StopTech BBK
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 447
Likes: 1
From: Bay Area
I was at Infineon Raceway (Sears Point for the old-school reading this) over the weekend and wanted to give a quick review of the StopTech BBK. Weather was awesome and you really couldn’t ask for better conditions. Ran into a couple hiccups, one was that my race pads wouldn’t fit correctly in the caliper. The backing plate was about 0.5mm too tall and I spend 20 minutes grinding them on the asphalt trying to get them to fit – Murphy and his laws strike again. Let this be a lesson to always test-fit your new race pads prior to your event, or to have a file in your tool kit. I bedded them in prior to the first session in the back of the paddock – 10 stops from 60 to 10, then 4 stops from 80 to 10, and then drove aimlessly around for about 10 minutes without touching the brakes to let them cool.
First 2 hot laps were a wake-up call to how important getting on and off the brakes SMOOTHLY is. I thought I was smooth with my stock calipers but combined with increased torque and size of the new pads, was throwing off the balance of the car when trail braking. I spent the rest of the first morning session getting used to modulating the brakes in a straight line. Second session was spent recalibrating my braking points, which were now deeper into the corners. Although the peak deceleration is the same as the stock calipers with the same pads, it reaches the peak much faster and the ABS will engage sooner. Third session was Qualifying and I noted that the car gridded ahead of me was “only” 2 seconds faster than my times in the morning and less than a second faster than my best times…
My lap times were turning out to be comparable to my morning sessions but in the closing minutes of Qualifying, I finally got a real feel for the car and was able to modulate the brakes smoothly with the later turn-in points. Last lap was turning out to be a flyer - until I caught up to a spec-Miata going into Turn 7 and had to modify my line…Data logger showed I lost ½ second in that corner alone, and whatever time it built up going forward. As it turns out, it wouldn’t have mattered since the next fastest car in my class was a whopping 6 seconds faster than me. WTF?!?! It was *some* consolation that I was 3 seconds faster than the next guy in my class, but not really.
Murphy though decided he had enough of just messing with me and decided to go big. Right after Qualifying, our timing and scoring went down and it was a scramble to sort through the lap times and grid everyone. And because of all the chaos, cars that I out qualified pulled out for the warmup lap before me. Again, WTF?!?! We started positioning ourselves going into Turn 11, anticipating the green flag…
The Mustang and spec-Miata that pulled out in front of me in the parade lap immediately got left behind as the green flag dropped and I could do nothing but hold my line as my 7 and a Boxster S, went two wide into Turns 1 and 2. Turn 2 is an enigma since dropping down to second gear forces me to shift going over the crest of the turn and with the street tires, can’t carry the speed I want in 4th; it’s a throwaway for my current setup. I tried braking for the inside line for Turn 4 but had to back off when the Boxster S and a 350Z turned in before me. From there on, it became a two-car battle in no-man’s land between me and the Boxter S. The faster cars started to pull further ahead and us, and the slower cars started to get fall further behind. For the next 9 laps, it was as if a rubber-band connected me and the Boxster S. I don’t know all the mods on the Boxster S but we have approximately the same HP. My car is lighter with street tires, he’s heavier with competition tires. My nemesis was able to get on the throttle sooner coming out of Turn 4 and would pull away until we got onto the dragstrip going into Turn 7 where I could stop the bleeding. Going into the esses of Turns 8/9 I would start to reel him in and be nearly on top of him in Turn 10.
I was easily able to outbrake him going into Turn 11 but because of his positioning, couldn’t get inside nor on the throttle soon enough to get him before Turn 12. I consistently carried more speed into Turn 1, where all it would take is a nudge… but the enigmatic Turn 2 kept me behind the Boxster S. For 9 laps this rubber-band went back and forth until the front runners started to lap traffic. On lap 9, a Ferrari 430 Challenge caught up to us and fortuitously for me, threw off the line for the Boxster S going into Turn 7. I jumped on this and managed to close the distance going into my strengths, the essesof 8/9 and the high speed turns of 10/11. The Boxster S and I moved aside for the Z06 chasing the 430 and just going into Turn 11, I tucked in behind the Z06.
Damn that felt good – but I can’t relax yet, we’re coming up on the sections where he pretty much owned me and I need to do everything I can to keep him behind me until the checkered flag comes out. I managed to pull away in Turns 12 and 1, and surprisingly started to increase my lead in 2,3, then 4 – where did he go? The white flag came out and coming out of 6, I somehow “forgot” how to shift from 3rd to 4th. Out of nowhere the Boxster S appeared and was all over me for his last stand going into Turn 7. I remained calm until coming out of 8 where I decided to take Turn 9 flat out. Hmm, I should have been doing that all along. I finished the race ahead of the Boxster and 2 positions ahead of where I started (did I mention the V8 FD that passed eleventy cars at the drop of the green flag?).
