Glowing rotors

 I will go and make a nice cup of tea now.........

Sorry...tea's off dear.
 

Except for the racers that also replace and fit ROTORS as part of their job.I have some old rotors here in a box,, and they are marked brake ROTORS by the mainstream manufacturer.
A little research via Google. The popular manufacturers. DBA & RDA call them rotors, Bendix refer to rotor prep in fitment guides. 
EBC and Bosch call them brake discs.
I do know when I call for rotors they do not ask if I want discs!

This shows how recently, or not, that I have watched a race live and paid attention to the details.  Are the glowing brake discs visible to the naked eye - or do they only show up in photos?

This shows how recently, or not, that I have watched a race live and paid attention to the details.  Are the glowing brake discs visible to the naked eye - or do they only show up in photos?

Oh my yes! They are quite visible to the naked eye, although they are "more" visible after  (or around) dark, If you remember to look and are looking in the right place, you can easily see them at turn in points after long straights (say at turn 10 before the bridge at Road Atlanta). 

Edited by 63Corvette, 23 August 2015 - 18:37.

Top harrumphing!!

The first time I saw brakes glowing was on the 1975 RAC Rally on the left-foot braking Saab 96s of Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund.  I remember being very impressed that they weren't the same colour. One would be bright scarlet and the other darker, cherry red but it wasn't that one of the work's drivers was using the brakies harder, because it wasn't always the same car!

1970 RAC in my case.  The first time I had seen such a thing, on the Lancias and SAABs in Speech House stage in the Forest of Dean in the depths of the night. At that time, I didn't know about left foot braking and wondered what was going on!

Top harrumphing!!

 

The first time I saw brakes glowing was on the 1975 RAC Rally on the left-foot braking Saab 96s of Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund.

And the first time that I disassembled the front end of a SAAB 96 V4 production car, I was astounded by the quality. It changed my driving. Few people driving a car behind me could expect to brake or change direction as quickly as a nomark in a SAAB.

....yawn...    .

CND

Never thought much of those new-fangled disc brakes.

You can't beat drums. Sorry

Edited by GMACKIE, 23 August 2015 - 23:26.

Having discussed this at length, trust Greg to give us the drum....

Never thought much of those new-fangled disc brakes.

 

You can't beat drums. Sorry

 

Just show us the front drums please Greg!

Those fancy shiny drums would have bought quite a few discs I feel.

Though as a user of rear drum racecars too they are in fact really better than discs as you can maintain a consistent pedal. Though they are only good for about 10 laps on slower light cars. And mine are far cheaper than yours. All production parts sourced from the wreckers. apart from shoes and wheel cylnders. You replace cylinders and hold down springs regularly. And I have twice the power and a couple of hundred extra kilos too.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 24 August 2015 - 04:31.

That is the front drum, Lee. This is the rear :-

The car ['59 Beetle] laps Wakefield Park i 1m 11s...lap after lap, without brake fade.

This is another example of two nations divided by a common language.

I suppose we must let the colonies develop their own slang terms for common place items as it does give them a sense of achievement!

This is another example of two nations divided by a common language.

 

I suppose we must let the colonies develop their own slang terms for common place items as it does give them a sense of achievement!

 

Seems to me it's also another example of two nations having very different understandings of what constitutes nostalgia. This unutterably lightweight thread should have been strangled at birth, it just doesn't belong here.

Harrumph.

....yawn...    .
 
CND

Ohhhh my goodness gracious me...we are keeping young Dougie up! Please go have a lie down laddie...and think of Mother England

And I thought I was a grumpy old man !

Edited by ocp, 24 August 2015 - 22:08.

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 24 August 2015 - 22:26.

[/quote]

Lee is the cut outs in the Backing Plate to let hot air out to assist cooling or to allow grit dust & s..t to get in & ****** the operation of the brakes let alone warping & twisting of the backing place under pressure?

I have been using those backing plates for 30+ years. Initially on my Sports Sedan and later the Club Car which was the recipient of the cast offs.

Most GpN etc have used backing plates like that in decades. Even GpC KBs Chev had little more than a post to hold the wheel cylinder, though that was too over 30 years ago. 

Drums are in reality more efficient than discs. No arguments please!  BUT as we all know their down fall is a complete lack of ability to disapate heat. Hence the mods. There is hiding next to the trailing arm a 90 degree duct to scoop more air into the brakes. These as I said were from the Sports Sedan which I fitted rear discs too because of the appetite for rear shoes. [Sintered metal then at about $200 per set, every second meeting! ] Then spent a long while trying to keep the pedal up with rear discs! A 13/16 w/c performs a better job in braking than a 2 3/8" calliper.  I suspect that those drums have glowed a bit in the past on the Sports Sedan which was then 7-8 sec a lap faster than this car. And yes Virginia they are 10" drums, not 9". That makes a hell of a difference

The car pictured is not as fast as the Sports Sedan!! That uses HQ technology for rear brakes. Two standard long shoes and they hang in there for 10 lap races fine. Though the cylinders get fried, the springs heat anneal then get soft. So lots of simple maintenance.

Though I would never try a drum on the front, about 1 lap would kill them probably. Though there has been a lot of quick Nb Nc cars with front drums in the past. Valiants, EHs, Several Chev Belairs, Galaxies! & more. Though those cars are/ were better on faster flowing circuits where brakes are not so much a premium as Mallala is.

As I said before Mallala has the drums glowing on the faster rear drum cars, even on occasion HQs though I suspect there is hold down spring problems causing that in reality. Rob Vanderkamps very quick [and heavy] XY has all 4 corners glowing at night when he is trying. You know when he has backed off a bit, the brakes stop glowing!

And the pic is what is used on the front,, again SS castoffs and again in need of regular maintence too. 290mm rotors. The calliper seals fry and need replacing every couple of meetings too. Though the hydraulic difference is 4x1 3/4" pistons doing similar work to a 1 1/8" wheel cylinder. Though they do keep stopping lap after lap. That car has grooved rotors now, it does seem to help braking consistency. And oh yes, these have glowed regulalry on the Sports Sedan and this car as well. Rotors never last all that long. Check them after every race for cracks.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 25 August 2015 - 00:03.