Well.. I dont know if i should be happy or sad...
First of all i never received my right side plate prior to my Track day Yesterday at Lime Rock Park..
Sooooo Being that i wasnt going to risk my right side brakes, i bent that plate over as i had done most of all of last season. ( and sufferd no issues other than a pulsation using cool carbons )
To reiterate.. I am running BMW BBK ( same as 135 Brakes ) Ferodo 2500's up front / Cool Carbons in the back ( there is no Ferodo available for a 128 rear caliper
) Ti Backing plates and OEM Shims on the Ferodo Pads..RBF 600 fluid.
I HIGHLY recommend anybody using pads that dont have shims to pry the ones off the stock pads and use them on your aftermarket pads.. The reason being is that vibration / constant slap froward and backward cant be good ( my personal opinion ) for the pad, the pistons etc. I also put a small amount of high temp copper brake lube on the piston tops after brake pad removal / inspection / replacement..
now on to the temps.. Lime Rock is not Hard on Brakes..Turn one off the straight into the double apex hairpin is the highest application. the left hander is the other but not nearly as much, then there is braking for the down hill.. this is a jab for a long moment from speeds of approx 90 to 100 ( in my car, YMMV in a 135 ) to set the car for the down hill for corner speeds in the high 70's / low 80's but if you dont slow enough, you in the Armco / tires ... so you trackguys know what i mean..
I had 4 sessions.. 2 times i got the checker at start finish.. this made my cool down lap 1.5 miles .... the other 2 times i got the checker at turn 6 or 7 ( i forget) this is usually the station that black flags you so that you go into the pits because of a No-No.. The 2 times i got the late checker, it only left 1 turn and pit road and paddock distance to get to my spot in the paddok.. after driving that short distance I recorded the following :
F30 plated rotor temps of ONLY 250 - 260 Caliper temps of 210
Bent backing plate side of of 290 - 310 Caliper temps of 210
Although, it appears as though the F30 backing plate did SOMETHING which is always good... and i still feel they are an improvement over stock plates. we may be missing something because those temps should be able to be handled by a nissan altima.
I say that the f30 / bent backing plates allow for sufficinet air flow to the brakes under normal track conditions given enough cool down and proper brake pad installation ( i.e oem shims / high temp lube ) I agree as Kori can attest that i have seen rotor temps in the 500's but in theses cases there wasnt any real cool down.
I ran a personal best of 1:06.9, (1.5 seconds less than last year) ( thank you Ferodo and Ground control camber plates ...the only mods different then last year )( and i took 1st place in my class ST-3) end of straight speed of 115-120..( 135's in the past have gotten to 135 ish so there is a difference there) The FTD was 59 seconds.. in a HIGHLY modified corvette !!!! ( i know 7 seconds is a eternity but i put that in there for reference being that the vet may have had about 200 horsepower on me )
I inspected my brakes today and they are 100%. I did note that the holes in my vented rotors on the bent backing plate side were clogged more than the F30 backing plate side. ( i took a drill and cleaned all the holes ) ill say that the added air helped keep them less obstructed
I will add that the FERODOS give off a nasty reddish dust as opposed to stock / cool carbon black brake dust.. when i first saw this i though that the amazing braking that i got from the FERODOS was eating the rotors.. but the rotors are no less for wear considering what i put them thru ( 4 sessions..45 laps)
for you 135 guys running larger wheels i think that the shouding the wheels provide are leading to you excessive heat issues .. also i think that the Ti shims + the OEM shims will helpi also, of course in addition to the f30 backing plates.
i may add that i think that the agressive nature of track only pads (hawk etc etc ) dont lend themselves to our set up. maybe you guys are over compensating with your set ups. even if i give you 2 second for horsepower and you see times of 1:05 ish..... how much of that is brake related ????
Overall.. i am very happy with the performance of the f30 backing plate modification...and i approve there installation.
p.s. The Ferodo 2500 are the BEST street / Track pad i have used so far ABSOLUTLY no fade / vibration / loss of effectiveness. i purposely punished them by braking late and hard in my second session ( so much so that turn 1 got really scary a few times as i tried to brake later and later each lap to the point at which i almost had to use the "escape road" ....
I dont know what else to say ???
Thoughts ???? questions?????
on a side note there had to be somthing so so so different to cook those RB rotors and calipers...
Next event June 17th Lime Rock again... all invited !!!
Regards,
Alex