Hi, I have been toying with the idea of full GT brake update for the 550. However, I have decided not to track the 550 anymore since I bought a single seater for that purpose. However I remember some F-chat member using backing plates to force air cooling into the front brake. I guess it's Stephens but unsure. His point was with such set-up stock brakes with upgraded pads were ok even after intensive use. I would be interested in buying such backing plates Stephens - or anyone ? - where can I get them from ? Cheers T
Is this what you mean? I run large 3" ducts piped from the even larger foglight holes via NACA ducts. This chanels a large volume of air right to the brakes. With this set-up I am able to run my dedicated 348 race car on stock brakes and race pads with zero fade issues. My understanding is that brakes are all about heat capacity and heat disappation. So you either have to have a larger rotor/caliper or you gotta cool the little ones you got. Mine are home made from roofing sheet metal, two pop rivets, and an "L" bracket all from home depot. The hose and NACA duct (not shown) is from aircraft spruce and specialty.com. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Fatbillybob, yes, that's the idea. the other version had a plate and a connection for the air duct to force cooling. looked pretty neat. i am not mechanical at all, so i was looking for some shop that would be able to build it for me. sounds more cost efficient than the full brembo GT upgrade. Anyone know a good race shop that could do it ? cheers T
ahh...you are looking for a fancy "shrouded" spindle duct to hold the hose. You can see an example if you search ZO6 corvette and spindle duct. Those things are much fancier than what I did and improve the cooling performance marginally. I think the key is moving CFM's of air as close to the center of the hub as possible. Any race shop can do what I did most likely better. A good one could cutom spindle ducts out of sheet metal too. I do not know of any made for Ferrari not even for recent challenge cars.
Are there any issues with the cooling applied to one side of the brake disc? Any warping or distortion? Thank you
No I have never experianced any. In fact keeping heat down makes rotors last longer. You can fab a spindle duct taco to cool both sides but they really do not work. Most good rotors are designed to pump air from the hub out the vanes. So the key is getting lots of air to the center part of the hub so it can evacuate out the vanes. Sloting rotors can also help dispell outgassing from the pads most evident as the pads really get hot and burn down quick. Drilling rotors justs makes rotors more prone to crack and decreases ultimate heat capacity of rotors. Still you see that done all the time even in pro ranks. I don't know why they do it.
I think you're thinking of this thread: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74338&page=2 Ducting cooling air in via hub center through rotor vanes and out the rotor perimeter is more efficient than 550's OEM setup which uses a platic duct and just blows air onto the rotor face. Any competant race shop should be able to fabricate the hub ducts. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Why do you think you need the extra cooling if you are no longer tracking the car? Maybe you should consider using some temperature paint to quickly find out how hot your rotors are getting from your style of driving before going through all the trouble. Maybe the problem is in your brake pads.
Hi I have already upgraded brakepads to fiorano spec. They are ok for fast raod driving but their performance is not constant: after a few hard brakings, efficiency is reduced. that's why i am thinking better cooling.
There are lots of after market race pads that can handle higher temperature than OEM Fiorano pads, but I still think you should first use temperature paint to determine how hot your rotors get before changing anything.
