits are shipped with either Hawk HPS our Wilwood BP10 compound street performance pads for low dust and noise operation.
The Options: TCE offers a number of options for our kits. We offer the ever popular ‘cross drilled’ finish, RED powder coated caliper finish on some models and simple items such as speed bleeders and pad wear spacers. In addition, we also stock a large selection of optional pads for our ‘more demanding’ drivers! We have pads for street, autocross, open track and mild combinations of these activities. This Wilwood line of calipers operates on one of the most popular industry standards for pad in fact. There’s no way you cannot find a pad for YOUR needs with these kits.
The Cautions: TCE does not endorse the use of drilled rotors for anything but light street use and show cars. Our experience has proven that hard use leads to premature wear and potential cracking issues. We are happy to offer this option however for those whose needs demand it. RED powder coated finishes are offered directly from Wilwood now and can be damaged by excessive brake fluid contact regardless of the epoxy finish. If you choose this PLEASE have a wet sponge handy during installation to water down the caliper. We also offer an extensive list of ‘spares’ and replacement parts for your kit and will be happy to assist in selection of the proper parts for you car. Most kits are shipped with stainless steel, non booted calipers. We find them to be very suited to daily use with common sense maintenance. However we CAN offer you fully dust booted calipers if you wish but only on custom 14” kits. (Due to the radial mount design, rear kits are supplied as booted only)
Here’s to hoping TCE can help you meet your Big Brake needs and extending a warm hand to the CTS community.
Please direct your questions or comments to the forums here or to TCE directly via the web site at
www.tceperformanceproducts.com or by email to
toddandchris1@cox.net 
