Cordoba 11.7" Brake Upgrade Worth It?

I was doing some research and see the caliper brackets for the 11.7" Cordoba rotors are reproduced now. Currently I have the OEM front brake setup on my '73 Charger with the SSBC rear disc brakes. I have Wheel Vintiques Magnum 500 rims (15").

For anybody who has upgraded the 73-up front brakes to the 78 Cordoba setup, do you feel it was worth it? Seems to be only a couple hundred in parts since all I need are the rotor/hubs and the caliper brackets to do the conversion. Of course, I might replace some of the misc. stuff while I'm there but all that is cheap...

Was there a big difference between the stock setup? Worth the cost?

A '73 Charger is a heavy car, it is actually too heavy for even the 11.75 brakes. No engineer in their right mind would put brakes that small on a car that heavy these days. So yes, upgrading to the 11.75 brakes is the minimum that you should do. Swing by a dealership and take a look at the brakes on a 2020 Charger just for comparison.

Well, I converted my 87 Diplomat from the 10.87 discs, like your stockers, to the 11.75" discs. I also converted to the 11" cop drum setup in the back at the same time. Did it stop better? Yes. But it isn't exactly an apples oranges comparison and I got all my parts out of the boneyard so the costs were minimal for the improvement. But I liked it so much I put the same setup on my Cuda, again boneyard donors so cost was minimal.

If I had to buy new, including adapters, I'd still do it.

I swapped to the 11.75 rotors on my '67 GTX. Big difference in city traffic. Purchased what I needed from Dr Dif. Whole job took about 1-1 1/2 hrs.

I tried installing a set of 14" Road Wheels(Magnum 500s) on a 76 Charger. The rotor hub was larger and the wheels wouldn't fit. Make sure your wheels will fit over the larger hub.

14" rims will not fit the 11.75" rotors and if it's a factory rim it's not a hub issue. The caliper will crash into the hoop of the rim. Hub sizes are the same.

On the 76 Charger it was the center of the rim that hit the hub. It wouldn't go on far enough to come into contact with the caliper. The Road Wheels were the original ones on my 73 Challenger. There were scrape marks on the inside of the wheel where the hub was rubbing. I remember because I put the rears on first. Then I got to the fronts and they wouldn't go on. Wish I'd have tried the fronts first. The Road Wheels are very narrow in the center on the back.

The larger diameter rotor will help with repeated stops because it has more mass to absorb and dissipate the heat and prevent fade. But, the standard rotor is probably large enough to create enough torque to slow the car quickly or lock up the tires. At least a couple times before fade sets in. I think unless you are doing auto-X or a lot of rapid deceleration, brake fade probably isn't an issue. A good set of performance tires will make a world of difference in stopping distance and contribute to better handling. Other suspension components will affect it, it has to work together as a system. For the few hundred bucks to upgrade to the larger rotors, I think it is worth it but probably isn't going to change your life.

Brakes stop the wheels, tires stop the car.

I didnt mention that I have done upgrades to the suspension and steering. FF stage 3 steering box, poly bushings, 1.06" FF torsion bars, and Bilstien shocks all around. Tires are Cooper Cobras.

I just want to know if this would clear 15" magnum 500's and if there is any appreciable difference in the stopping distance under standard driving conditions...not auto track.

My front end is also a little lighter than stock with the aluminum goodies (master cylinder, heads, radiator) and Sanden compressor under the hood.

You have a very nice balanced upgrade package IMO at this point , and to answer your question, I think a good pad/fluid might be the only upgrade to be considered, again at this point. based on bang for buck.

I run the 11 3/4' Police/Taxi rotors on both my A & E Body cars along with the Dr Diff Econo rear brake kits. One is power assist the other is manual. Together they make for a nicely proportioned braking package with no need for an adjustable proportioning valve.

One of the best front brake pads I have found are available from Firmfeel. They work very well cold and hot, are not too hard on the rotors and are priced reasonably.. I also use a 475 degree rated DOT 4 brake fluid in both cars.

Made the swap two years ago. The difference using the same factory style calipers was pretty substantial. Car has 255 tires on the front.

Although I haven't driven or raced the car yet, I've made the swap to the 11.75 rotors... basically because of the larger mass to dissipate heat on road coarse events (HPDE, HSAX)... hoping this will be noticeable and worth the changeover, as well. Otherwise, for many past years (since I've owned the car from 1975)... I used the stock diameter 10.75" front rotors and they weren't bad on HPDE/HSAX events.. choice of good pads makes a difference. For normal street/highway and pylon AX events, the 10.75 rotors worked just fine... again choice of good pads makes a difference... I've typically used Wagner (which is what Dr Diff also supplies within their packaging, but I'm not certain of that).... better choice is anything Police/HD for spirited driving, regardless of brand.

I've upgraded my '73 Dart's stock discs 10.5"(?) to '73 C-body 11.75" and 1.25" thick rotors and C-body calipers.
Been screwing around a year with the wrong MC (1") where braking wasn't 'that' impressive', until I installed a 15/16" MC after which things got a lot better.
But I was still driving around with old brake pads. After I installed a set of Hawk HPS brake pads, the braking improved enough to my liking.

EDIT:
I have no back-to-back comparison between the old stock rotors and the larger/thicker C-body rotors.
The old brake system needed just about everything replaced and I rather install parts I already had on the shelf, and was an upgrade at the same time.