blueshift
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| posted on 10/11/03 at 08:42 PM |
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Which brake pads? And where to get?
What brake pads do folks reccomend for road use? We'd like better performance than standard pads without paying through the nose.
We were thinking of greenstuff, had one quote of
cortina front
£32.75
sierra rear
£46.19
Any reccomendations of where's cheap for greenstuff, or other pads we should consider, would be appreciated.
Cheers
(Jon and Mackie)
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Metal Hippy
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| posted on 10/11/03 at 09:09 PM |
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I thought that Locost cars and their like were overbraked anyway so long as the old Escort master cylinder wasn't used...?
Cock off or cock on. You choose.
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Hellfire
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| posted on 11/11/03 at 02:59 AM |
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Greenstuff...
From my information EBC have a national pricing agreement to ensure that the pricing of their products is uniform across the country. However, I have
heard of a few outlets being pennies cheaper but nothing radical...
Incidentally, Red Stuff by EBC is better for your wheels if you have alloys as they are Kevlar impregnated and produce very little/no dust!
Course - I could be wrong...
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ChrisW
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| posted on 11/11/03 at 08:57 AM |
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Green stuff is the same but a lower temperature compound. Red stuff will be useless on a road car.
I have Green Stuff on my Fez and it was a huge improvement over standard pads. Get the EBC discs too tho because the uprated pads eat standard discs
very quickly!
Chris
My gaff my rules
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Fast Westie
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| posted on 11/11/03 at 09:21 AM |
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quote:
Incidentally, Red Stuff by EBC is better for your wheels if you have alloys as they are Kevlar impregnated and produce very little/no dust!
I'm afraid I have to disagree, my rear wheels were absoulutely smothered when I used Red Stuff pads - and they didn't last very long.
quote:
Get the EBC discs too tho because the uprated pads eat standard discs very quickly!
You can just use the standard disks. I think Green Stuff pads are very easy on the disks, Mintex M1144s however...
The car in front is a Westfield
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blueshift
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| posted on 11/11/03 at 07:05 PM |
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So Westie, you seem to know your brake pads, think we should use greenstuff / some other performance pad, or just standard cheapo ones?
I don't suppose we need an ultimate track edge or anything. Just don't have a basis for comparison to know whether it would be worth
getting expensive pads.
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craig1410
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| posted on 11/11/03 at 11:50 PM |
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Blueshift,
My experience of EBC greenstuff is very positive. I've used them on my Rover 800 Vitesse for over a year and they are still in good shape. I
fitted Black Diamond grooved and drilled discs all round at the same time and I have already mentioned on another thread that the brakes are great.
The MOT tester who last looked the car over was most impressed at the shear stopping power which almost went off the scale at 550Kgs (Scale goes to
600) per front wheel under a fairly modest pedal pressure. I always wait while my MOT's are done and typically I see 350Kg's on most of my
cars over the years. The Rover was around the 400Kg's mark the previous year with new calipers and good standard discs.
I would advise you not to touch EBC redstuff for road use as they have a poor cold performance which could catch you out in a traffic queue and leave
you looking pretty silly with a bent front bumper... Greenstuff are designed for fast road use and have a very high coefficient of friction (0.46)
compared with most pads which tend to be around 0.35. Redstuff are only 0.3 rising to 0.33 at 750degC. Greenstuff also work almost 100% from cold but
do get a little better with some heat. Dust is not a problem in my experience either as they are designed to be low dust.
In summary, use greenstuff for road and a quick blast round a track but use redstuff for a proper full-on trackday. Just make sure that your brake
fluid is up to the job (I use Dot 5.1 which is not the silicon stuff, Dot 5 is silicon and I'd advise you to avoid it for reasons I'll
explain if interested. Dot 5.1 is compatible with 4.1 and 3 but has higher temperature handling. )
Try www.proven-products.co.uk for a price. I don't know if they're cheaper or not but they supplied mine. They will usually negotiate
prices if you have already got a quote from someone else...
HTH,
Craig.
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blueshift
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 02:10 AM |
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Things I know:
- greenstuff is good
- redstuff is not good for road
Things I want to know:
- should we spend extra over standard pads for our roadgoing locost?
- if so should that be greenstuff, or some other brand I haven't heard of?
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Julian B
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 08:15 AM |
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I had but have now sold a Robin Hood with a heavy 2.0 pinto.
It used standard sierra disk brakes up front and drum bakes at the rear. Braking was absolutely fine and that’s comparing it to an every day car that
has multipot brembo brakes.
I wouldn’t spend any more on ebc pads or the like. If you want to increase braking efficiency you will need to increase the pad/disk contact area...
ergo bigger disks and bigger callipers, but again on a lightweight machine IMHO its not worth the extra cost.
cheers
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paulbeyer
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 08:38 AM |
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For what it's worth I have used EBC Greenstuff pads on the front along with new ventilated disks and standard drum setup on the back. My
reasoning behind this was to try and increase braking efficiency on the front in line with the expectations of your local SVA tester.
I might be proven wrong though as my car is still being built.
[Edited on 12/11/2003 by paulbeyer]
7 out of 10 people suffer with hemorrhoids. Does that mean the other 3 enjoy them?
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Fast Westie
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 09:54 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by blueshift
So Westie, you seem to know your brake pads, think we should use greenstuff / some other performance pad, or just standard cheapo ones
Start with standard ones. If you get brake fade change them. I had a set of standard Ford pads in the front of my previous Westfield and never had any
problems with them
Generally Greenstuffs are good, but do not stand overheating well. Once overheated and colled their braking abilities drop off noticably
The car in front is a Westfield
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craig1410
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 10:28 AM |
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Blueshift,
Most of us are used to cars with vacuum assisted brakes these days and when you then drive a car with unassisted brakes they tend to lack initial bite
even though ultimately they are good enough.
By using the greenstuff pads you will get a greater friction coefficient and thus improve bite (for a given pedal pressure) which will go someway to
making the brakes feel more like what you are used to in your everyday road car. Also, although I agree with Julian that bigger discs and more contact
area are the only way to make big gains in braking efficiency, by using greenstuff pads you will give yourself a greater range of operating
temperatures which may come in handy when you want to do a couple of laps of the track. Of course you should change pads and tyres for a full on track
day but for a couple of laps or for that matter a quick blast through some country lanes, the greenstuff would be much better than standard pads. All
IMHO of course...
I intend to use new standard non-vented Cortina discs with greenstuff pads on the front and standard sierra discs and greenstuff pads on the back. You
don't really need greenstuff on the back but it will improve handbrake efficiency. I will use a Fiat Uno pressure reducing valve to balance the
hydraulic brakes initially but will probably go for a complete bias-bar arrangement later on.
HTH,
Craig.
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blueshift
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 01:03 PM |
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Cheers all. I think I'm inclined to go for standard pads, though we can see how flush we feel when it comes to the brakes stage.
Craig, I'm not worried about having to stamp that brake pedal like a man, this thing is supposed to be a raw unadorned sportscar after all 
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craig1410
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| posted on 12/11/03 at 01:14 PM |
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Fair enough but don't say I didn't warn you when you run out of brakes on the track due to fade... 
I'd stick an extra throttle return spring on that big V8 if I was you too 'cause if the throttle sticks and your brakes fade then
you'll wish you had greenstuff pads instead of brownstuff seat covers!! 
Cheers,
Craig.
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