Big Brakes on a not-so-big Budget? YEP

Zack said:
This is humorous....and why I will never make another mod for this car in the future.

It's a copy of a Baer brake kit, which has never received anything but positive reviews over the 10 years it's been available.

I'm sorry you don't like it, and I'm sorry there are potentially 19 others who are having their doubts about installing their brakes.

At the end of the day, they will only be out $155 bucks......which I won't lose any sleep over.
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I understand that this is a clone of the Baer kit, and I would guess if I got the Baer kit I would be somewhat dissatisfied with it as well.

I was also dissatisfied with the QA1/Naake setup. I spent a good six months before I decided for sure that they had to go. If you look closely at my write-up pics you'll see I start the write-up with QA1's and end with Eibachs and KYB's. Plenty of users here love the QA1's and that is fine - I did not.

Am I going to remove your brake kit? Not likely, as I still consider it an upgrade - as indicated in my review. I suppose my expectations of the upgrade and fitment were higher which is why I gave the review I did.

You found that the upgrade to your brakes was a huge difference, which is great. Hopefully everyone else who installes the kit will have the same results as you.

It was not my intention to criticize your effort or your product. I appreciate the effort to further improve our cars and the community. I was simply giving an honest and unbias review of the product - a review that several members here asked for. Also not my intention to make people doubt if they should install their brackets, but if I inform them of my experience and they are able to make a more informed decision, either to install or not, then I think I am helping.

I did not see anyone offer to correct the issues I have brought to light. No one tried to improve the situation. Neither of you asked how you could improve the setup. Todd/TCE did not ask me about my line bracket fitment. No one here offered to make things better. All I got was that I was **** out of luck and to handle it myself:

Zack said:
Not much I can say here, since this brake setup wasn't designed for track events like you are attending.
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lji372 said:
in other words stfu and deal with it (in my nice voice) :D
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Apologies to Zack if any of my comments were construed as criticism...that was never my intent at all. I was only off on a technical tangent regarding the design of brakes in general etc.

I can't speak, nor would, about the function, quality or intent of this kit. I have nothing to do with it outside of the hoses. But from all outward appearances I can't see anything wrong with it at all! Maybe not for everyone, but neither are my kits. It appears to be a cost effective alternative to factory brakes. Well done sir.

Again, sorry if anyone was reading into our technical discussions more than was intended.
 
Let's get this thread back on track... Lji372... I received my brackets today, and they are each &$/#~ing workS of ART!!!!

Zack, thank you for wringing this kit out-- and to both of you--GREAT job working together to make it happen.

Us un-brake-educated-took stats 101 instead of calculus3- non sweep area calculating peddle-stompers really appreciate all the hard work.

My first experience with the lack of Marauder brakes happened on I40 , on my way to CA of TENN where I bought my car. Three 18 wheelers in a row on right... Passing the first (rear truck in right) the first of the three blew an putter middle outer tire.

Huge pieces of rubber headed my way, and I headed theirs, at 85 plus... I Braked really hard to slow (and swerve right behind the truck I had just passed), and it felt like I was Fred Flintstone, dragging my bare feet on ground to slow the beast. I didn't stop or slow in time... (and I blew 20 yards past where I thought the place the car would slow to)... having to accept running over portions of the tire treads and only hoping to NOT have the tread slap up on a painted surface....

And it was then, that I wanted MORE BIG brakes.

THANK YOU BOTH for making it happen!!!!!
 
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So after polling a dozen or so people, today I finally had someone explain to me in an understandable way why the swept area is not relevant, which led to my understanding of why effective radius will determine stopping power.

I am willing to admit when I am wrong and I was. Swept area will not change braking force as I thought and said before.

What led to my understanding of this is going back to the scenario of 2x6" pads and 3x4" pads. While the 3x4" pad is sweeping a greater area of the rotor, its only sweeping the rotor with material that is 4" long, while the 2x6" pad is sweeping less rotor area, the area that is swept is swept by pad material that is 6" long.

Understanding this led me to understand why effective radius, brake pressure, and co-efficiency are the only factors that control energy transfer via friction.

I apologize for my hard headedness on this particular factor - I do feel like an ass. I wish it was explained to me better here on the boards before I made an ass of myself.

I still believe torque is purely a bi-product of the friction occurring. But I will say that mathematically and physically, green96's estimate of 18% increase is stopping power is more accurate with my new understanding. More or less it is an increase of rotor speed at the caliper.
 
PS... Today I found an all female band that fronts The Ramones... Called "the Hormones..." And evidently that play only once a month, yell and scream at the audience, smash their equipment, and then act all demure and apologetic in the bar later.... True story.
 
1Marauder said:
PS... Today I found an all female band that fronts The Ramones... Called "the Hormones..." And evidently that play only once a month, yell and scream at the audience, smash their equipment, and then act all demure and apologetic in the bar later.... True story.
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You're killing me . . . :laugh::rofl:
 
Logizyme said:
So after polling a dozen or so people, today I finally had someone explain to me in an understandable way why the swept area is not relevant, which led to my understanding of why effective radius will determine stopping power.
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So it's good that we all understand what determines brake torque. Increasing pad size doesn't affect it to a first order approximation. Again, same physics says bigger tires don't improve traction. Carried to it's logical conclusion a 1 square inch pad will work as well as a 12 square inch pad. Anybody think that is true?

Bigger pads are absolutely critical to maintaining reasonable wear characteristics (not just long life between replacements, but nastiness like pad transfer and pulsation) and keeping temperatures under control. It is not just the rotor size that manages temperature, although obviously rotors are important.

I refer you to expensive cars like Porsche Panamera, Toyota Supra, and various other high end cars. They have huge calipers and pads. There is a reason.
 
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