Brake Upgrades

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BRAKE UPGRADE INFORMATION & PRICE LIST

Thankfully most of us these days realize that there is a lot more to preparing a competitive car than providing it with endless reserves of horsepower and torque. What a lot of people don?t realize are the performance and safety gains that can be made to the vehicle by inexpensively speccing up their existing road brake system with proper race compounds and fluids. This does not mean using road oriented metallic or kevlar pads or ?DOT 5? fluid. Although these will be better than a set of standard cardboard pads, they really should not be let anywhere near a race car or track.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES, as well as supplying race calipers and race rotors, also specialize in setting up race brake systems for competitors on a budget or where the rules of a race control class prohibit the use of anything other than the standard original equipment foundation brake system. The GT and Production Muscle Car class (500+hp, 16-1700kg, 270kph) and the HQ?s being examples of these.

Most standard brake systems, once equipped to handle the heat generated under racing conditions, are more than adequate for events like the Dunlop Targa and other club racing duties.

If we think of the brake system as a chain that is only as strong as its weakest link, and heat as its enemy, we find that the weakest link in a road brake system is the friction materials. A good quality standard road compound will have a maximum c.w.t (continuous working temperature) of around 300 degrees C. An Aussie V8 Supercar generates around 650 degrees C at the end of Conrod. What we need to do is put proper race compounds into our road calipers, as the smaller road brake system is not as good at dissipating heat as the larger brake systems and can generate temperatures equivalent to larger race cars.

The problem you may come across when looking for proper race compounds for your road calipers is that the manufacturers of the race compounds will generally only manufacture pads for recognized race calipers such as Brembo, AP, Alcon etc or homologated road calipers such as the early EVO and WRX calipers. They are just not interested in tooling up to produce a run of ?73 Mercedes 280E pads on the off chance that someone wants to take one racing.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES are able to supply or manufacture race pads for any type of caliper with race compounds that will handle temperatures of at least 700 degrees C. Some compounds will handle much more. These compounds perform from dead cold and make a blindingly good street pad regardless of their racing abilities. Don?t panic if your vehicle is equipped with drum brakes as we carry a German Pagid drum brake compound for these applications. We even have the old Ferodo DS11 compound available if you wanted to spec up your GT Falcon, Monaro, Charger or Torana for authenticity?s sake to the Bathurst compounds of the sixties and seventies. This material, for you aficionados out there, ?was introduced in the late fifties and was almost universally used in Formula One right up until cast iron discs were superseded by carbonfibre reinforced carbon (carbon-carbon) discs and pads in the eighties. According to Federal-Mogul?s records (Ferodo Racing?s parent company), between 1961 and 1981, 265 of 267 Grand Prix victories were scored using DS11 pads?. (Article entitled From DS11 to DS3000 by Ian Bamsey, Racetech magazine) Two decades of dominance. Let?s see if Ferrari or HRT can match that.

Interestingly enough, speaking of dominance, Ferodo?s replacement for the DS11 compound called DS3000 filled the top six placings of the last round of the 2002 FIA World Rally Championship, The Rally of Argentina. It is currently being used by the top six drivers in the Drivers Championship and is used by the first three manufacturers in the constructors championship, Peugeot, Ford and Subaru. Of the others, Mitsubishi in fourth, we believe to be using a brand called Raybestos and Skoda in fifth are also using Ferodo. We are not sure about sixth placed Hyundai, probably P.F.C (Carbon Metallic) or Pagid.

For the record, Ferodo?s DS11 compound had a coefficient of friction or mu rating of .31. Low by today?s standards compared with DS3000?s .62. A metallic road pad, (not to be confused with carbon metallics), which most of you have used before, also has a low coefficient of friction rating, again of around .3. This lack of power in a road metallic pad and DS11?s poor cold performance do NOT make them desirable as modern race compounds. DS11 did however have a ?recommended maximum temperature of 750 degrees C but is commonly used at temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees C? (Ferodo International Technical News F16, July1980). Impressive numbers sure, (a Bendix Metal King Plus has a maximum c.w.t of 400 degrees C) but if your brake assembly is being asked to cope with those sorts of temperatures, you are going to be having problems over and above brake fade.

Which brings us to the next weakest link in the chain. The Brake Fluid.

There is no point having materials sitting in the wheels able to handle 700+ degrees C if your brake fluid is going to boil as soon as you put them to the test. First let us dispel a few common misconceptions. You do NOT want to use a DOT 5 brake fluid. DOT 5 is the rating given to silicone brake fluid (more correctly called Silicone Basal Brake Fluids or SBBF?s) We must also not confuse ?silicone? fluids with ?synthetic? fluids. Silicone fluids are not miscible (mixable) with conventional fluids however synthetic race fluids can be mixed with conventional road fluids. Very handy if you have rolled the car in the back of beyond, tipped all your race fluid out of the reservoir, but the car will still be driveable if only you can top up your master cylinder. Remember, mixing standard brake fluid with your race fluid will proportionally dilute the properties of your race fluid.

