Brake Pads

[AndyH]

So far so good with the Billet 4's and Green Stuff pads, but I have only been on Blyton Circuit.
I did have some Fade the first couple of times I went out on the track, after 4 or 5 laps I had to go back to the pits, but that was probably due to me driving to cautiously and trailing the brakes too much, as after those initial two times the brakes didnt fade again, even doing many more laps in a stint.

I had Green Stuff pads in the 164 calipers and found exactly the same... If you trail on the brakes, they soon start to fade. Once I started to stomp on them and get off quickly, I didn't have an issue.
As John mentions above, now that I've changed to Hi-Spec, it does highlight how much of a compromise the 164 brakes are.
Andrew

[strat24v]

Martin Kift had suggested calipers with ever so slightly larger pistons on the front or at a push, the same size. Id guess the 164 caliper pistons were way bigger in area than the rears. Although you'd have enough effort front and back to pass iva, the braking effort and balance would be really skewed. Think Andy is one of very few who can comment on the difference, seems to back up Kifty's calcs.

[turbonutter]

Martin Kift had suggested calipers with ever so slightly larger pistons on the front or at a push, the same size. Id guess the 164 caliper pistons were way bigger in area than the rears. Although you'd have enough effort front and back to pass iva, the braking effort and balance would be really skewed. Think Andy is one of very few who can comment on the difference, seems to back up Kifty's calcs.

There was a long thread about this on the old site... I run 41.2mm front pistons & 38.6mm rear pistons, which gives a pretty central balance bar Using Martin's Calculations, with the Bar central I get 53% front & 47% rear, that is with equal sized Master Cylinders...

[Strat Fan]

There was a long thread about this on the old site... I run 41.2mm front pistons & 38.6mm rear pistons, which gives a pretty central balance bar Using Martin's Calculations, with the Bar central I get 53% front & 47% rear, that is with equal sized Master Cylinders...

I think its been covered on this site too.

[AndyH]

Hi,

My Billet 4 are the same piston size front and rear, but the front master cylinder is a smaller bore than the rear.

Andrew

[ChrisCar6]

This was Martin's comment on my setup.

With 57mm floating calipers your front piston area is 5103 mm^2 per caliper and with 4 x 36mm pistons the rear piston area is 4071 mm^2 per caliper.

With equal sized master cylinders this gives a brake balance of 56% front and 44% rear.

This depends a bit on your front/rear weight split, but using figures from other Strats, for the front and rears to lock at the same time at 0.9G negative acceleration the ideal ratio should be 52% front and 48% rear. By a small adjustment of the bias bar for more rear bias you can get 53.3% front and 46.7% rear which will mean the fronts lock up just before the fronts .

I use Alfa 24v front discs front and rear. Would no doubt gain a weight advantage from swapping to 4-pot fronts.
Currently using Greenstuff all round.

[strat24v]

Hi,

My Billet 4 are the same piston size front and rear, but the front master cylinder is a smaller bore than the rear.

Andrew

Martin had said my similar setup would be ok, same calipers and discs front and rear, one size smaller master cylinder on the front.

[NoCorseChris]

Another vote of confidence for Martin's calcs. Eventually(!) followed his advice properly on my car when I had it and the braking was excellent. For a long time I had it with way too much front brake compared to rear. Was a bit of a mish-mash of bits, but it worked great in the end. Can't recall the numbers I used now but it was what Martin told me to use. You certainly do need a good dose of rear brake capacity.

[Bernard]

Another vote of confidence for Martin's calcs. Eventually(!) followed his advice properly on my car when I had it and the braking was excellent. For a long time I had it with way too much front brake compared to rear. Was a bit of a mish-mash of bits, but it worked great in the end. Can't recall the numbers I used now but it was what Martin told me to use. You certainly do need a good dose of rear brake capacity.

Also Chris you have more rubber contact patch on the Rear (Grp4) even with the weight transfer moving to the front