GameboyRMH wrote:
I've never seen a course IRL or from any videos that could be significantly helped by anything better than decent stock brakes. They might help you save time, sure, but you're not going to have heat problems in an autocross and if the decision's between brakes and handling then the handling will help you much more.
I've beat plenty of cars with modern vented discs and ABS with my old non-vented discs and drums - in fact I'm well known for my late braking and quick stops. The brakes get hot but not enough to fade.
I am in no way arguing that a big brake kit is necessary, but I would not say that "quite crappy brakes" are suitable for an autocross venue, nor would I say that driving them on the street is more likely to induce fade than an autocross.
Stock brakes, especially on lower end cars with much more grip than stock, will fade pretty easily on a big course. Upgraded pads are pretty normal on most autox cars I've seen. I know I've run some slower cars on stock pads before and they were awful... and that was on ST tires. Running on fat R-comps is likely worse.
Vigo - if you look through the thread, I have been arguing in favor of more tire/less brake... provided the OP just uses good pads.
Well I did mean "quite crappy" by motorsports standards so lower-end stock brakes with performance pads qualify.
Also you can drive on the street for more than a couple minutes at a time with no long breaks in between...so it does give more opportunity for brake fade.
To be honest, the only time I was able to induce any brake fade was after a pair of almost back to back 15 min lapping sessions at our local test track at the dragway. Even then I'm not so sure it was brake fade, as much as the crappy street tires just gooing away after being pushed that hard that long. Just sayin....
Vigo
SuperDork
9/3/12 10:31 p.m.
Only time ive ever experienced brake fade on ANY brakes was coming down a mountain. Granted, i have not run a full road course, just events that used portions of them.
As a tech, if an enthusiast customer came to me complaining about brake fade, i would look first at fluid, then at pads, then at driving style, then at a possible 'upgrade'. As i said, i did all mine for feel. Im about to upgrade my neon's front brakes just to make me feel better because i dont like the pedal effort coming down from 100+ mph. It doesnt make me confident. I want to feel better. Its not really going to stop any shorter.
wclark wrote:
In reply to SVreX:
Are you running the 3rd gen (a3) steering knuckles with the removable caliper carrier or the 1-2 gen (A1-A2) with the forged-in carrier? I assume the 3rd gen version since you cant fit 10" rotors on the 1-2 gen.
Not true. All A1's had a removable caliper carrier. The 16v Scirocco had stock 10.1" brakes, so all you need to put the 10.1" brakes on any A1 chassis car is the larger rotors and the calipers with carriers from a 16v Scirocco or Audi 4000.
That being said, I'd go for the smaller brakes and big meaty tires.
mk1 VW owner here. The small brakes are plenty for a car of this size and weight. As noted, these are momentum cars. More grip = more speed, and less need to brake to begin with. I run 13's :)
