Brake Upgrades

[dickieandjulie]

Hi Guys

Can any of you recommend some brake upgrades for my 350 SE which is increasingly being used for track work. The fronts hve been changed to 2 pot (princess I believe) calipers.

Is it possible to replace the rear brakes? Bigger discs and better calipers? Had a massive overheating problem with the rears yesterday so ducting required I feel.

Cheers

Richard

[FrenchTVR]

Hi Dickie,

Unusual to have an overheating problem with the rears, unless the bias is wrong. Mine burnt off a lot of exces grease etc that had been spread around from the drive shafts after my first session at Spa but after that no problems.

On the front worth either seeing if you can fit bigger discs and calipers inside the rims and changing to something like Ferodo DS2500 pads. I take it you already have braided hoses all round. Change the fluid to DOT 5.1. Ducting to the front's will probably help as well.

For the bigger discs and calipers, Hi-Spec are just down the road from you in Dartford on the old Watling street www.hispecmotorsport.co.uk/ Geoff is the bloke to talk to, also owns the place. I have AP's on mine but they are expensive.

Hi Spec Motorsport Limited
Unit 7 & 8 Parker Industrial Centre
Watling Street
Dartford
Kent. DA2 6EP
England

01322 286850
01322 286827

[350zwelgje]

Have grooved (not drilled!)hispec 300mm 4-pot in my standard 15 inch rims. Brilliant. So if they are around the corner, should be worth a visit. For rears: upgrading is not necessary, but ducting can help. And after have use the advice they gave me, is not to use the handbrake as it can provoke warping of the rear discs....

If you upgrade brakes, the brake bias can get up set (static and dynamic). I never got around to have a look myself, so probably the front is now braking more, and the rear less. If you get the balance right between front and rear, the braking distance will be minimised as the use of the brakes is then optimised. Worst case is that the rears can lock up before the front: this is dangerous and you will end up with the rear of the car wanting to overtake the front. Adjustable brake balancers are available, and need setting up = trail and error (With the dangerous bit in the back of your mind).

Rob

[leorest]

I've got solid disks at the back. When I, eventually, upgrade my fronts would it be wise to convert the rears to vented and if so is this just a case of fitting the new disks and inserting a spacer in the calipers or is it different calipers?
Would fitting vented disks at the rear upset the rear camber?

With ducting do people make their own or buy kits? If so how/where?

Apologies for the hijack but at least it's following the topic

To help someone more knowledgeable than I, to answer you're question, it would be useful to know what size wheels you have and if you are prepared to change them to allow bigger stoppers. Also some sort of indication of what the budget is. For a few quid I would guess you could do better pads, a few hundreds you might get better calipers and a few grand would get you the best stopping Wedge technology in the world! Which ballpark are you in? Anything is possible given enough wonga!

From your post/profile you imply they should be suitable for fast road/occasional track use with a 4.0L engine.

Leo

[dickieandjulie]

Thanks for that guys.

I have two pot calipers on the front, braided all round and Fast road pads with 5.1 fluids

So I reckon bigger discs on the front with 4 pot calipers, ducting to the rear and good set up should do it?!

[350zwelgje]

leorest said:

I've got solid disks at the back. When I, eventually, upgrade my fronts would it be wise to convert the rears to vented and if so is this just a case of fitting the new disks and inserting a spacer in the calipers or is it different calipers? Would fitting vented disks at the rear upset the rear camber? With ducting do people make their own or buy kits? If so how/where? Apologies for the hijack but at least it's following the topic To help someone more knowledgeable than I, to answer you're question, it would be useful to know what size wheels you have and if you are prepared to change them to allow bigger stoppers. Also some sort of indication of what the budget is. For a few quid I would guess you could do better pads, a few hundreds you might get better calipers and a few grand would get you the best stopping Wedge technology in the world! Which ballpark are you in? Anything is possible given enough wonga! From your post/profile you imply they should be suitable for fast road/occasional track use with a 4.0L engine. Leo

Standard disks on the back of the wedge are vented, but closed to avoid corossion.... Back does not need to be upgraded, but ventilation by ducting can help a lot. Front: if you have 15 inch rims, 300mm could fit and should provide ample of stopping power and thus no need to upgrade the wheels. Upgrading wheels is probably more necessary to be able to find in the future proper rubber to fit. Regarding a budget: braided hoses, proper pads (mintex, ferrodo, greenstuff, etc.), brake fluid, 4-pot calipers and vented disks could be had for a couple of hundreds. Look for likes of hispec, willwood and a company that tallbloke knows.

