zero2sixd

I have a friend who is obsessive about measuring brake temperatures at the end of each session. So much so that he goes around and measures all of our cars. With the brake ducts on my car, my front rotor temps are often right in line with the rears at about 350-450 degrees depending on traffic, ambient temp, etc.

For comparison, the other two front-engined cars he tests (WRX, and MkV GTI) have consistently higher temps (150-200 degrees) in the front than the rear. Neither of these two are using brake ducts (they have more weight on the nose too).

My hypothesis here is that having brake ducts on the front actually does quite a bit to even out the temperatures front-to-rear and therefore enables the use of a similar pad material on both ends of the car.

Just a side note on brake temps.. With 102 degrees ambient temperature and liberal use of the brakes, the WRX front rotor temps were off the scale of the infrared temperature gauge we use. It reports "hi" for anything over 1000 degrees. They cooled down to about 800 degrees in 10-15 minutes.

Disclaimer: these temperatures were taken with an infrared gauge which can reportedly be somewhat inaccurate. However, it has been fairly consistent across the cars which makes it useful for comparison purposes if nothing else.

Sleeper_08

Realizing that every car and driver combination is different my experience with EBC Yellowstuff pads at the start of this season is interesting. After three track days the rear pads were worn almost right down to the steel and what little pad material was left looked like it had "melted". The fronts were also worn but in much better shape with little sign of melting. I'm running nice big GT500 rotors and calipers and front brake cooling ducts. Based on my set up it seems that the rears are running hotter.

I've also had more problems on the rear with the plastic wheel center getting soft and the metal clips that are supposed to hold them in coming loose. The first time it took me a while to figure out where the weird noise was coming from.

For the rest of the season was been running HP+ front and rear. They will soon be removed for the winter so I'll get a chance to see how they look.

Argonaut

Matt - good points, I didn't think about the more advanced ABS in the latest Stangs. The WC driver I referred to was not talking about these cars. So perhaps the 'conventional wisdom' doesn't apply to these cars. Like i said - learn something new everyday.

Norm Peterson

Are you sure about this? I can't find any reference to EBD either in the sales literature (2008 and 2009) or in the 2008 FSM.


Norm

RodeoFlyer

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Norm Peterson

Guess I'll have to take their word for it, though I am still puzzled that there is no reference to EBD in the FSM at least somewhere, perhaps as an ABS code. Closest hint I can find is in the description that hydraulic pressure involves ABS and its HCU - without saying that the HCU exerts any normal control over individual brake line pressures.

Maybe somebody with years of the FSM other than 2008 can find something (hint, hint).


Norm

RodeoFlyer

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Argonaut

I remember reading about the ABS system on the S197 at CornerCarvers. Probably about a year ago. Someone was describing how it works and I recall being pretty impressed with it.

jymontoya

UPDATE!

Have run these pads with GREAT success on my '97 Cobra. Extremely low wear rates (3 weekends and they still looked to have 3/4 life left!) Used with Hankook RS3's and Continental Grand Am Cup tires. Only issue was needed to close off part of the front brake duct cooling when below 40*, as using them aggressively while cold made modulation difficult.

Problem is Raybestos is not making them in the correct pad shape for the 05+ Mustangs!? Anyone know a comparable shape that could be modified to fit?