It’s possible to argue that the new brakes somehow made me 0.7 seconds faster– but there’s no doubt I had consistent and robust braking that allowed me to brake later than I was able to with the stock setup. The real test will be at Laguna Seca next week where brake fade would normally take me out of the running after 5 hard laps. Until then, Godspeed everyone
First 2 hot laps were a wake-up call to how important getting on and off the brakes SMOOTHLY is. I thought I was smooth with my stock calipers but combined with increased torque and size of the new pads, was throwing off the balance of the car when trail braking. I spent the rest of the first morning session getting used to modulating the brakes in a straight line. Second session was spent recalibrating my braking points, which were now deeper into the corners. Although the peak deceleration is the same as the stock calipers with the same pads, it reaches the peak much faster and the ABS will engage sooner. Third session was Qualifying and I noted that the car gridded ahead of me was “only” 2 seconds faster than my times in the morning and less than a second faster than my best times…
My lap times were turning out to be comparable to my morning sessions but in the closing minutes of Qualifying, I finally got a real feel for the car and was able to modulate the brakes smoothly with the later turn-in points. Last lap was turning out to be a flyer - until I caught up to a spec-Miata going into Turn 7 and had to modify my line…Data logger showed I lost ½ second in that corner alone, and whatever time it built up going forward. As it turns out, it wouldn’t have mattered since the next fastest car in my class was a whopping 6 seconds faster than me. WTF?!?! It was *some* consolation that I was 3 seconds faster than the next guy in my class, but not really.
Murphy though decided he had enough of just messing with me and decided to go big. Right after Qualifying, our timing and scoring went down and it was a scramble to sort through the lap times and grid everyone. And because of all the chaos, cars that I out qualified pulled out for the warmup lap before me. Again, WTF?!?! We started positioning ourselves going into Turn 11, anticipating the green flag…
The Mustang and spec-Miata that pulled out in front of me in the parade lap immediately got left behind as the green flag dropped and I could do nothing but hold my line as my 7 and a Boxster S, went two wide into Turns 1 and 2. Turn 2 is an enigma since dropping down to second gear forces me to shift going over the crest of the turn and with the street tires, can’t carry the speed I want in 4th; it’s a throwaway for my current setup. I tried braking for the inside line for Turn 4 but had to back off when the Boxster S and a 350Z turned in before me. From there on, it became a two-car battle in no-man’s land between me and the Boxter S. The faster cars started to pull further ahead and us, and the slower cars started to get fall further behind. For the next 9 laps, it was as if a rubber-band connected me and the Boxster S. I don’t know all the mods on the Boxster S but we have approximately the same HP. My car is lighter with street tires, he’s heavier with competition tires. My nemesis was able to get on the throttle sooner coming out of Turn 4 and would pull away until we got onto the dragstrip going into Turn 7 where I could stop the bleeding. Going into the esses of Turns 8/9 I would start to reel him in and be nearly on top of him in Turn 10.
I was easily able to outbrake him going into Turn 11 but because of his positioning, couldn’t get inside nor on the throttle soon enough to get him before Turn 12. I consistently carried more speed into Turn 1, where all it would take is a nudge… but the enigmatic Turn 2 kept me behind the Boxster S. For 9 laps this rubber-band went back and forth until the front runners started to lap traffic. On lap 9, a Ferrari 430 Challenge caught up to us and fortuitously for me, threw off the line for the Boxster S going into Turn 7. I jumped on this and managed to close the distance going into my strengths, the essesof 8/9 and the high speed turns of 10/11. The Boxster S and I moved aside for the Z06 chasing the 430 and just going into Turn 11, I tucked in behind the Z06.
Damn that felt good – but I can’t relax yet, we’re coming up on the sections where he pretty much owned me and I need to do everything I can to keep him behind me until the checkered flag comes out. I managed to pull away in Turns 12 and 1, and surprisingly started to increase my lead in 2,3, then 4 – where did he go? The white flag came out and coming out of 6, I somehow “forgot” how to shift from 3rd to 4th. Out of nowhere the Boxster S appeared and was all over me for his last stand going into Turn 7. I remained calm until coming out of 8 where I decided to take Turn 9 flat out. Hmm, I should have been doing that all along. I finished the race ahead of the Boxster and 2 positions ahead of where I started (did I mention the V8 FD that passed eleventy cars at the drop of the green flag?).
It’s possible to argue that the new brakes somehow made me 0.7 seconds faster– but there’s no doubt I had consistent and robust braking that allowed me to brake later than I was able to with the stock setup. The real test will be at Laguna Seca next week where brake fade would normally take me out of the running after 5 hard laps. Until then, Godspeed everyone
that's awesome that you took on the boxter 
.
i run stoptechs too and i love them. i did a few track days at sebring and homestead and they were awesome. took me a few laps to get used to the brakes though.
.i run stoptechs too and i love them. i did a few track days at sebring and homestead and they were awesome. took me a few laps to get used to the brakes though.
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 447
Likes: 1
From: Bay Area
That Boxster S was in the next faster class than me so I felt pretty good when the checkered flag came down. I can't wait until Laguna Seca because that's a HP track and I'm able to point-n-shoot with the best of them.
