RE: GTV & Alfetta rear brakes

["Leslie J. Singh" <Les.Singh@domain.elided>]

John Fielding wrote:

>As far as ducting air to the general area of the rear brakes and 
>transaxle, I think that
>too much air around the transaxle is unlikely due to the shape of the 
>floorpan and under
>floor airflow path.  A great deal more air will help the transaxle keeping 
>the oil within
>reasonable temperatures.
>
>On my Alfetta race car I chopped two slots into the boot/trunk 
>floorpan.  If you examine
>the floorpan there are two rectangular depressions, one above each rear 
>brake, I took an
>anglegrinder and cut these out, but more for easy access to the adjusters 
>and to make
>changing pads simpler.  However since then the rears have behaved a lot 
>better, maybe
>psychological who knows?

There's a lot of truth in what John says. We found in Group N racing,where 
no modifications are allowed, that the front brakes on the Alfetta were the 
ones that were useless. Compare the size of the Alfetta and 1750/2000 GT 
Veloce brakes and you'll see what I mean. By the time we started worrying 
about the rear brakes the fronts were already gone. On our 570 hp Alfetta, 
we started off with huge curved scoops fixed to the body work where the 
rear windows are but the drage was too much and all the cooling was 
unnecessary. We used a pre-heater for the transaxle oil, and when the car 
was running the transaxle oil pump routed the oil through a radiator at the 
back of the car to keep the temperature down. To help airflow we used 
rectangular section ducts that exited below the rear skirt. Front brakes 
were Lockheed vented disks (rotors) and calipers. We never had trouble with 
brakes on this car.

In Group N, there was one horrible experience when the transaxle oil was 
overheating. The car had to come into the pits every 1/2 hour or so, and I 
would change the oil stopping periodically to plunge my arms into a bucket 
of ice. The boiling oil created a pothole in the tarmac  and I stank of 
transmission oil for days!!!

I haven't followed this discussion so apologies if I'm going over old ground.

Ciao tutti

Les
2000 GTV running sweet
75 Twinspark needs head gasket (o-rings gone)
GTA engine needs building
FF1600 engine needs rebuild   also ... house needs painting etc etc etc .... :-(
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