quote:

Originally posted by Curly1:
Most all brakes for racecars are very similar design with the exception of TBM. I believe they use a steel center section which I think should help eliminate flex and make a better brake. If I was looking into a new set of brakes I would consider the TBM brakes.
I will not ever run Aerospace Components brakes again, had them on one car and was less than impressed.

I have Wilwood on my dragster and those brakes work quite well. They stop as good as anything and the pads last fairly well and do not put a lot of dust on my wheels. Not sure what brakes pads I have on there but I bought several extra sets of them because they worked so good.

My East Texas Chassis Altered has Strange on all four corners and it stops good.

Unless I have a problem with them which I have not to date I will not be changing them on either car.

Also I think part of the problem with many is the brackets are too weak or not perfectly straight. The brackets is NOT the place to save weight if you want to stop good and have brakes that last.

One other thing the brakes on the new Corvettes are probably way better than anything we are using but they are for huge rotors and wheels.

TBM are OUTSTANDING

Those TBM look really nice. I like the line lock design they have.

What’s not outstanding is wilwood.

quote:

Bob, I couldn’t disagree more!!!

I would expect nothing less

As long as you are happy with your brakes and I'm happy with mine we're all good

That I agree with but you can’t honestly tell me you believe wilwood is on par with Mark Williams.

Anyone have feedback from last season on the wilwood new floating rotor design? Car stops great but warped rotors are getting old. I could probably be fine running these rotors another season but it’s not ideal.

Again Wilwood brakes suck for drag cars. Warping rotors is long known issue.

For the 5th time. Got it. Many just don't agree with that opinion. It will be ok.....really it will.

You clearly don’t “got it” and it’s FACTS and Truth not opinion!

Nah.

quote:

That I agree with but you can’t honestly tell me you believe wilwood is on par with Mark Williams.

To be clear Yes I think Mark Williams makes a better brake than Wilwood does. However ....... The actual braking is not very different at all when you have the right components. When you buy Mark williams, you buy direct and they pretty much map out your installation for you and in the case of my Nova they machined the spindles for the caliper bracket. When using Strange or Wilwood you must use shims to center the caliper correctly. That in itself leaves a lot of room for error resulting in dragging brakes, warped rotors and excessive brake dust. We have the same rotors/pads on the Firebird going on it's fourth season, wheels spin freely no warped rotors or excessive brake dust here.
So I simply disagree that Mark Williams is the only game in town for good working disc brakes.

Well said.

quote:

Originally posted by 1320racer:
Again Wilwood brakes suck for drag cars. Warping rotors is long known issue.

Thank you. You have already made you opinion clear and it had nothing to do with my question.

Again, not opinion FACT!

Bob, I know how to properly install calipers. That said, my former Chevelle is quite a bit heavier than your Firebird, in the 600 lb. range. No amount of shimming, no amount of bleeding, no pad and no amount of F/R brake bias kept the rotors from warping or had it stopping any better than the OEM disc brake calipers and vented rotors.

quote:

Bob, I know how to properly install calipers. That said, my former Chevelle is quite a bit heavier than your Firebird, in the 600 lb. range. No amount of shimming, no amount of bleeding, no pad and no amount of F/R brake bias kept the rotors from warping or had it stopping any better than the OEM disc brake calipers and vented rotors.

My comments were not at all aimed towards you or your old Chevelle, just my opinion on what I often see. And I also like factory GM disc brakes myself
But lets be honest ....... Your 3800lb Chevelle is a horrible example of Wilwwod brakes on a bracket car. Going 130 mph at ISLAND dragway was most of your problem with Wilwood brakes. If we raced there often going 138-140mph we'd wipe out brakes too !! Shortest shutdown I've ever seen
We race mostly 1/8 mile now, I bet our brakes on the new truck last 5yrs or better.

3880 lbs. and I ran at ETown as much as I ran at Island. Besides, I used my brakes often before the finish line.

That said, they are still junk compared to Mark Williams or Strange and that’s why professional chassis builders don’t use them. Wilwood drag brakes are definitely entry level stuff an appeal to the budget minded.

Well this thread sparked my interest in improving my brakes - I bought mark williams calipers and they are so good; I can now dump opponents with by scrubbing 159mph by hitting the brakes at the first MPH cone.

In all seriousness, I measured the pressure I was getting and it was ~800psi. wilwood 4 piston calipers all 4 corners, 6:1 pedal ratio (modified), and 1 inch master cylinder. Again car stopped fine, never a concern even on short shutdown areas; but not as good as the chevelle.

I bought a new master cylinder - went down to a 7/8 inch after some calculations from pressure and previous MC. Installed it. Can easily get 1200psi now with about the same pressure on the pedal and maybe even less. Tested the car last night and even bedding new pads it stops just like the chevelle. Anything more would be overkill and a threat of a lockup situation with anything more than moderate pressure to the brake. While I did not lock them up last night - I easily could have.

Now I am sorta wondering if I should have left them as is - I rarely dial honest and liked the fact I could slam the brakes at different spots and have a controlled decel.... I will give it a go and see.

If you are getting the pressure necessary - a decent aftermarket caliper will work fine. Even just in the front as the chevelle has; with drums out back.