Brake upgrades...

[Patricio]

[MENTION=13387]dquarasr2[/MENTION]

fully agreed on everything, much better explained

what i meant by hard fast braking is to engage maximum braking force fast (without lock up) hold it for as much of the braking as necessary. and always while in a straight line.
and i made typo with the "50 meters" i meant 50 feet earlier not meters sorry. Not for optimal lap time for a advanced, but for a novice breaking early and taking time to learn perfect turn in to hit the apex at correct angle/position/speed/balance and concentrating on setting up the car perfectly to power out as early as possible will result in better novice lap times... as opposed to common late braking, sloppy turn in, driving the apex wrong and then not getting on power until allot later and thus losing allot of overall speed...

maybe you can reword that better.. I have not done much instructing so my lingo is off.

oh and for anyone that really wants to fast learn car control, find a local REAL go kart event at your local race track and find out who sells & races real Karts, a dealer who sells them usually will let you rent one for a day during a race weekend. about $300-400 plus consumables. you will learn fine car control and hone your senses like never before. I'm taking 80-100mph 125cc go karts that hold 3G lateral grip. and do 0-60 in 3seconds... race suits, rib protectors, neck braces. ect.. ... not the pansy 30mph family go karts. a few Kart days and you will be driving your car faster than ever on the track since when you get back into your car it will feel like everything is slow motion... I have contacts in the NJ,DE,PA,VA,NY area for Topkart company who I used to race for, PM if any one is interested up there.

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[dquarasr2]

maybe you can reword that better.. I have not done much instructing so my lingo is off.

Your lingo is fine. :biggrin:

Maybe I can say it a wee bit more succinctly, stealing a racer's adage: "You lose more time braking too late than you do braking too early."

 

[nsxtasy]

after 5 laps at Spa Francorchamps (admittedly a very fast track) i experienced fading.

This goes back to what I said:

in 95+ percent of cases, brake fade is caused by lack of proper bedding and heat cycling of the pads.

Continuing...

I'm going to double check how much wear there is on my disks and pads as by the sounds of it, they may not be the cause. What's the general rule for when to replace rotors? i can still see the grooves and dimples but they are fading compared to new.

As noted above, there is a minimum thickness spec. New front rotors are 28 mm thick, and the minimum spec is 26 mm. On rears, it's 21 mm and 19 mm, respectively. You can check thickness with a micrometer.

I've never come close to the minimum thickness on the front rotors, because they crack well before that. Keep an eye on the rotor condition. As they go through many heat cycles from track use, they start to develop "spider web" type cracks, and eventually, cracks that you can see. My rule of thumb for replacing rotors is, if the cracks are about 1/2 inch long, and if you can feel them with the edge of your fingernail (don't do this unless they've cooled down) - these two conditions happen at about the same time - then it's time to replace the rotors.

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Your lingo is fine. :biggrin:

Except for the reference to "NA1 brakes" and "NA2 brakes", which is wrong. There were two versions of the NSX braking system sold in the United States (aside from the Type R versions sold abroad). One was on the '91-96 NSX, all of which had the NA1 chassis code. The other was on the '97-05 NSX, some of which had the NA1 chassis code and others the NA2 chassis code.

 

[Zoom]

[MENTION=3758]nsxtasy[/MENTION] i know that (not a track beginner), pads were bedded in properly before ~ i still have the heatshields though and no ducting at all so i suppose it's what was missing for me.

 

[silver2002]

Here's a question I always wanted to know -
How far apart are the brake zone markers?
And is it a standard distance between markers on most tracks?

 

[docjohn]

100 ft

 

[GraemeD]

Here's a question I always wanted to know -
How far apart are the brake zone markers?
And is it a standard distance between markers on most tracks?

Depends, most of the races I have watched, use meters and the boards are 50 meters apart. The tracks I have driven, are random, usually just sticks in the ground, three sticks, then two sticks lastly a single stick.

 

[silver2002]

RE: taking heat shields [ splash guards ] off - I learned here to protect the upper and lower ball joints from heat. My solution was to cut the shields down and
add ducts - but the rotors and pads still get fried - 2" ducts is all I could fit. I'll add deflectors too.

 

[docjohn]

fancy garage rug:biggrin: wool is very oil absorbant:tongue:

 

[scammy]

RE: taking heat shields [ splash guards ] off - I learned here to protect the upper and lower ball joints from heat. My solution was to cut the shields down and
add ducts - but the rotors and pads still get fried - 2" ducts is all I could fit. I'll add deflectors too.

I wish I had kept my shields and cut them down to protect the ball joints, I did everything else to upgade my brakes without going BBK and I think the improvements are fantastic for some hard track sessions but I didnt protect the ball joints well enough from the heat