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Pastimes : Car Nut Corner: All About Cars

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To: SI Bob who wrote (567)	7/26/2000 12:55:08 PM
From: OldAIMGuy	Read Replies (1) of 5776

Hi Bob, Pete's SSGT Mustang was equipped with original drum rear brakes and standard diameter front rotors. Brake material was "free" to change. We were allowed to duct air to the fronts for The Long Race and that helped the brake pad life. It also let us run near our "best" lap times for most of the race rather than facing serious brake fade after a few hot trips around the track. It's amazing what a couple of seconds does to the whole system. We could do what felt like lazy laps of 1:34 or 1:35 all day and never overheat the brakes (at Black Hawk Farms). However, turn the wick up to 1:32 and a couple of laps later the fronts start to fade. Pete could do a couple of "sprint" laps at 1:29 but that was it for quite a while. Last weekend with my '53 Jag, the rear drums were still acting as "coaster brakes" but the engine was doing more braking than the rears. The fronts were boiled and needed to cool enough to have pedal back. It took two laps of going slow and almost never touching the pedal to cool the fronts back to "squishy pedal" from "nobody home." What was a surprise was that the brakes had been rock solid all weekend until that race. It was a bit warmer on Sunday, but I didn't think it was warm enough to give me trouble. Also, I was going about 2 sec./lap slower than my qualifying time! The car warned me a lap early that things weren't happy in the brake dept. To give you an idea of what my race car goes through in a lap of Road America, here's the rundown: - Exit Turn 14 to turn 1 (very long uphill straight followed by right hander) - 55 MPH up to 115 MPH then brake to 60 - Turn 1 to turn 3 (right hand) - 60 back up to about 110 then brake to 50 - Turn 3 to turn 5 (right hand) (long sweeping road) - 50 MPH back up to about 115 then brake to about 40 MPH, drop to 2nd gear - Turn 5 to 6 (left hand followed by short uphill straight) - second gear shift to third - about 80 mph, and up steep hill. Brake to 45 mph. - Turn 6 to 8 (left followed by right sweeper) - Back up to about 85 MPH and head downhill and brake to about 40 MPH - Turn 8 to the KINK (hard left followed by long right hand sweeper) - set the car up for a long gliding right hander at about 75 mph to the exit of the carrousele (85 mph) then accelerate to just over 100 before braking for the kink to about 85 mph. - The KINK to Canada Corner (right bend followed by long, slightly downhill sweepers left) - 85 mph up to about 120 mph then brake to about 55 mph for turn 12 (Canada Corner) - Turn 12 to Turn 14 (hard right followed by left uphill blind sweeper under bridge) - 50 mph up to about 85 mph then brake to about 55 for Turn 14. The speeds listed are approximate calculations from what I see on my tach and the gears and final drive of 3.54. I race on 215/60-15 BFG Radial T/A's. They are similar to what I see on a speedo in a modern street car of moderate performance. Amazing that I used to be able to lap R.A. in my Ford SHO on street tires, with three passengers and the A/C on at not much slower a pace than my ancient racer! By keeping the top speed down from Turns 14 to 1 and from 3 to 5 you can engine brake for those turns and cool the brakes off a lot. The run down to Canada Corner is also a good cool down zone if one stays off the gas. Then it's watch the mirrors and stay out of everyone's way!! The brakes were fine once cooled off. I think I'm going to see if I can duct some air to the fronts before I race again. :-) Road America's just 35 minutes from my home in Port Washington. The DMV was silly enough to give me a license plate for the car, so driving it to and from the races is part of the "occasion." I'll be racing there again in September on the 22nd through 24th. Best regards, Tom

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