Brakes struggling to stop the car!

[a1rak]

Took the Cerbera to a trackday on Friday with the new engine conversion for the first time. Fantastic day with a great mixture of cars such as a 1008bhp Ultima, a McClaren and a £75,000 MKII escort!!!. The only issue I found that was the brakes struggled with stopping the car.

Its already has the 6 bolt AP callipers and 2 piece bells as standard. I have DS2500 Pads and DOT5 fluid as well. The car was reaching 150mph down some straights so braking was very hard. Any ideas on possible upgrades such big discs and callipers. Quiet happy to engineer parts if required. I would like some 355mm discs, has anyone done something similar.

[dempsey]

Depends what you mean by 'the brakes struggled with stopping the car.'

If you've got brake fade or boiling brake fluid and no pedal - as happened with my car
on faster circuits like Snetterton or Spa - then you might want to try a cheap solution first.
I changed from DS2500's and standard fluid to Carbonne Lorraine 5+ pads and racing brake fluid
and that pretty much sorted my braking out.

[purpleliability]

The DS-2500 really is a fast road pad, with your increased power you should be looking at a better pad compound.

Something like a Carbone Lorraine CL-6 or Carbotech XP-8 or XP-10 would be more suitable.

Perhaps some ducting to the centre of the disc would also help to keep temperatures down. It would also be relatively simple to get larger rotors to fit your alloy bells and space the calliper out with a spacer.

[ro_butler]

purpleliability said:

Perhaps some ducting to the centre of the disc would also help to keep temperatures down. It would also be relatively simple to get larger rotors to fit your alloy bells and space the calliper out with a spacer.

This. The lack of cooling to the front discs is a well documented problem that has been raised quite a few times with those that track their cerbs hard. If my memory is correct there was a chap on here who fitted some decent front brake ducting to his TVR (william ball), but that was some years ago now.

Obviously fitting bigger discs and better fluids/pads will help as well, but ducting is probably your cheapest option.

[anonymous-user]

Dot5 is not recommended for motorsport - Standard dot5.1 is ok, but there are better. Flush fully and replace with http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/performance/brake-fl... or similar.

[tinker-27]

Speak to Brummie on here he can sort you some CL pads that will sort it , ds2500 are not a tract pad ( well not for something fast ) , he might be able to do some bigger discs as well

[Brummmie]

Sounds like you have got the pads going "greasy", basically the pads have got so hot they are melting.
You cannot do that to a CL pad, fluid is only a problem if you have boiled it, then the pedal will go long, but most the good stuff is DOT 4, we do CL fluid that is a 325C fluid, (£12.00 a bottle) i have not seen a higher boiling point than this yet.
I can do You ALCON discs if you see anything you like with that range?
Cant really go wrong with AP either but we dont do those.

Cheers Paul.

Edited by Brummmie on Monday 18th November 08:52

Edited by Brummmie on Monday 18th November 08:53

[Jhonno]

DS2500 pads are a bit rubbish is your issue..

[grahamn]

tinker-27 said:

Speak to Brummie on here he can sort you some CL pads that will sort it , ds2500 are not a tract pad ( well not for something fast ) , he might be able to do some bigger discs as well

Why oh why do you all waste money on bigger disks, I run 255 sticky tyres on the front of mine and can still lock the wheels under hard braking on track. Have a word with Brummie and get the. Rc6, or more extreme rc8, pads and it will transform the performance of your brakes. Put some CL fluid in and you are sorted. Trust me I have tried all other avenues and this is the best you can get.