Fade and 164 Brakes

[Dave Hillman <hillman@domain.elided>]

Someone wrote...
>Sorry to say, neither cross drilled rotors or slotted rotors are
>probably of any use on our Alfas.  The cars are not heavy or fast
>enough for off gassing to be a real-world issue.  Before anyone 
>gets offended, another way to look at it is that the stock brake
>system is more than capable for any situation we are likely to 
>throw are cars into, even on the track.

   I'm picking up this thread late, so I don't know who wrote the above,
but it is wrong, depending on your definition of 'real-world' and
certainly for 'on track'.

   I have several times faded the brakes on our former 164 virtually to
the point of uselessness.

   I was testing, ahem, the 164 one night in an abandoned industrial park,
trying to determine the effect of installing a performance ECU chip.
I made three runs up to about 100 mph for about half a mile, with stops to 
turn around in between.  On the third, I got down to about 25 mph, and had
virtually no brakes left.  [ No, this was not smart. ]

   At Blackhawk Farms, I faded the brakes to the point that they were
smoking, and nearly useless, after just 3 laps.  This was with metallic
brake pads installed, which should have been even more resistant to this
abuse.  I had to pit and wait for them to cool, then I eased up on them
for the rest of the day.

   At Road America, I had minor brake fade after hopping in the 164
following my fiancee's 8 or so laps.  She does not brake that hard, but on
just my second lap, I was unable to slow appropriately for T5.  Also with
metallic brake pads.

   The 164 brake system is not sufficient for track use, or multiple
high speed stops, in stock, or slightly modified, form.

- --
 D a v i d  H i l l m a n
 nma, scca, scscc, imoc

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