No the suspension is extremely responsive, I have no problems with it pushing or pulling me away from my intended line. In fact I've hit the limits of what my stock 7" rims can handle; nothing quite so scary as feeling your wheels wobble back and forth (vertically not horizontally) from trying to keep up with the car
Thanks, 'preciate it!

 

And how do you know I've never sat in a Ralliart? That's a pretty big assumption.

I find it absolutely hilarious how some Ralliart owners will talk about how great the car is in one breath, and then complain about how it must have X parts in the next. The car doesn't need a BBK, which is clearly what you're implying. That's a bogus idea. You clearly bought the wrong pads. If you use a more motorsports oriented pad, you'll be fine. Hell, run some cheap brake ducting.

Let's see, spend $1000+ on a BBK kit or spend $200 on better pads and $50-100 on some ducting.

As for your other post, I have no idea what you're trying to say. I don't understand what a "tighter driving style" is compared to pushing a car. Both are required to be a skilled track driver. It's not like track people go out and slide everywhere; that's a waste of tires and time.

 

I never implied anything, you choose to read into something that was never stated. No one said it must have anything; I could just keep buying $40 rotors ever 5-6 months. You still presume that everyone must be like you. For the umpteenth time, this is WHAT I CHOOSE TO DOPlease go back to the dark cave that is Post ******, and leave us simple folk alone.

 

He isn't hating. I think that I understand both sides of this discussion.

What sstevojr wants to do with his setup is akin to running a larger turbocharger at a lower psi to reduce the overall number of RPMs needed in that unit over a given period of driving, hence increasing the expected life of said turbocharger.

There is no question that bigger brakes, better tires, etc. will allow you to perform at 100% of your driving ability and not cook the car. I have seen this a number of times with MR's over the past several years. There is NO WAY that running a few laps of the track should boil the ATF. In that circumstance, it would be wise to, perhaps, "over do it" with the cooling setup to prevent that ever from becoming an issue, again. As I said before, there is nothing wrong with that. If you have the money and know what you are doing, have at it.

Amby is more of a realist. MOST cars don't need all of these proposed modifications. Most people don't understand the advantages of monoblock calipers over pull-style calipers. In many cases, it can actually be detrimental to adopt the "bigger is better" approach to modification. For instance, a set of Carbon-Kevlar clutches for the RA is not going to increase the overall expected life-span of these clutches, even at lower power-outputs. They last for a certain number of miles (30,000 almost right on the nose), regardless of power level. If you don't have a power-hungry monster with 600-hp, DO NOT BUY THESE CLUTCHES. You simply don't need them. A lot of brakes work that way, too. Some calipers (almost exclusively specialized racing calipers) will not last longer than a certain number of miles regardless of usage (track versus street) (hot versus cold). In many cases, what comes with the car (organic friction disks, semi-metallic brake pads, journal bearing turbochargers) are being used for a reason. However, that does not mean that there isn't room for improvement.

sstevojr, I look forward to seeing the progress of this project.

 

Amby may be right about the pads. A Hawk HP+ pad with a DBA or Stoptech rotor might reduce fade. However, my position has always been that the brakes on this car are simply too small. I use parts that were designed for other road-cars. No issues with decreased life should come into play with these type of parts. The massive rotors on my car lasted forever. You couldn't fade them if you tried, which allowed me to run a really aggressive pad without paying $1,000 for new DBA rotors. That is a cost that you have to keep in mind. Evolution X rotors are much more readily available than RA rotors are. You have to figure all of these things into a BBK. It is actually a very complicated thing.

 

Yes, bigger is not always better (that's how we got into the whole SUV debacle). A large 6-pot caliper is no better at stopping than a 4 pot. Physics tell us that a smaller pad will a large piston will exert more braking force than a larger pad with multiple smaller pistons. But some things are so poor that there is nothing but improvement available (i.e. as bad as it gets, OK exaggeration but not far from the truth).

 

I have Stoptech pads with an extremely aggressive bite. The rotors just can't handle it, they are truly awful. But if I spend $300-400 for rotors (same size, mind you) and $200 pads, $100 for SS Lines, and $100 for fluid....I'm 8/10th's of the way to a front BBK (rear is not important).

