I was on track at Silverstone yesterday and although the brakes on my 265 seemed ok, when coming back into the pits at slower speed i noticed that the pedal a quite soft. Once everything cooled down a bit they were ok but given that I have race spec fluid and pads I was bit surprised but then I haven't ever driven such a heavy car on track before as almost all my previous was in and Elise. Is this normal?
Quite normal that mate, exactly same as my R26.R, after a session and have cooled down go out again -st corner soft pedal then all back to normal mate
Sounds like you've cooked the pads a bit. How do you use the brakes? Short and hard or long and soft presses? I always do short and hard and I've never had any issues with RC6 and ATE super blue (type 200) even at knockhill which is pretty hard on brakes. Do you do a lap to cool down?
Pads are DS1.11 race pads, yes, did a cooling down lap but it was only the national circuit so the lap was short with two heavy braking areas.
You can still cook them with prolonged braking. That's why when they have cooled it's back to normal. Just need a bit more of a cool down
Ok, we did max 20 min running time which was about as much as I would normally do on a track session in one go.
nothing wrong with your pads or fluid, quite normal on these cars as there's no vent system in the wheel arch to give even the best pads half a chance, if the pedal recovers its sign the pad overheated, if the pedal doesn't recover its your fluid that's boiled, taken on air, and needs changing, am about to vent my wheel arches for this very reason.
No something want to do, involves cutting hole in wheel arch liner and fitting vent pipe to front of vehicle, no choice really always gonna look like botched job. In mean time try removing the two air blades immediately in front each wheel that deflect air away from wheel arch.
Nice job here (link below). Also saw some Megs with round 'holes' in the fronts for brake cooling at the Ring but can't find the photos now. Looked ok tbh http://www.eurocarblog.com/post/3356/renault-megane-rs-to-rival-new-ford-focus-rs
Removing the deflectors makes a big difference to the cooling of them, So much so I'm not bothering with proper ducting for now
In fact right where those deflection blades are would be perfect place to install two air scoops venting back into the wheel arch maybe. That way wouldn't have to mess around removing front bumper, cutting holes and running bits of pipe around, Ill have a go as my calliper rubber seals are not at all happy with current temps.
I ws going to just go with a silicone elbow attached to the lower arm directing air at the centre of the disc, Another member on here and on MS.net did similar and was reporting temps around 100 degrees cooler with them, A lot of the French guys have recorded noticeable cooler temps with just the defectors removed though. The rears run very, very hot though so i would pay some attention to them, Again i was going to do something similar with silicone hoses etc as the other guy did
where are these located? on the front outside of the car? I've had the front bumper off before, but didn't notice anything of this nature (of course I wasn't specifically looking for it either).
immediately in front of each front wheel on the underside there's a plastic blade running left/right across the vehicle, it's there to conserve fuel, look under you'll see it.
causes air to flow smooth under vehicle as opposed to entering wheel arch and creating buffer zone due to turbulence, have noticed same blades on other vehicles inc new Honda Type R the down side of course is it starves the brake discs of sufficient air flow and promotes high temps, hence the cooling slots in new Megane we see in test vehicle.
Isn't that kind of uncontrolled air flow bad though? The kind of air flow that causes high speed lift with trapped air in wheel arches. It's time like this I wish I had a 3D printer.
which bit of air do you feel is uncontrolled, the blade is there to push advancing air down and passed wheel arch thus leaving arch with passive amount of air, as mentioned, when blades are removed air IS then uncontrollable entering the wheel arch and creating that life effect and other turbulence that help create drag but at same time passing air around disc, plus to notice life with front engine weight have to be moving at silly speeds. Bottom line they've gone for fuel economy and sacrifice disc cooling and hoped no one would notice
Aren't fuel economy tests done on a rolling road, negating any functional aerodynamics entirely? I find it hard to believe they'd fit a part souly for fuel economy that gives no benefit to the actual official tests.
Sorry, quick update on this. If pads overheat why does this affect brake pedal feel? I assume its due to the heating of the brake fluid but I do have uprated fluid in my car that is quote new. I'm not used to track driving suck heavy cars (previous was Elise/Evora). Swapped DS1.11 for DS2500 now for road use which stops mind numbing squeaking! Noticed the deflectors in front of the front arches, they look like 3 screws only hold them in so i can remove for next track session.