Now back to the DOT rating. All brake fluid, apart from silicone fluids, are hydroscopic which means that they will absorb moisture. The higher the DOT rating, the less hydroscopic they are. In other words, the less moisture they will absorb over a given period. Over time this will contribute to a brake fluids ?wet boiling point?. Using a high DOT rating in a road car theoretically means that you will not have to change your fluid as often as you would if you were using a lower DOT rated fluid. This however does not apply to a race car as a race cars brake system produces so much moisture and debris that the laws of longevity are not really relevant.

Silicone fluids are NOT hydroscopic, meaning that they will not absorb moisture. This however is their downfall. All brake systems produce moisture. Particularly race brake systems as it is the extreme temperature changes that cause excessive moisture build up. As the brake system produces moisture, a conventional brake fluid will absorb it but a silicone fluid won?t. The moisture is still in the system but instead of absorbing into the brake fluid (admittedly reducing its boiling point), it just sits there in little water pockets waiting for the brake system to get hot so that it can vaporise. Even a well soaked brake fluid will have a higher boiling point than water.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES handy hint: Avoid the risk of vaporizing your brake fluid at all costs. The results of a brake pedal going to the floor can be extremely hazardous to your health. Replace your silicone fluid with a proper race fluid. We have found ELF?s XT3167 to be very good value for money. We know that silicone fluid is kind to your paintwork if you spill it, but what are your priorities?

Keeping in mind that a DOT 5 is a silicone fluid, the highest DOT rating available for a conventional or synthetic fluid is a DOT 5.1 (notice the point one). So while a DOT rating has its place, what we are really looking for in a race fluid is a high dry boiling point. Interestingly, two of the best race fluids on the planet today, Brembo?s LCF600 Plus (this is the stuff that they tip into the Ferrari F1 cars and is available from RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES in 500ml bottles) and Castrol?s SRF are both rated as DOT4+.

Incidentally, the minimum dry boiling point requirements of a DOT 4 fluid is 230 degrees C, DOT 5 (silicone) is 250 degrees C and DOT 5.1 has a minimum dry boiling point requirement of 260 degrees C. Admittedly, most off the shelf DOT4 road fluids will exceed the minimum requirements. In comparison, Brembo?s LCF600 Plus has a dry boiling point of 316 degrees C and Castrol?s SRF has a dry boiling point of 310 degrees C.

The other (and some would argue most important) advantage of a proper race fluid is that it is a lot less compressible than standard road fluids. In other words, they are less squashy. The less compressible race fluids help eliminate a lot of your spongy pedal and long pedal travel problems. It really is a shame when people spend hundreds of dollars outfitting their vehicles with braided hoses to firm up the pedal, then go and put a road fluid (or even worse, a silicone fluid which is highly compressible) into their car to save themselves a few dollars??

Now that we have our fluids sussed, the third weak link in the chain now becomes the rotors.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES can of course supply 2 piece race rotors. However, once the price of manufacturing hats to make them fit your vehicle is taken into account, it seems almost churlish to wrap your standard road calipers back around them so we go shopping for a pretty set of four pots and there goes the budget.

As this discussion is centered around a ?bang fer yer buck? makeover of a standard road brake system, we will be concentrating on what to do with your standard road rotors.

Firstly, RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES and the manufacturers of road rotors do NOT officially recommend the use of non race rotors for motorsport use. However, RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES are more than happy to supply quality road rotors for these purposes if it suits the clients budget or is mandatory because of control class rulings. The reality is that a lot of people go racing very successfully on road rotors.

The minimum requirement for racing on road rotors is? Make sure they are above the minimum thickness as specified by the rotor or vehicle manufacturer. The thinner a rotor gets, the less its ability to dissipate heat, which will increase the risk of it warping or cracking.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES handy hint: Proper race pads are of course designed to dissipate heat efficiently. If we had a dollar for every client that suffered continual warping problems while racing on road oriented ?performance pads? who then found that their warping problems were eliminated by using a proper racing friction material?..

Cross drilled and Slotted Rotors.

As a general rule of thumb, we at RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES will try to steer you away from cross drilled rotors. The main advantage of cross drilled rotors is unsprung weight which is of course extremely critical on very light weight cars. However, having all those holes drilled through them makes them a bit of a ?grenade? rotor, prone to warping and cracking when used on heavier vehicles that generate a lot of heat under braking. A very light weight car will, of course, not generate as much heat under braking therefore cross drilled rotors may not be such an issue.

The other advantage of cross drilled rotors is their ability to de-gas and continually de-glaze the disc pads.

These processes, without the disadvantages of cross drilling, are to be found in ?slotted only? disc rotors.

No point in having the flash, powerful race pads in the car if they glaze up and lose their efficiency.

However, slotted rotor upgrades are NOT an absolute necessity if you are running modern, high coefficient race materials that perform from dead cold in your road calipers.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES will surprise you with their range of ?slotted only? rotors. If, like the Mercedes 280E rotors, they are not available off the shelf, we can source them in about a week.

Summary.

