I read through the post about brake cooling kits and such. I think they are great, don't get me wrong. I just have one issue with them: How much braking force are you really losing by reducing the temperature by ~400F? It sounds like a lot of temperature reduction, but the brakes cool down quickly even while just going along. Has anyone done some track days without a brake duct kit, and then done track days with brake ducts; have you been able to tell a difference? I know using your butt isn't the most scientific way of doing it, but unless you have a very consistent and experienced driver, one who knows how to find the limits of the car, it would be difficult to quantify how well the brakes are working in a track environment.

Track pads are usually 'good' within a given temperature range. They start working very well between X and Y degrees, and start to fade above that range. My question is that if your brakes never get above Y degrees, then are cooling ducts really going to help you any? Maybe they will actually hurt your braking distances if your brakes are not within that tempearature range at the initial contact of the rotor and pad?


I guess one way to do it is to do a certain number of laps at speed, then do a braking distance test from a controlled speed.

 

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you will not loose or gain any braking force from having brake ducts. (well, really not likely too)

the main reason for brake ducts is cooler brakes = longer lasting rotors, pads, ball joints, hubs.....

you're exactly correct, you can easily get a brake compound and fluid that will not boil/go above temp in basically any race situation but the cooler things are the longer they last.

 

If your brakes are overheating then the pad is not going grip as it should, and you are going to have brake fade. So braking distances are going to become longer and it's going to take more effort to stop the car.

If you keep the pads within operating temp then they will work better and last longer. Too hot (and in some cases too cold) and the pads can ware prematurely

 

If your brakes are not reaching operating temp then yea brake ducts will hurt you

 

I am assuming that you have a pad that can cope with the heat, which isn't hard to do. Many pads have a temperature rating way above anything brakes usually get up to. Same with good fluids. Also if you overheat a pad you are still going to be able to stop 95%+ of before it overheated. However if you overheat your fluid and boil it, that's when you experience brake fade and braking distances increase dramatically.

I've never had issues with brake fade tracking my S2000, but before I put ducting on pad and rotor wear was significantly more than after ducting.

 

Yea s2k brakes aren't bad from factory

What kind of pad rotor set up are you running?

 

I always understood the reason for ducting to be a temperature reduction for increased braking force (decreased distance), but pad, rotor, caliper, balljoint, hub, etc. life is something I didn't think about. Thanks for that clarification, I may actually get/make brake ducts now

 

You would have to be going extremely slow and be using extremely aggressive track pads to have a problem with being "too cool." As folks get faster and start adding grip (square wheels, sticky tires, etc), they will start to fade even high-end track pads. And honestly, most track pads works fine at ambient temperatures anyway.

 

Cool rotors helps them from cracking. Added benefit like others state is to keep the hub bearings lugs cool to last longer. I noticed a 20 percent increase in pad life with ducts