Brake Choice

[Piledriver]

The aluminum rotors weigh about 2 pounds BTW...

[no-cones]

Hello again and thanks for the advice. Ceramic coated rotors are not permitted under SCCA rules. They specify the rotor must be a ferrous material. Someone asked to me to post an image of the car so they might be able to provide better advice. I do not know how to post a pic but I put a youtube link to a short ,shakey vid.
Thanks again for any help, R


http://youtu.be/sCdFYNiB3HY

[FJCamper]

So ...

Caldwell Solo Vee ... already light.

Do you have a magnesium or aluminum engine case? The aluminum cases are 20 lbs. heavier.

Aluminum Nickisil cylinders weight ounces against pounds for cast iron cylinders.

You can afford to take off another couple of pounds from the flywheel if you're running a common 12.5 lb type.

Are you obligated to run body panels? If not , go commando and enjoy the breeze.

I don't know your fuel tank/cell rules, but for autocross, you can get by with a gallon. Gas weighs 6.2 lbs per gallon.

FJC

[Piledriver]

Hello again and thanks for the advice. Ceramic coated rotors are not permitted under SCCA rules. They specify the rotor must be a ferrous material.

That must be horrible for the folks with $$$$ coated titanium, MMC, ceramic and carbon/carbon rotors.
Hard to believe AX has the same rules as high speed road racing, but that sounds like the SCCA.

[no-cones]

I have a magnesium case and only carry about 1.5 gal of fuel. The flywheel is 12.5 lbs and I am not sure about the need for body work. After much consideration I decided to keep the drum brakes. I had someone weigh the Jamars and the were right around 14 lbs per side. I pulled one of my drums off ----------------- 10.1 lb add in the backing plate and other hardware and it will be less than 14 lbs. So there is nothing to be gained by switching to disc.
Thanks everyone, R

[Jadewombat]

Airkewld BAD series brakes are built from aluminum billet. Very nice parts. Not cheap, but you didn't mention budget was an issue.

I'd do a lot of homework and ask a lot of questions before going this route with them. Unless they admit that there was an issue and bad service and product have been corrected and it's all in the past, it probably hasn't.

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 8&t=137518

[jhoefer]

I have a magnesium case and only carry about 1.5 gal of fuel. The flywheel is 12.5 lbs and I am not sure about the need for body work. After much consideration I decided to keep the drum brakes. I had someone weigh the Jamars and the were right around 14 lbs per side. I pulled one of my drums off ----------------- 10.1 lb add in the backing plate and other hardware and it will be less than 14 lbs. So there is nothing to be gained by switching to disc.
Thanks everyone, R

I'm assuming the Jamar weight includes the calipers? Rotational mass is typically worth 1-2x static mass, that is, dropping 1 lb of rotating mass is like losing up to 2 lbs of chassis mass. Calipers are a good fraction of the mass of disc brakes but it's not rotational mass so you will see some improvement. Plus the mass in a disc is closer to the axle than in a drum, so it's moment of inertia will be less even if the two weighed the same. Both of these factors will increase vehicle acceleration using discs even if the drums and discs total weight is the same. Now it's probably only worth a few tenths of a second at best, but those matter.

[Chip Birks]

Airkewld BAD series brakes are built from aluminum billet. Very nice parts. Not cheap, but you didn't mention budget was an issue.

I'd do a lot of homework and ask a lot of questions before going this route with them. Unless they admit that there was an issue and bad service and product have been corrected and it's all in the past, it probably hasn't.

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 8&t=137518

I know there are a lot of happy customers out there too. They just arent getting on the forums and talking about them. There are always going to be anomalies when mixing and matching parts. I bet that now that they offer their Pro Built lines, everything goes together very nicely.