Re: [alfa] Racing & brakes

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 13:13:10 +0000 Allen Mitchell <allenom@domain.elided> wrote:

> I seem to recall that Mario Andretti was credited with saying something
> about how many race car drivers are under the mistaken impression that
> the brakes are used to slow the car down.  I agree with Richard that more
> experienced drivers use their brakes differently, but unlike Mario, I
> still use them to slow down!  I have found myself moving away from the
> "get your braking done in a straight line," school, however. When you
> finally start to go faster, the available "straight line" area gets kind
> of short. 

i tend to use a mixture of trail braking and straight line braking, it depends
very much on the corner. if a corner has some natural banking, it's
a good candidate for trailbraking in my estimation because bank will
help hold the rear end in.

> It took me a couple of years to get the car fast enough to start fading
> the brakes.  I was both pleased and horrified simultaneously to discover
> at Road Atlanta that a) I was going 20mph faster all over the track, and
> b) my brakes were fading at then end of the long back straight.  You
> know, the one just before the 90 degree left hand turn 10; with the big
> gravel trap at the end of it.  I managed to stay out of the kitty litter,
> but I started paying a lot more attention to the stiffness of my brake
> pedal.  That's when I added the front brake ducts.

my first major fluid boil episode came at a bmw club driver school at
mid-ohio. at the end of the back straight, at about 110 mph, i discovered
i had a very spongy pedal as i approached the 50mph right hander.

i learned how to get around such corner in one piece on the first try. it
was entirely too exciting for my taste.

> I know a lot of people are down on the Brembo front calipers, but when
> compared to other cars in my class, they are really quite excellent.  The
> 240Z in particular, has pretty scary fronts, apparently.  I also think it
> is neat that Alfa was using Brembos before Brembos "were cool."

i really like the front brakes in the gtv-6/milano, i don't know why people
seem to have issues with them.

> What kind of brake fluid does everybody here use?

in the old milano, either Castrol LMA or the OE type ATE.

in the ITB Alfetta, i was just starting to use the Motul
synthetic glycol racing fluid when the car went into
its current "long sleep".

richard  
-- 
Richard Welty                                         rwelty@domain.elided
Averill Park Networking                                         518-573-7592
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