----------
From: RSpontelli(at)aol.com
>P.S. For those who may be considering such things, the addition of a
>proportioning valve in the rear circuit did solve the rear lock-up
>problem on the autocross Tiger. It also, however, gave a bit of a
>"springy" feel to the pedal that neither Theresia nor I ever liked or
>adjusted to. We ran the car like that for maybe six months, and when
>one of the screws on one of the brake adjusters broke and damaged a
>shoe, we went back to the stock shoes. For us, whatever benefit we
>may have gotten from the shoes was negated by our inability to adjust
>our driving to properly use them with the proportioning valve. I plan
>to use them on the Pointy-fin Alpine next year, though, as we will be
running
>dual Tilton master cylinders with an adjustable bias bar instead of a
>proportioning valve. And none of this, by the way, is needed for a
>street car, for which the properly maintained "standard setup" brake
>system is quite safe.
In is previous inCARnation, my SII had rock stock brakes, wire
wheels, 80 series 165 tyres ECT. Stopping was always good to fair,
where needlessly spirited driving would heat the asbestos pads,
and cause some brake fade. With normal tires, I could always lock
up all 4 wheels, and braking balance was good.
When I got silly and started building the car up for race, I put sticky
fat low profile road racing tyres on the car, and discovered, uhhh she dont
stop like she used to. The car could never lock the tyres anymore
and attempting to do so would cause brake fade and smoke so bad,
youd think it was all on fire down there.
A few trips up to Willow Springs running stock brakes left my bung
so puckered (and my wheels fouled with asbestos dust) that I knew
that stock brakes were not up to road racing.
My series II brakes used an earlier girling system, where the pads
were different then the "nice" ones available for the tiger, and later
alpines. No high performance brakes were available for that pad
configuration, so I bought a set of semi-metalics for a datsun 260z,
which was alledged also to fit the tigers and pines.
No matter, the pads had to be modified extensively to fit the early
calipers.
The brakes now fade far less (noisier too), is once again well balanced
although the stock rears now lock a tad earlier, which is a foreseeable
consequence of superior front braking. A brake differential brake
proportioning valve, or dual masters is also in my future.
It was mentioned within this thread that Rootes knew that the brakes
were inforior for some reason?
Interesting.
The Girling system as used on the alpines and tigers is one of the
most popular systems of all time, used on more cars than would fit
on this page. Cars that were heavier (some lighter) with even higher
HP weight ratios than tigers.
The early girling systems suffered early pad failure, as documented
in many LBC books, but most agree that this shortcomming was
rectified after most MFGrs installed plates to keep road debris
and water off the rotors and calipers.
SUMMARY:
On my car, stock brakes were adequate for normal driving, using
normal tyres, available when the car was made. Change any of the
above (like tyres or driving ferocity) and the stock components will
likely fall short.
Jarid Gross
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 10:19:32 CDT