Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes TCE Open track use review

I open tracked the car for the first time this weekend. See my post in the SCCA/Auto-x forum for the entire review.

The brakes with a J-compound performed flawlessly over the entire weekend. Rotor wear was negligible but they were cryo treated prior to being put into service. Under hard braking in the wet, the car was amazing and in the dry it was even better.

In the first dry run on race tires I still had the front struts set at full soft and under braking at the end of the front straight (120+ mph) there was enough torque to cause the rear end to lift and hop. After I stiffened up the struts the rear end settled down and braking after the front straight was very impressive with little to no fade.

The fronts are the 12.2" kit and I'm running the TCE larger rear disks with stainless lines and EBC green pads on stock calipers. Fluid definitely will need bled out after this weekend as the pedal did start to get mushy at the end of the weekend but braking power was still there. I'm running valvoline synthetic fluid and it was replaced at the beginning of the year.

For those that got a chance to experience the brakes at Spring Zing this year, take that times about 5 for the track pads being installed.

Thanks,
Rick

Swap out that fluid with some good stuff. I was just at an open track event this weekend and my pedal didn't go soft once with the Motul 5.1 fluid I was running. Oh, and don't say I didn't generate enough heat in my stock brakes running Porterfield R4 pads. The calipers I had on the car were brand new reman units and after the 2 day event I had managed to melt the piston dust boots (again). However once I run though this pad/rotor set I will be exploring other options

Overall the my setup worked flawlessly other than loosing a caliper spring on one session and having the ABS unit going apeshit and making the pedal hit the ground in the last third of my braking. Simple solution was to pull fuse #7 (7.5 amp) under the hood and enjoy the benefits of threshold braking.


The track I was at was a brand new venue (we were only the 2nd weekend of events since it opened and despite being a short trak it is very hard on brakes. One cobra owner even had a rotor crack and separate from the hub.


Just for reference here's an ariel shot of the track from just after it was paved about a month ago

Bleed carefully, see if your problem is in the rear. Wondering if the rears got too hot. I'd say the fronts would hang in there unless you are really running some temps. Won't hurt to turn it up a notch as well.

Hey Todd, what are the chances of your 13" FSL kit fitting behind a 17" wheel without spacers if they were upgraded to a rotor thicker than the 0.81" ones? I'm running a set of OZ superleggeras right now.

Man, that is one nasty short course with a lot of very tight turns after short straights, probably much more of a braking track than mine. The only long hard braking point on MAM is after the first straight and that's about 5 seconds on the brakes from 120 down to about 50 +/- After that it's mostly short stabs to set the suspension with a few 2-3 seconds stands after a couple more short straights. Rotor temp after a cool down lap and a coupole minutes in the paddock was around 475. It got hot enough it turned the black wilwoods and rotor hats to gold/purple.

Considering the track use of the car, I probably will switch to a more race oriented fluid sometime just before the next event and just flush it with new just before each successive event.

I need to get some better pads on the rear too. Those EBC greens just aren't very good. Tood, any recommendations for something more matched to the J compound?

Thanks,
Rick

Timeless, where are the HILLS?

j/k

Wider 1.10 rotors are very 'doable' if you have proper wheel clearance. The increase in width will push the caliper outward by another .300 plus.

Think this way: thick hat,,thin rotor OR thin hat, thick rotor. In either case the outer body of the caliper moves as the rotor width increases.

I can give you exact specs on it if you call me. I've got an excel program to spit out the wheel hub face to spoke distance needed.

BTW, no you cannot change a current kit to 1.10 without major changes in parts; hats, rotors, calipers.

For most folks the .81 is ample for daily use, occasional track days and autocross etc. The only benefit of the 1.10 comes in its thermal capacity for extended heat applications via more mass and a bit more air gap. And comes with fit issues as we know. If you don't run the car in 800* range all day long you won't really benefit from it.