Why do some Nissan cars have red, yellow or gold brake calipers?

Nissan explains why it fits some vehicles with brake calipers with vibrant colours and what each colour means.

Nissan brake calipers collage — *The brake caliper colours on a Nissan reveals the car’s performance level. – Nissan Canada photo*

Have you ever noticed that some sportier cars often have brake calipers that stand out from behind the spokes of the car’s wheels more than others?

Many automakers use brighter colours on brake calipers when they want to distinguish performance-focused vehicles from other, more typical cars.

Nissan explains which colours it uses in which instances, so that next time you spot one in a parking lot or pulled up beside you at a red light, you’ll know what hierarchy of performance the car achieves within the automaker’s lineup.

We go over the different colours below.

Grey/silver

Grey – or in marketing speak: silver – brake calipers are the standard colour used on your garden-variety vehicle.

2027 Nissan Z Performance red brake caliper — *Red brake calipers are used on performance models, such as the 2027 Nissan Z Performance (pictured). – Nissan Canada photo*

Red

Moving on to red brake calipers, Nissan explains this is used for higher-performance models.

Even the Nissan Z sports car doesn’t get these on the base model. The 2027 Z base Sport model rides with grey brakes, and you have to move up to the higher-tier Performance trim to get the red brakes.

In the case of the 2027 Z Performance, that gets you aluminum calipers with four-piston front brakes and two-piston rear brakes.

Bright red

Nissan reserves a bright red colour for an even higher tier of performance car.

In the case of the 2027 Z, the Nismo model gets Nismo-exclusive bright red brake calipers, which are paired with two-piece, iron-aluminum brake rotors that are derived from the Nissan GT-R. These are new for 2027.

Nissan said the Nismo model’s bright red brake calipers use a paint and clear coat designed to withstand high temperatures, so that the brakes can keep their shine even after hard use.

Gold

Next up are gold calipers. Nissan uses this colour for vehicles equipped with Brembo brake systems.

The first time Nissan used such a colour was on the 1999 R34 Skyline GT-R, which was sold in Japan. In Canada, the first time the gold colour was used was on the 350Z Track Edition. They also appeared on the 2008 GT-R in Canada.

Yellow

Yellow is a particularly rare colour for Nissan’s brake calipers.

These are used on vehicles equipped with ultra-high-performance carbon ceramic brakes, which are designed for multiple intense track laps.

This colour was used on the 2020 GT-R Nismo and the 2020 GT-R Track Edition.

Notable exceptions

Nissan points out there are a few exceptions to the rules above, on special occasions.

For example, the 2020 GT-R-50 by Italdesign used red Brembo brakes instead of gold, and the 2023 Z Proto Spec used yellow calipers even though the brakes were not carbon ceramic.