Cooper S Brakes on trackday car

[Phil Hill]

Question for the colletive : I recently attended a trackday with my "road legal" Mini Se7en for all intents and purposes. Not very surprisingly I managed to fade out my standard pads within about 5 laps.

I'd just like to canvas opinon and experience of uprated pads, bearing in mind I drive the car on the road as well. Should I try some "Red" (or other uprated) pads first, or am I deluding myself and should I just buy the carbon metallics and monitor disc wear right from the start ??

Any throughts or advice welcome.

Phil.

[guru_1071]

phil


the modern carbon metalics are not so bad on discs unless you are very very hard on them (in a left foot braking rally driving style where you have the discs glowing red hot all the time)

they do make a fair bit of black dust which eats into the finsih of the wheels.

the work fine from cold, and just get better once they are warm.

[FWDRacer]

I race my Se7en on either Pagid Blue's or Carbon Metallic dependent on circuit. Both fine from cold without any servo.

[rww]

Second (or third) vote for Carbon Metallic or similar. Everything else just turns to dust - VERY quickly.

[Cooperman]

The carbon-metallic pads as supplied by Mini Spares will be fine so long as you use top-quality discs, not cheapie Chinese ones.
You might want to use AP600 brake fluid as well.

[Phil Hill]

Thanks to all for the thoughts, you have confirmed what I had come round to thinking.

Just another couple of queries.

I'm currently using a "yellow band" split master cylinder and the pressure regulator/modulator valve as original. I've been through a couple of iterations of rear cylinders until I have a bias I like (I'm using late cooper s rear cylinders now, can't remember the bore size). I'm thinking of adding adjustable bias. Should I just ditch the pressure modulator and plumb the fronts and rears direct off the master, with the bias valve in the rear leg ?? I assume this works by increasing the back-pressure on the rear leg which offsets the fronts in the split master somehow ??

I realise that suspension settings are very subjective, but value your throughts. I set the suspension up with about 1.5 deg negative front and rear, and run a rear anti-roll bar. This made the rear a bit lively in the wet, so should I reduce the rear negative a bit to say 0.5 deg, disconnect the ARB in the wet, or both ??

Thanks once again.

Phil.

[Cooperman]

The rear ARB is always a difficult choice. As you will be aware, an ARB is really only suitable for track use where you brake late and turn in then get straight back on the power - hard. The rear ARB will promote oversteer which is balanced by the power to keep the front in front. The ARB enables full power to be applied earlier and thus gives more speed out of the corner.
I would hate to use one on the road as if you were 'pressing on a bit' and had to suddenly lift off mid corner a spin would be almost inevitable.
About 0.5 degs negative is right for the rear.

[Phil Hill]

Thanks Peter, I appreciate your comments and knowledge !!

Phil.

[Altrezia]

Here's one: http://www.turbominis.co.uk/uploads/i/wh4064-oe1/w...