Rob

[GreenV8S]

350zwelgje said:

vented, but closed to avoid corossion

Sounds intriguing. The ones I've seen have all been non-vented, but usually with a steel strap round the outside of the disc (I've only ever seen them on this type of brake disc). Is there a different sort out there?

[waynester]

I've been thinking of taking mine on the track this year, and had the same thoughts as Richard.
I have 17" wheels fitted already...and even from a stylistic point of view, the discs look hopelessly lost.
I've seen some awesome upgrade packages..4 pot Willwoods etc.(£££££
Be interested to hear what the best performance per £ you guys have found?

[350zwelgje]

GreenV8S said:

350zwelgje said: vented, but closed to avoid corossion Sounds intriguing. The ones I've seen have all been non-vented, but usually with a steel strap round the outside of the disc (I've only ever seen them on this type of brake disc). Is there a different sort out there?

Peter, that is what I picked up as information somewhere regarding the standard stuff. Think that one disk is two plates very close together. So probably not ventilated but more like that from a construction point of view.
What does/could the strap do? Understood it is there to prevent corrosion.

Rob

[chassis 33]

If the mods feel this post is inappropriate please remove it.

I'll be upfront, one of the sponsors of my race car is WMS, who do do a 4pot alloy kit for the Wedges, Tallbloke helped develop it. At the moment Keri at WMS isnt producing them due to lack of demand, however a few emails to him may change that.

As if the blatent plug isnt enough, you do hear some absolute horror stories about Hispec as a company, eg on the following forums.

- http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~richw
- www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19838
- www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20295
- www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27045
- www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45862
- www.nyssa.ltd.uk/Y10/w*nkers.shtml
- www.289cobra.com/stoppresse.html#Hi-Spec

Regards
Iain

[350matt]

I made ducting for mine from Rover mini fresh air pipes, comes with handy scoops on the front and everything.
Picking up from underneath the car and just secured with tie-wraps and used to work pretty well

Matt

[shpub]

dickieandjulie said:

Hi Guys Can any of you recommend some brake upgrades for my 350 SE which is increasingly being used for track work. The fronts hve been changed to 2 pot (princess I believe) calipers. Is it possible to replace the rear brakes? Bigger discs and better calipers? Had a massive overheating problem with the rears yesterday so ducting required I feel. Cheers Richard

I looked at a rear brake conversion but the cost was around £2000 and didn't include a mechanical handbrake which meant it would not pass an MOT. Duscting is good but equally the overheating can be due to the front brakes not doing much. The rear brake is pretty good but I have fitted adjustable brake balance to mine to compliment whatever kit I had on the front. Tower View do a nice 300mm upgrade kit that uses Wilwoods and is based on the 520's braking system of about two revisions ago. Can go a lot bigger but the costs rocket especially as start needing custom master cylinders, residual pressure valaves and so on.

[redwedge5]

shpub said:

Tower View do a nice 300mm upgrade kit that uses Wilwoods and is based on the 520's braking system of about two revisions ago.

I've just had these fitted to my SEAC by Tower View and I'm very pleased with the results. Took a few 100 miles to bed in, but now a marked improvement over the original AP set up, but not too over the top. Not a cheap option, but I've always felt the brakes have been the one let down in the driving experience and wanted to get them sorted in preference to engine mods etc. They fitted under the 15" wheels no problems.

[dickieandjulie]

Cheers guys, really appreciate all your comments