Some really nice world challenge front and rear brakes - Belle Isle 2014.

[twistedneck]

I just bought some Girodisc rotors through Shaun at AED so when i went to the free Friday practice today i had a keen interest in the braking systems. Some observations

1. some guys actually had a custom backing plate that allowed two unique 3" air inlet hoses to flood the inside turbine section of the rotor.
2. All fronts are two piece free floating rotors / hats. but they seem to have different designs.
3. Most of the rear rotors are free floating but not all.
4. Some rear rotors are factory 9" diameter some with the new 13"
5. Pit crew can change front brake pads in 2min. wow.
6. Never saw any ducted silicone hose cooling on the rear brakes.
7. everyone was using the factory two piston rear caliper.. no exceptions.
8. several brands of pure race front calipers were used, AP, Brembo, brands i have never heard of.
9. saw some teams using titanium pad to piston heat insulating spacers, others what looked like kevlar or ceramic, others still no insulators.
10. noticed some cross drilled, others slotted, some just plain surface.
11. the billet race only calipers could been seen in 4 or six piston guise, and those pistons make the factory brembo calipers look cheap!
12. mustangs were braking toe to toe with R8, Porsche, and anyone else out there.

Here are some pics, thoughts appreciated.

front

rear

 

[bdcardinal]

To your comment on the rear caliper, that is a single piston design.

The titanium pad shims are pretty common in other car makes. I had them on my 2004 Volvo S60R that had 4 piston Brembo calipers with 13" rotors on all 4 corners from the factory.

 

[twistedneck]

To your comment on the rear caliper, that is a single piston design.

The titanium pad shims are pretty common in other car makes. I had them on my 2004 Volvo S60R that had 4 piston Brembo calipers with 13" rotors on all 4 corners from the factory.

Thanks for that clarification bdcardinal, its hard to believe only one piston can bring that rear end to a stop even with near 14" GT500 rotor size. On the TI plates I saw some folks using something that looked bonded to the back of the pad - thicker than the ti plates not sure what that was.

also surprised to see how good these s197's were stopping, the only thing that was out braking them every time was the Porsche cayman and it was on a different level after a few laps - at first I didn't notice. best braking car all weekend was the LMP2 cars, yea, I know the DTP class got to use carbon / carbon brakes this year to help them get on par w the LMP2 in Tudor, even still they couldn't hang - although the extra power they are allowed won the race. I expect that to change over the next few races with LMP2 just too restricted.


Another observation was how good the v8 coyote engine sounds. 100% American muscle mean sounding however the Roush car for what ever reason had a super quiet setup I didn't see if they were running an extra muffler / resonator but that would not make sense if power was lost on avg.

 

[bdcardinal]

If you get the chance, check out Race Tech magazine and Racecar Engineering magazine. They are both based out of the UK, but cover all aspects of racing. There are articles about parts you thought were so simple, but are so complicated. I remember being totally enthralled with a 6 page article about lug nut thread pitch and direction. There was a really cool article a few years ago about the then new AP Racing Radi-Cal calipers that are literally the sexiest brakes made.

http://www.racetechmag.com/

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/

O and for the brake pad thing, check out the NASCAR Sprint Cup pads. They are like 2-3" thick per pad for some of the road course and Bristol/Martinsville applications. As archaic as NASCAR may seem, they have some awesome suspension and brake tech going on.

 

[twistedneck]

If you get the chance, check out Race Tech magazine and Racecar Engineering magazine. They are both based out of the UK, but cover all aspects of racing. There are articles about parts you thought were so simple, but are so complicated. I remember being totally enthralled with a 6 page article about lug nut thread pitch and direction. There was a really cool article a few years ago about the then new AP Racing Radi-Cal calipers that are literally the sexiest brakes made.

http://www.racetechmag.com/

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/

O and for the brake pad thing, check out the NASCAR Sprint Cup pads. They are like 2-3" thick per pad for some of the road course and Bristol/Martinsville applications. As archaic as NASCAR may seem, they have some awesome suspension and brake tech going on.

Thanks BD cardinal - both of those magazines are tip top. I cant afford them though! i already subscribe to Race Engine Development ($25/ issue shipped from England) and Racer Magazine - a paltry $10 / an issue.. i agree - i just read an article on pistons and i know more now than i learned my entire life including a Mechanical Engineering degree.