Dan Masters wrote:
>This is the one place where an increase in horsepower might require an
>improvement in brakes. Not in braking POWER, but in fade resistance. With more
>power and spirited back road driving, your average speed will be higher, which
>means you will be slowing more often from higher speeds, so brake fade will
>occur quicker.
Precisely. I think the stock braking POWER is adequate. With a slightly
beefed-up suspension, properly aligned, I get really quite good stopping
once the pads are warmed up a bit and there's very little dive. But the
brake fade thing is not something you want to hang around! There were many
occasions where I went out and drove hard like this but DIDN'T encounter
any brake fade. I recall pulling into the driveway, after such a drive,
with the smell of hot brakes lingering in the air, and then looking at the
front wheel wells and seeing a very faint "steam" or some kind of smoke
drifting out from the wheel well!
>BTW, these calipers will give a 10 increase in braking pressure for a given
>pedal pressure, and have about 50% more pad area than stock.
I like the 4-pot caliper idea. Now I gotta convince my wife that my
current calipers are shot!! (he, he!!) But wouldn't the increase in
pressure AND pad area increase the danger of fade unless something is done
to the rotors? Seems like you'll have 50% LESS rotor exposed to cooling
air with a 50% larger pad area exerting 10% more pressure.
How do you like my idea (as if it's mine and mine alone!) of having grooves
machined into the rotors to help dissipate/evacuate the dust/gas/heat?
>I'd be curious to hear what others have found with their brake caliper
>mounting bolts on their TR6s. Are my bolts nonstandard? Are the caliper holes
>non standard? Is every one that is buying new bolts using the wrong ones? Let
>me know, please.
Well, I can only say that I wish I had been a little more aware of
something like this the last time I had my brakes off. Way back when when
I rebuilt my suspension, I went down to the fastener store and bought all
new grade 8 bolts to assemble the suspension with, including the caliper
fastening bolts. They are 7/16" (fine thread) and athough they are a
standard off-the-shelf bolt, they seem to fit just fine with no slop. I'm
sure I would've noticed if there WAS some slop in there!! (I HOPE I
would've noticed, anyway!!)
Thanks, Dan!
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6
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