Originally Posted by DarkJak

Congrats! It's a fun and rewarding journey.

Definitely a ton of options on brakes going from pads to rotors to full on brake kits.
With the base brakes, you'll have trouble finding a lot of off the shelf rotor kits, so I'd recommend at least going with someone's takeoff Akebonos. They give the biggest bump in performance over base brakes for the money. A lot of people have no problems tracking with the Akebonos and upgraded pads, fluid, and ducts.

If you outgrow those, I'd recommend considering the kit I've put together. I certainly wish I made that jump years earlier because I would've saved a ton of headache and money trying to make the Akebonos work for me. The heat shedding with the AP racing rotors is truly next level, as are the consistency and pad support of the calipers.

We don't get much airflow in the wheelwell, or any sort of ducting stock, direct or not, so any ducting kit will lower average brake temps considerably as well.
We now have Z1's 2.5 inch ducting kit, which are a nice jump in airflow over Stillen's 2 inch duct kit, though they require figuring out a front duct at the bumper.