GooRoo,

Could you put a mic on the front rotor rings when you get a chance.

Paul

 

How did you pull that off?

 

Can't you just remove the hub, and pull it off?

 

Yes, and you can regrease the bearings while you're in there!

 

For the front yes, that's what I did. For the back I think we cut it in two pieces and pulled off the whole thing, can't remember exactly.

 

I guess I should have said 'without removing the hubs.' I thought you found some secret ninja trick

 

Like, "SHAZAAM!". There you go, the backing plates are off!

 

haha hmm well maybe if you were to cut to the mounts for it and could cut to the inner part then it would come off in a few pieces, I think the hub might block that from being possible though.

 

Hey late-night forum people,

I'm just getting my car prepared for a test tomorrow at Laguna. I have new calipers from RB, I've modified the bracket again (slightly), and I'm running the ET900 pads. Here is my question:

I don't have a tow vehicle. Do you think I'll have problems driving to the track with the ET900's? I probably hit the brake pedal all of ten times between my house and the track. I don't mind noise and dust, but I don't want to wear the rotors down or damage the pads on the way.

Any thoughts?

-ch

 

Not sure about the pads bro, but good luck with the testing! I'm hoping for great results, as I know you are!

 

While it's not exactly an exact comparison, I thought I'd weigh in as others might not see it before you leave. I've street driven my Porterfield R4 pads on the street for a couple weeks total including some 8 hour trips to and from the track and it was no problem. It's noisy and dusty, but it was fine.

Especially as it's such a short drive you'll be just fine, just be prepared for the pads to potentially lack bite when cold.

 

Excellent, thanks! I had just finished swapping over to the race pads before I read this, so I feel better now.

Just for fun, I am putting a slide caliper on the rotors before I leave. I'll try to check again at the track before the first session to see if I can detect any wear.

-ch

 

I've run Hawk Blues to and from events plenty of times. You just have to make sure to leave enough room between you and the car in front because they don't stop at all when cold.

 

My personal track test.
I have the version 1 front only Racing Brake BBK.
929 master cylinder
stock rears(for now)
car is a 2550lbs

I ran the car at Buttonwillow this week and was able to finally try out my brakes. I was running Hawk blues front and rear.
-After bedding, the brake peddle was nice and high.
-Stopping Power was great, I never had any brake fade(unducted). Granted I was down in horsepower because of some boost issues.
-The rotor wear was minimal, about 2 hours on the track. Pad wear was normal for Hawk blues.
-I figured my bias would be off, and it was. I'm getting the rear kit asap.

I previously ran stock, stock with ducts, 99 spec with ducts and I would generally get brake fade after some hot laps.

The only thing that I noticed was the black paint on the rotor hat is stuck to the backs of my wheels now, where it bolts up.

I looked at the calipers and they appear to be close to centered on the rotors. I'll try to measure to see if they are not centered.
FWIW, my car is 93 touring with a manufacture date of 2/92.

 

My man date is 2/92 also!

 

You said

 

You experienced brake fade with the ducted '99 fronts which are 12.4" x 1.25"? What pads were you running? Just curious....

 

I only ran the 99's once. Unfortunately, I had the stock rears, bias was still off. As I remember, the brake fade was minimized with the 99's. Hawk blues BTW.

I ordered the Racing Brake rears setup and I am pumped. I'm going to run Hawk blues Front and Rear to start with.

 

I was just wondering, am running the 99's all around and haven't had any fade with ntech lap day pads yet. I may switch to the rb kit after all the bugs are worked out!

 

 

BTW, for those that have the revised kit, did you get the email around the 24th of October saying that revised brackets will be sent out in a couple weeks? Has anybody received theirs yet?

 

Chris- how did the car and brakes/pad choice do at Laguna?

 

I've been mulling a post since the track day, and to be honest I want to run a different setup at Infineon this Monday and then post my final thoughts. However, in the interim I wanted to post the resolution to the 'long, mushy pedal' problem that I had at my first Laguna test last month.

I had thought it might be the master cylinder which I replaced, but this didn't fix the issue. I thought it might be air in the ABS unit, so I bled/ABSed/bled, etc but that didn't work either.

I'm now pretty convinced that the issue is one of proper caliper/pad alignment. I don't know if this is an issue with the RB caliper design, or simply the flexibility of the stock Mazda upright. But the problem is that if you don't have the caliper well aligned with the plane of the disk, a lot of the pedal throw is used up twisting things into place until the pads are lying flat on the rotor surface. If the misalignment is severe, you can run out of pedal travel before you get sufficient braking force to lock the wheels.

The issue appears to be that--as noted by Rick and a few others on this thread--the bolts that hold the calipers to the brackets don't do a perfect job of locating the caliper. The remedy for this (suggested by Rick) is to do the following:

1) install the kit with pads in place.
2) bleed the lines.
3) as a last step, loosen the allen bolts that hold the caliper to the bracket. Have another person apply the brake pedal with medium effort. While the brakes are applied, tighten the allen bolts.

This give you much better alignment. Rick and I both did this and the pedal feel was greatly improved. On our second Laguna day we could lock our brakes at 120 MPH+ without too much effort.

(The misalignment theory would also explain why some of us are seeing the longer pedal and others are not--it's just luck whether or not the caliper is aligned when you tighten the bolts.)

So this fixed the 'long, mushy pedal' issue for me. I'm experimenting with another pad compound on Monday after which I'm going to do a full write-up. Between Rick and myself we will have tested ET500, ET800, ET900, HT-10, and DTC-70 pad compounds on the RB disc. So far:

More to come,

-ch

 

Excellent post, and although it is unfortunate that this problem exists in the first place, it seems you have found a relatively simple and effective *fix* for it.

Can't wait to hear more from you. In the mean time though, how did you like the kit overall once you fixed the mushy pedal? How do the rotors and pads wear after a couple track sessions? Or will this all be revealed after your next session at Infineon?

Thanks!
Charlie

 

I'm going to hold off until after Infineon. I'm not trying to be oblique, I just feel like I'll have a definitive review after the next session. (Hope it doesn't rain!)

The basic question I'm trying to answer is: can the RB kit be used on the track with a high-horsepower street/track FD? I feel my car is a good test platform for this; about 3100lbs with me in the car and about 430 RWHP.

I think a good comparison for a high-HP FD is a Z06 corvette. They weigh about the same (the vette is about 200 lbs heavier) and are both close to 50/50 distribution. I've seen vettes with Stoptech, Baer, and Brembo brake systems turn very competitive times and get 2-3 days on a set of pads. Their rotors can last half a season or more. So it's possible to build a brake kit that isn't too exotic but can handle the abuse. (The Z06 has a semi-ducted system for the front brakes which undoubtedly helps.)

Anyway, once I've tested the Hawk DTC-70--which the Evo and STi guys love and run with great success on their stock braking system--I will know what to expect from long-term use of the RB kit and I'll share these thoughts on the forum.

-ch