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ECR - The brake picture thread


TBone

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Fun track, great weather, fun weekend. Mostly. That track is notoriously hard on brakes. I know we weren't the only ones to have issues. Let's see those pictures:

This is the driver's side from Saturday. It came with a nice green flame as the fluid burned. This happened only 3.5 hours into the race; we started the race with brand new Hawk Blues. We replaced both front calipers and rotors and put in another set of new pads, and 45 minutes later rejoined the race. I think we ended up 11th.

Same thing happened Sunday to the passenger side, 45 minutes from the end, while we were running in the top 5. We haven't pulled it off, but I think it will look the same, just with less pad material.

Caliper1.jpg

Caliper2.jpg

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Nice! I wanted to take a picture of our left front pad caliper piston infusion from Sunday but I was in a hurry to grind the melted crap off of it and put it back where it belongs. I wasn't able to get us another set of racing pads for Sunday and hoped a couple of sets of stock pads would survive a few hours, NOT! We had a racing set for Saturday and they had about two laps worth of material left on them, phew. Nothing like a mid race emergency flush and bleed, with some grinding and bending and piston re-insertion thrown in for fun ;) What a friggin cool track.

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We ran out of rear pads, but that was our fault. We were using old rear pads, thinking we had enough material for the race, but our setup changed a bit, and the rear was using more pads. And by changing the setup, I mean we got our rear calipers to work like they should. We use porterfield r4-e and can run EC for two weekends on one set of pads, at least when running double seven events.

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Our brakes looked like they were hardly used.

We were running PFC with 25yr old 4 piston Porsche OEM brembos we scavenged off a junker --

Now granted we weren't the fastest car out there but we were consistantly hitting 2:20's getting down to high 2:18's and a few 2:17's at times.

We had 5 drivers who had never been to ECR and 2 new to racing completely.

We have a relatively light 924S with a lot of tire underneath and we run dryer hose for brake coolers :-)

So take all that with a grain of salt.

Mike

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We had a very similar issue to the first post. Front left had melted the backing plate. The piston had punched through the backing plate, had cocked over and ground down at at angle. We managed to get the piston back in Saturday night.

Sunday we lost the right rear. Very similar failure and the caliper tried to twist off the rotor and we completely lost the brakes. Again, managed to get the piston back in and finish the race.

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Guest William Keeling

No pics here -- but we were metal to metal at the end Saturday and that was with babying them from before the 9 hour mark on.

The win on Saturday was not trouble free the AFM went bad in my run and the coil pack broke loose near the end of John’s run. We had broken exhaust and the brake issues for the last 3 hours. The AFM was replaced on stop 2, the coil pack zip-tied down on stop 3 and then properly replaced on the next stop. All these repairs were completed on our scheduled stops and the longest was just over 6 minutes with fuel. Sunday morning we put on new pads, used rotors and an exhaust that was in one piece and we were ready to start the race. We should have run the car more in the pits as the new header wrap on the exhaust smoked and cost us a black flag and a lap as we explain that we were not leaking oil as was reported. We had one other issue, one lap also, as we were called in to talk about contact with a slower team that was actively trying to block us and spun across our nose (we had helped the team with an issue earlier in the weekend -- their team name is very fitting).

I would like to say thanks to Joey and the Chumpcar folks for a fun and well run event. Also thanks our fellow teams for good, clean and hard racing. Great jobs by Team Operation 3rd both days and Malice In Blunderland who swap 1st and 2nd with us. Great drives and some hard luck by Bahnstomer Racing, Fine Sausage Racing, Property Devaluation Racing and others. Also thanks to A-Team, who we share a pit with; they did well for a first time team and with some small changes will move closer to the front.

All of this would not be possible or as much fun without our team leader and chief wrench John Phillip! Also thanks Chris Haldeman and fill in driver Greg Abel (Michael Ross was missed and will be back for the 24) who both did great jobs. I once again filled the spot as the team's slowest driver -- I don't know why they keep me :).

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We had a very similar issue to the first post. Front left had melted the backing plate. The piston had punched through the backing plate, had cocked over and ground down at at angle. We managed to get the piston back in Saturday night.

Sunday we lost the right rear. Very similar failure and the caliper tried to twist off the rotor and we completely lost the brakes. Again, managed to get the piston back in and finish the race.

We put on a new set of Hawk Blues on for Nola and the same pads for saturdays race on our e36.Thats 24 hours.We istalled a used set of blues on the front for sundays race.Our rear pads have 30 hours on them,of course they need to be changed now.

We use brimbo rotors and Hawk Blues,try this combo on your car it should work well.I'm pretty sure ya'll were the 19 e36,right?

By the way,I was very impressed by all the "newbies" at this race,all of them I raced with held their lines and did'nt make any crazy moves.Its even more impressive because this track can be pretty tough if you never ran it before.Good job! Hope to see ya'll at another race.

Were was Craig and the number 74 mustang? Missed a good race.

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The main issue is that we were a driver short. We had a conference call in January to set our schedule, and mainly for that reason, this race was scrapped. (One of our guys does RenFair work, so he's busy weekends in the spring and fall. That also plays into the decision we made to run MSR instead of H2R at the end of September/beginning of October.)

As it turns out, we also would have really had to scramble to get the car ready for this race after NOLA---it's in pieces at the moment.

We'll be running serving as an obstacle :P in the 24-hr race at TWS.

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What did ya'll damage at Nola? Ya'll usually run pretty good at ECR don't you,or has that track been a beast to your car as it always has with ours ? ECR is hard on equiptment,if you can build a car to make the whole weekend there you usually have a good piece.