For around the five hundred dollar mark, RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES can set up your existing brake system to a point where we can guarantee that you will not outdrive your brakes on the road or on the track. This is what we call a Package 4 upgrade and consists of a front and rear friction and fluid upgrade. We are more than happy to offer a special price to Targa competitors and can fax you an approximate brake upgrade price list on request. A full front and rear upgrade of your existing componentry including braided hoses and slotted rotors will set you back approximately $1800.

While we cannot guarantee mileage on friction materials and always recommend taking a spare set of pads (even if these are just road pads as hole fillers if necessary), most of our clients get through prologue and the Dunlop Targa on one set of endurance pads.

If because of excessive weight, horsepower or speed you are able to outdrive 700+ degree materials, we would advise spending a couple of hundred dollars on brake ducting to cool everything down.

At the end of the day, we must remember that a brake system is only as good as the vehicles tyres and that a properly set up big race brake system will always beat a properly set up smaller road brake system. But that is a different story for different budgets.

For further information, specification sheets, or an accurate quote for your vehicle, please feel free to phone Steve or John at RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES (0800 272537) or visit our web site at www.0800brakes.co.nz . Our e-mail address is sales@0800brakes.co.nz. and we are situated at 351 New North Road, Eden Terrace, Auckland, New Zealand.

RACEBRAKES 0800BRAKES

APPROXIMATE BRAKE UPGRADE PRICE LIST

Package 1 Front friction upgrade $200 - $250

Package 2 Front friction and fluid upgrade $250 - $300

Package 3 Front and rear friction upgrade $350 - $400

Package 4 Front and rear friction and fluid upgrade $400 - $450

Package 5 Front rotor and front friction upgrade $600 - $650

Package 6 Front rotor, front friction and fluid upgrade $650 - $700

Package 7 Front rotor and front and rear friction upgrade $750 - $800

Package 8 Front rotor, front and rear friction and fluid upgrade $800 - $850

Package 9 Front and rear rotor and front and rear friction upgrade $1150 - $1200

Package 10 Front and rear rotor, front and rear friction and fluid upgrade $1200 - $1250

Braided hose upgrades can be added on top of these packages at an average cost of $80 - $100 per hose.

These prices are based on a medium sized car such as WRX or EVO.

For larger vehicles such as Skyline, Aussies etc add approximately 10%.

For smaller vehicles such as Starlet, Civic etc deduct approximately 10%.

For an accurate quote please phone 0800BRAKES (0800 272537).

As long as the vehicle weighs under 1800kg and is not an 800hp monster the following rule of thumb applies?..

Package 1 will not be outdriven on the road and we will guarantee that with Package 2 or Package 4.

For club racing or track days, Package 2 is the minimum but you will really appreciate Package 4 which we can then guarantee will not be outdriven on the road or the track.

You will need a really good reason not to do the fluid upgrade, and if that is your choice we recommend at least putting fresh road fluid in. Caliper upgrades are not usually necessary (or allowed in a lot of race classes) but if you are after the look of a big red Brembo you will need to budget around $1000 per caliper.

[E30-323ti 66]

mmmmm, big red Brembo's.

[E30-323ti 66]

wow, they are bigger than my shoe!!!

[E30-323ti 66]

the whole family together

[Gus 5]

jeez....can see why you needed slightly larger wheels to fit those babies in! i presume they for the e30?

[E30-323ti 66]

Yip

[Gus 5]

huge

[Guest Andrew]

it talks about compressing the hydraulic fluid - hmm I didn't realise fluids could actually be compressed that much hah

[Guest Spargo]

Glenn, how much for modified caliper mounts for an E30?

What did the big reds cost you? Would they compare to Porsche Mov It' brembos kits?

[Guest Spargo]

Yes Andrew, they can. Did you also know that Urethne is a non compressible liquid?

[E30-323ti 66]

??? sure how much the mounting brackets will be, prolly similar to my current ones which were ~$200pr

If you are keen on some bigger brakes my current ones are forsale, have a look in the "forsale" section.

rather not say how much $$$ I had to part with for the Big Reds.

Can't really compare what I am doing to the porsche, movit, brembo kits that are avaliable, as I am assembling/manufacturing it all myself.

The calipers are the same (or very similar) to those that come in the above kits, they have differential sized pistons (38/44) also to induce pad taper and disc cleaning when the brakes are applied.

I will say it will cost alot less than the $2000 US you see the brembo kits going for!!

[Guest Andrew]

Yes Andrew, they can. Did you also know that Urethne is a non compressible liquid?

Honestly - how much can you compress say DOT4 -

*whips out the fluid dynamics text book* heh

[Guest Spargo]

No problemo Glenn, just ultra curious, re: good BBK's that don't cost the earth.

[Thedead 0]

I want those brakes for my race car..... :banghead:

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$$$ will always help

[bimmer boy 21]

ahhhhhhhh money, always helps

[cainchapman 0]

I fitted a set of OEM rotors to the front of the 540. Brembo slotted rear rotors and Mintex 1166 all round. Haven't really had the beast up to speed since, so I can't comment on their extreme performance.

I will say that the pads generate A LOT LESS DUST! and my mags are easy to clean being 5 spoke.

[Boost Junky 1]

Dont mean to bring up an old topic but damn thats a helpful write up! Heres hoping those level of kits are still available and around the same price.