Rear Brake Upgrades?
10-22-2003, 04:47 PM
#13
Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Helena, AL
Posts: 96
This post is long so I will give the meat of it first, with explination below.
If you are going for performance spend money on anything but your rear brakes. Ignore the rest of this if you are going for cool looks with bigger brakes.
For street driving the stock 4 piston front, 1 piston rear brakes are large enough. If you are experiencing brake fade on public roads you need to learn how to properly brake and you are driving too fast anyway and are endangering lives... slow down.
On a race track the stock 4 piston front, 1 piston rear brakes are large enough. If you are experiencing brake fade and are not regularly reaching speeds over 130 MPH you need to learn how to properly brake. Most likely if you have a car setup for the track you will want less braking power to the rear anyway.
In stock form braking is almost balanced and the fronts are big enough. When I first started racing I was experiencing brake fade like crazy. I then upgraded to good brake pads, good fluid and slotted rotors. FYI: I do not think the slotted rotors helped one bit. My money would of been better spent elsewhere.
I was still experiencing some fade and had it in my mind that I needed larger brakes. A buddy of mine whom also raced an FC was still on stock brakes and he was having none of the fade problems as I was on the same track while turning faster lap times.
My buddy drove my car, he beat my times and experienced no fade at all. It was all in the driving style!
Lesson learned: If you brake harder for less amount of time to slow your car from a given speed it will build up less heat than slowly braking from the same speed. And on a road course that will give you more time between braking to allow them more time to cool. And another benefit of harder braking is that it gives you a faster average time over a given distance even if you slow from/to the same speeds.
About the time I had my brakes sorted out (due to driving style change) I installed coilovers lowering my car about 1.5". From that day on the rear brakes were way too much. Straight line braking would lock up the rear tires and wildly kick out the rear end to either and trail braking would always cause the inside rear wheel to lock up. It was terrible. At that point I understood why companies sell brake bias valves to REDUCE the braking power to the rear. The camber change caused by lowering the car gave more grip in the turn but also gave the rear tires much less grip when braking.
Some of my camber problems were solved with a camber adjustment bar in the rear but when setup for proper cornering it still caused the rear brakes to lock up much easier than the fronts.
If you are going for performance spend money on anything but your rear brakes. Ignore the rest of this if you are going for cool looks with bigger brakes.
For street driving the stock 4 piston front, 1 piston rear brakes are large enough. If you are experiencing brake fade on public roads you need to learn how to properly brake and you are driving too fast anyway and are endangering lives... slow down.
On a race track the stock 4 piston front, 1 piston rear brakes are large enough. If you are experiencing brake fade and are not regularly reaching speeds over 130 MPH you need to learn how to properly brake. Most likely if you have a car setup for the track you will want less braking power to the rear anyway.
In stock form braking is almost balanced and the fronts are big enough. When I first started racing I was experiencing brake fade like crazy. I then upgraded to good brake pads, good fluid and slotted rotors. FYI: I do not think the slotted rotors helped one bit. My money would of been better spent elsewhere.
I was still experiencing some fade and had it in my mind that I needed larger brakes. A buddy of mine whom also raced an FC was still on stock brakes and he was having none of the fade problems as I was on the same track while turning faster lap times.
My buddy drove my car, he beat my times and experienced no fade at all. It was all in the driving style!
Lesson learned: If you brake harder for less amount of time to slow your car from a given speed it will build up less heat than slowly braking from the same speed. And on a road course that will give you more time between braking to allow them more time to cool. And another benefit of harder braking is that it gives you a faster average time over a given distance even if you slow from/to the same speeds.
About the time I had my brakes sorted out (due to driving style change) I installed coilovers lowering my car about 1.5". From that day on the rear brakes were way too much. Straight line braking would lock up the rear tires and wildly kick out the rear end to either and trail braking would always cause the inside rear wheel to lock up. It was terrible. At that point I understood why companies sell brake bias valves to REDUCE the braking power to the rear. The camber change caused by lowering the car gave more grip in the turn but also gave the rear tires much less grip when braking.
Some of my camber problems were solved with a camber adjustment bar in the rear but when setup for proper cornering it still caused the rear brakes to lock up much easier than the fronts.
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