thepoi

Usual story--trying to extend the life of rotors and pads. APR started making some good looking backing plates, so here's a little review on them, along with some description of my install.

They look great, made with a pretty sturdy epoxy:



One gripe I had--the mounting lip isn't a flat surface. Because it's just whatever the layup was, there's a ridge the the bolt would have to engage, so you can't get good clamping. Seems like a pretty big oversight, as the parts are otherwise very well designed and built:



Also--I'm using these with stock brakes. APR just modified a stock brake shield to make the new shields, which stick out about 15mm from the edge of the stock rotor. Not really a fault here--this is probably perfect for a big brake setup, but gobs of air would just shoot out on the stock rotor setup. I made a shield that seals the outer edge to force air along the rotor surface into the hub area where it will do the most good. Also shown here is how I dealt with the "lip" on the mounting flange. I used some high temp epoxy putty (JB Weld High Heat, actually) to fill the gap. Then just filed/sanded so that it was parallel to the backside.



Here's an installed shot. Bolts are M5x16mm, self-locking zinc-plated hex head.



To manage the ducting (3"), I made some brackets to control the ducting at the frame rail in front of the wheel. Hose clamp keeps the ducting in place, mounts using existing fasteners.







Passes through the fender well liner close to the edge:



Here's a kind of awkwardly framed shot showing the routing:



For the front bumper intakes, I just threw something together the night before a track day--it came out great considering I was just winging it

Made a model:



Wrapped it in some rando carbon I had lying around (thanks Brian/Wasp!)



Close enough:




Last bit I need to do is add steering limiters to the rack. I only lost about half a turn from the lock with this setup, with 255s on 17x10 +55, so it's actually livable if it still needs to work in parking lots and stuff.

Still need to do proper testing--will probably run one ducted and one open with temp paint on the rotors to capture max operating temperature.

Rears are in-progress. This is more to deal with the bearings than the braking performance. I swear the packing grease is melting out of those things. The replacement bearings should be getting some more air courtesy of these:



They replace the wind deflectors ahead of the rear wheel--so the aero doesn't change, and I can get some air pumped to the brake:







Here is the intended routing--I'd like to run the duct above the driveshaft, and will probably make a bracket there to keep it in place, as there's not much room to the shaft itself. I'll modify the backing plate to accept a 3" flange:




Looks like the APR plates are available from Evasive and GoTuning

gptoyz

Sorry to burst your bubble but that apr plate is not going to be very effective since it is going to cool the rotor surface.

You want to duct fresh cooler air into the center of the rotor so that the rotor vanes can pump air through the rotor and out.

More likely what you will do is get uneven pad wear by cooling the inside rotor surface. Might even wrap the rotor if you can get the rotor surface temps to be significantly different.






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bobby.is.rad

Looks great

thepoi

The shield directs the airflow to the rotor fan inlet, any cooling on the rotor face is just incidental. Any cooling solution is just a method to get cool air close to the rotor inlet, with varying efficiencies!

s2000ellier

i like the rear ducts, at the moment i just have some extra hose from my front ducts zip tied to the upper and lower control arms i'd like to mount them how you have done in place of the little mud flaps underside

Driven

so simple, yet very ingenious!

goldenfri

That looks like a nice setup. I wonder if these work better or worse than the WASP setup. That would be interesting to test.

WASP seems to direct air to the right spot but is made of metal so its heavier. I think the 3" hose inlet on the APR is probably too big. The 2.5" on the WASP gives you a better turning radius on high offset front wheels.

s2000ellier

I find i rub the hell out of my 2.5" hose on driver left. I wish I had gone with 2"

Topplayer

you should go into production for the rear set up,

I made a diy rear but would upgrade to this!

ddess

Excellent solution!