Yeah. I kinda would rather just get a +10 or +20mm aftermarket fender. I really don't like the pooched fender look. Charge speeds are only $520.

 

I have a spacer that's just shy of 10mm at the headlight mount and the gap is minimal

 

i finally got my gearbox back in today! cant wait to go hit the track for some winter track days. its been 6 months

 

Really happy with how these ethanol analyzer brackets turned out 🙂

 

Had some things come up, so I didn't get a chance to work on tire fitment this week. I'll be running my old R-S4s at the track tomorrow.

These 275/35R18 RC-1s are wide. On my 18x10 wheels, they don't fit the 282mm NASA test tool. Not surprising, given that even Maxxis quotes their section width as 284mm on a 9.5" rim. These look closer to 288-290mm on my 10" wheel.

 

Boo. However I "doubt" they'll actually be testing widths at impound, if they do impound this time. Most are too lazy to look up sheets so I'd use it at this "come back" event and test out how it handles then decide from there based on what you see/hear.

 

Oh, I’m not competing this year so it’s not a big deal. The goal this year was to get the car sorted out with tire, power, suspension, and weight reduction for the 2021 season.

 

Disappointing day at the track. Everything was great until I noticed my brakes getting a little soft. They normally get a little soft toward the end of a session, but this felt worse than normal.

I slowed down a bit for a cool down lap, but it didn't help. A couple slow-ish turns later, the brakes went straight to the floor. I had to pump 3-4 times while downshifting to get the car stopped. Got off track safely and drove around the paddock for 10 minutes to cool them off, but it barely changed. A quick bleed didn't help as much as I hoped, so I called it a day.

Maybe I just severely boiled the fluid, but given how fast I went from soft brakes to no brakes I'm going to investigate the MC and lines a little more carefully. Let me know if there's anything else I should be looking for.

 

What brake fluid you running?

 

Sounds like a broken wheel bearing..

 

Sounds like pad fade. Usually they'll get a bit soft and then they fall off very fast without any warning. What compound are you running?

 

Fresh ATE Typ 200. Not the best, but I've been using fresh Typ 200 before every other event without issues.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check that out too. The front wheel bearings are relatively new, but it's worth inspecting.

I also considered a stuck piston, but both sides dropped out at the same time and everything spins freely up on jack stands.

ST43. They still stopped the car, but I had to pump the pedal several times before they'd grab.

It's definitely fluid related though, because full pedal pressure didn't come back after an hour of cool down.

 

Been there. Started life as the Blue version of that back when they made it? 10 mins in soft pedal. Same pad ST43's back then. Switched to $RF castrol and it sorta kinda helped thinking the same thing, temp. 15 mins in soft pedal. What it REALLY came down to was compress-ability of said hydro fluid as moisture made its way in over time/temp. I've touted this before numerous times, if you want the best bang for the buck like all factory cup cars come with - it's Endless RF650. The only fluid that came close to it's longevity and compress was "Torque" but that was gone sooner then it arrived. I think honda-guy was the last of us to see it?

Even then I started only bleeding once a year as a duel duty car....then ran into some of the issue....then every OTHER event....as I got faster and harder it came down to a small bleed before every weekend. Never an issue since.

I've had failed bearings before mid qualifying, I cannot say my brakes didn't work though. It would violently dart one way or the other no matter if you were on gas or brake.

Basically you're too damn fast now lol.

 

Thanks Balrok. I already ordered some SRF yesterday before I saw your post. I'll try RF650 next time around.

I've been bleeding the brakes before every event, including between Saturday and Sunday for weekend events. I'm beginning to think my mistake was not aggressively flushing the system to get all of last year's fluid out. That, and I don't know how old this fluid was before I got it. I keep my brake fluid double bagged with fresh dessicant packs to minimize moisture exposure

But it looks like it's time to stop messing around with the cheaper brake fluids altogether.

 

SRF and ATE are night and day. I went from bleeding every couple events to no bleeding at all with SRF (changing fluid each year). I’m sure that I’m not beating up my brakes like Balrok in full tilt road races, but your money was definitely not wasted on SRF.