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The engine was starting to get a little tired, so we were tearing it down anyway, and the guys who are mechanics decided they wanted a new block when we found one of the ears where the bellhousing bolts up was broken off. (Yes, I've been told by others here that it would be OK, but I'm definitely not the one who makes mechanical decisions.)

We ran fine in the December LeMons race at ECR (though slow, as you might expect), finishing top third and third in class; we were still building the car when Chump ran ECR last year. We changed out our brake pads between Saturday and Sunday, but they were just worn down, not completely destroyed. And that was with 4.5 races on that set of pads.

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U-turn,

Thanks for the tip on the blues. Yes we were the #19 e36. We had a blast.

Our only goal for the weekend was to finish both days, with a checkered flag and be able to drive the car back on the trailer.

Have you found a good place to buy rotors and pads for a reasonable price?

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I'm surprised some of you had pad left after the weekend was over. ECR is known to be one of the hardest tracks around on pads. For perspective we had brand new endurance race pads on the front with 3 race old rotors. At the end of the day Saturday the front left rotor was cracked all the way through one side and the pads were about 1/16" thick. We replaced all up front for Sunday. The rears on our car can last almost a season at most other tracks. We had over 50% left when we started and they were completely gone, about 1/32" left at the end of Saturday. Those were replaced too.

Next race is 24hrs at TWS. We will use less in 24hrs there than we used in 12 hrs at ECR. Crazy just how tough ECR is on brakes!

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I don't have any brake carnage pics to share... but I would like to thank Chumpcar, Joey & the rest of the Chumpcar staff, ECR, and all my fellow competitors for an absolutely amazing weekend.

Believe it or not, our car was absolutely horrible in its previous incarnations. We steadily chipped away at all of the problems over the last few years and finally have a car and a team that are winners!

Saturday we had a couple small setbacks that took us out for a few minutes during the day. We were sticking to our cautious strategy to preserve the car and improve fuel mileage. That went out the window when the wing started to fall off and we were black flagged and lost a couple laps around dusk. That meant our night time stints were critical to stay on the podium. I had the last stint in total darkness. At first it was terrifying but then it became fun once I relearned the braking and turn-in references. Diving down the hill into turn 6 with no light marking the corner apex was frightening every single lap!

Sunday we turned up the wick hoping for a chance at the win. The car and all my drivers performed flawlessly all day. I'm so happy and proud! I never imagined our trailer park meth lab Mazda could ever land on the podium, let alone the top step.

I can't wait for our next race, whenever that may be. Best of luck to all of you in your next events.

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Malice -- that car was freaky fast -- combined with your drivers I felt I was driving GT class with Prototypes on the track.

I did my best just to get out of your way :-) I would have liked to learn your lines -- but I'd see one corner every few laps

and then watch your tailpipes up the straights.... :-)

Your night stints were faster than most teams day laps.... amazing -- and impressive. Might have to steal half your spark plugs

next race just to give us a fighting chance -- if nothing else just to learn your lines -- might be able to keep up for more than a turn or two!

Great car -- incredible driving.

Mike

#85 Ethanol 924S

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Guest Horus2000

Malice -- that car was freaky fast -- combined with your drivers I felt I was driving GT class with Prototypes on the track.

I did my best just to get out of your way :-) I would have liked to learn your lines -- but I'd see one corner every few laps

and then watch your tailpipes up the straights.... :-)

Your night stints were faster than most teams day laps.... amazing -- and impressive. Might have to steal half your spark plugs

next race just to give us a fighting chance -- if nothing else just to learn your lines -- might be able to keep up for more than a turn or two!

Great car -- incredible driving.

Mike

#85 Ethanol 924S

+1

Malice - we were jealous every time we heard that thing go by. Sounded great. Looked great. Handled great. Very good (and courteous) driving. Obviously a labor of love that paid off. Congratulations.

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U-turn,

Thanks for the tip on the blues. Yes we were the #19 e36. We had a blast.

Our only goal for the weekend was to finish both days, with a checkered flag and be able to drive the car back on the trailer.

Have you found a good place to buy rotors and pads for a reasonable price?

Samluke if i remember right your car is a 97 e36.I looked on Hawk's web site and they didn't show Hawk blues for a 97 323. We purchased our pads from VRO.
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Any body get video of the race.We had ours set up,but apparently we had a problem with it,we didn't record crap!

Stebor do ya'll plan on running TWS in May? Please let us know so we know how long we have before we need to get a M motor installed in our beammer. :lol:

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Any body get video of the race.We had ours set up,but apparently we had a problem with it,we didn't record crap!

Stebor do ya'll plan on running TWS in May? Please let us know so we know how long we have before we need to get a M motor installed in our beammer. :lol:

We forgot to set up the camera; no video from us :(

We won't be making the TWS 24hr either. The timing of the race didn't work out with anyone else on the team. We may not be back to the track until late fall :( :( .

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We forgot to set up the camera; no video from us :(

We won't be making the TWS 24hr either. The timing of the race didn't work out with anyone else on the team. We may not be back to the track until late fall :( :( .

If i said i was sad that ya'll won't make it to TWS i would be lying.Its rare that you think you have a great car for a race,and your 4 to5 seconds a lap slower than ya'll. What a amazing car ya'll built not just down the straights but it handled great in the turns.

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Here's some video from the first couple hours Saturday morning. I didn't get the whole race, the power cord was being flaky, and the battery only lasted about 2 hours at a time. I'll get some video from Saturday evening up when I get a chance:

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Guest Horus2000

Here's a couple of video's from our car. Both are from our first stint on Sunday (no camera on Saturday).

This first video begins with the race start, goes through the first two laps, then a highlight reel of our passes in that first stint. Good number of cars during the highlights either being passed or passing us...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHZgE7MaBC4

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