 

This depends on a unbelievably complicated set of factors. It also depends on the construction of the calipers.

 

Speaking of which, are you going to be making those brackets? I have an Engineer friend (Purdue, NASA sub-contractor, etc) who wants to help me make a pair. I don't want to step on toes, but if you are not planning on starting this back up perhaps I could take over? He already makes performance parts for 300ZX's, and has a Faro Scan Arm, so it would literally take about 2-3 weeks to get a CNC batch made.

 

You clearly implied a BBK was needed. That is evident by your response to another member's post and your word choice.

You started a thread looking for advice, at least that is my presumption. Maybe you just started it looking for people to stroke your ego or help your rationalize your decisions. I don't know or care. You'll also notice I've been here a long time and know a thing or two. I do have experience tracking cars and don't like to see people **** their money away on overpriced "upgrades" because they've convinced themselves or let themselves be convinced that those parts are needed.

For practical purposes, this doesn't matter. Stopping distance will be the same. What matters for braking the most is tires. If you can lock up the tires, you have more than enough stopping power. Most cars can do this when truly pushed. Upgrading calipers has more to do with feel and ease of use than actually reducing stopping distance.

You're using the wrong type of pad. Get a proper track pad. If they're the Stoptechs I think they are based on a search of Tirerack, they're not even close to a track pad. I wouldn't even use them as an autocross. At a minimum, you need something at the HP+ level. Hell, I would go for something like an XP8 or XP10 which is above an HP+. You can get the rotors turned and switch to a different pad and run some ducting.

In short, I think you're spending money for the sake of spending money. That's completely fine, some people like to do that and more power to them, but don't try to rationalize it as being necessary for a specific purpose when there is a logical disconnect there. Don't say "I'm getting a BBK because I want to track my car". That very clearly suggests that the BBK is necessary for tracking when it's not. There are cheaper options out there that will be just as effective if you do the research. It's easy to jump to more extensive mods. You can say "oh it's only a few hundred dollars more" but that's still a few hundred dollars that are being spent on something unnecessary when the money could go towards something more useful. I also think your numbers are off. You need to factor in all the parts for a BBK upgrade. You'll be changing the fluid anyways so that cost is moot. You may need different lines, and obviously you'll need larger and more expensive rotors, larger and more expensive pads, the calipers themselves and any other parts needed to make it all work.

 

I never once asked for advice, nor implied anything; you really are bad at reading, making your presumptions just plain wrong.
Look at that, line #1, shows how far your reading comprehension goes. You do know that's an important part of Law School right?
Then do us all a big favor.....

You do a good job is drawing the outline, but filling in the box is something entirely different. You argue because you enjoy it and love the sense of being smugly superior. You should fit right in at the bar exam.

 

So it was to get your ego stroked . Good to see you've completely closed yourself off to alternative ideas and are instead dead set on spending your hard-earned money on unnecessary parts. You'll go far on evom, seriously. Next you'll want harnesses on the stock seats but won't want to hear about the obvious risks like a lot of people have recently.

As for the rest, lol, I guess I'll go read my degrees as practice so I can live up to the expectations of evom. Part of being smugly superior is being superior. As you said, haters gonna hate.

 

I will likely continue to make the basic upgrade. The big upgrade needs tweaking. The custom machined rotors in the rear is a hurdle that has to be overcome. I have been working with Kore3 to square everything away. I just need to come up with a different design using different calipers. Radial mount is the only way to make everything work, and I will be investigating that in the future. But, you won't hurt my feelings by making your own kit. I have plenty of work to do (Graduate School prep is kicking my **** ).

 

Really??? Your trying to use transitivity?

 

I prefer to call it logical interpretation. Regardless, it's irrelevant since you've clearly decided to just spend some money to get faster, rather than, you know, getting some experience so you're actually faster. That's cool, I know a lot of people who do it. However, I do think you could save a lot of money by going a different route and you'd be more likely to achieve your goal of building for "reinforcement and efficiency for a long life" by leaving more components stock, rather than changing things out.