Mans Best

Being jobless and itching for some VTEC action, I went for a blast today (Friday) over what we call the 'Mountain Section' of the TT course, first the 'wrong' way and then back.

The road was dry and traffic was light (once I'd overtaken an idiot in a Seat who overtook another car ahead of us both on a blind bend and then brake tested me at 80+ as I hauled up on to his bumper to get past) and the 18 or so mile run was over in less than 15 minutes.

The road has some monster fast straights, beautiful fast sweeping curves, changes in elevation and benefits from having no speed limit It's also one of the smoothest road surfaces we have.

I've recently fitted some Carbotech brake pads and, while the retardation was good and quite consistent and certainly better than OEM (which would have faded considerably under that abuse) the brake pedal itself did soften under the heavy stress and considerable heat. Maybe it was melting

This might be more a question for those who do track days, but what else would you do/have you done to the brakes to help them stand up to this?

I'd be interested to know if anyone has put on different rotors, changed the brake lines, calipers, fluid, etc and, if so, what was the approx cost and how did those changes benefit? In particular, is the braking performace still there for 'normal' road use? - the Carbotech pads seem pretty good when cold as well as superheated

Bassoctopus

I'm going back a bit, but my Mk2 16v Golf had real problems with overheating brakes on very twisty roads.

After trying various pads I went for some cross drilled brake discs. They made a massive difference, as I wasn't after better brake performance, just a way of keeping the brakes cool enough to work.

S2000 brakes seemed great in the small amount of time I had my car, though.

Frenchie

The TG road test on the S2000 I read said they were the second best brakes they'd ever tested (but that test would be two years old now)

Man's Best, do you still get the same brake-dust problem as with the OEM pads? MIne are awful at shedding crap onto my wheels

Mans Best

I thought the OEM pads were good, but then read about the Carbotech and decided to give them a try. When I previously gave the brakes the same amount of hammer as I did yesterday, the OEMs faded alarmingly.

Near the end of the run there are 3 consecutive stretches of road which are very fast and straight and quite steep downhill, where it's easy to top 120 on each (the fastest bikes hit 190!). They're all followed by 90 deg turns, that you can only safely take at between 45-55, so you have to lose a lot of speed, or else. What with the high speeds you can reach on the rest of the run, there is quite a lot of heavy braking involved and I think this must be quite a severe test for any car.

Apart from the slightly spongy pedal, these brakes worked well, but sorry Pete, there is loads of dust all over my previously spotless wheels. The problem is the blast is over so quickly, I'm going to spend more time cleaning the wheels than I was behind the wheel. That said, it's such an addictive thing to do and definitely gets something out of the system

UKjasonm

You want some 5.1 and SS lines, myself, biker1 and brian marshall all put them on along with Porterfield pads a while back, not sure if biker1 had a spare set. The SS lines and 5.1 should ensure the pedal maintains its feel. The OEM pads are pretty damn poor, at 11K mine had disintegrated in parts and were just flaking away, they were like chalk, ive heard this from a few other board members too.

Turtle

I don't run 5.1, I'm running Motul RBF 600 which is a very high spec dot 4 fluid. If the fluid's old anyway, it's certainly worth replacing it.

The lines add a bit to brake control and feel - not much, but you can notice it.

I don't think you'll have managed to overheat the brakes in the drive you describe. If you get overheating problems, the best cheap mod is removing the dust shields. This gives more even cooling.

Running this setup, ~15 lap sessions on track, braking from ~120-60mph at the end of the straight each time didn't give any brake fade.

-Brian.

Mans Best

Brian, thanks for this info - it's just what I was looking for. The car is over 3 years old and probably has the original fluid. The car's only done <13k miles, but maybe now is the time to replace. Is the simplest way o fdoing this to bleed the brakes thoroughly adding the Motul as I go? Do you know if there is an issue with the slight mixing of fluids that would inevitably happen if I did that?

Replacing the lines is a more difficult mod - are there any pitfalls for someone who hasn't sone that before? Would I be able to obtain a set pre-shaped for the S2000 or have some made up instead?

I don't know if the brakes are overheating, but what dustshields are you referring to when you suggest removing them?

Thanks

Turtle

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Man's Best
[B]

Brian, thanks for this info - it's just what I was looking for.

Johnny--2K

my pads and front rotors are toast after only 16,xxx miles....the rotors look like records!