TestingExperience has taught us that not all big-brake upgrades yield shorter 80-0 mph stopping distances. Unfortunately, that's the very thing that people who don't know anything about brakes are obsessed with. If you want to stop faster, save yourself the money and get stickier tires and brake pads-assuming you have ABS. Big brakes are on fast cars because, on the track, you spend just as much time on the brakes as you do the gas. Do a couple of hot laps and you'll realize managing rotor temperatures and brake fade-so that you can stop repeatedly-is a hell of a lot more important than how fast you can come to a dead stop. On the track, the reality is you never actually come to a complete stop unless you're in the wall.
To eliminate the "ifs," "ands" or "buts," we performed all the testing on the same day to ensure that surface conditions were consistent. Unfortunately, this meant we had the thankless task of installing, bleeding and bedding the Wilwoods in the middle of a parking lot (more on this later).
Our conventional brake testing involves measuring the braking distance with a radar gun as the car approaches at 80 mph. After each stop, the car has to drive back out to the other end of the drag strip, slow down and turn around for the next run. It has to go far enough down the track that on the way back it can reach 80 mph and be able to stop in time before clobbering the radar and the operator, who happens to be me. This might not seem like a long distance for a Lancer Evolution, but sometimes we get the pleasure of testing cars like the baseline Lancer, which uses most of the half-mile drag strip to accomplish the task.
Driving half a mile at over 60 mph to the far end of the strip moves a lot of air through the rotors, which sucks a lot of heat out. This prevents anything with half-decent brakes from even starting to fade, regardless of how many test cycles we perform.
In our normal testing, we measure braking distances until brake fade causes distances to start increasing, then record the two shortest repeatable distances. This test is sufficient for stock brakes, but nowhere near punishing enough to get big brakes up to the temperatures at which they shine.
Our comprehensive testing for brake upgrades is similar in all but two aspects. We stop the car from 80 to 0 on the way out to the end of the strip, just as hard as when it's measured on its way in. This ensures that the rotors will continue to gain heat during repeated testing. We also record the front rotor temperatures each time the car comes to a complete stop on its inbound run. The first run is done inbound with dead cold brakes. The process is repeated ten times for both stock and upgraded brakes, and is punishing enough to warp or destroy most stock rotors.
Project Miata currently uses Hawk Blue pads up front and Hawk Black rear pads with stock brakes and lines. The Blue pads have an optimal operating temperature of roughly 600 degrees F, which the rotors didn't reach until the ninth run. And because the car has no ABS, the tires were well cooked by then. The braking distances improved as temperatures rose and the car made its best stop of 208 feet on, you guessed it, the ninth run. Overall, the trends and consistency of results were what we expected to see out of a car without ABS.
We threw Project Miata on jack stands and proceeded with the disassembly and upgrade. Of course no one brought gloves, and driving around to cool off the brakes will only bring temps down to an icy 300 degrees F, which meant a lot of standing around and the occasional screams of pain from second-degree burns through shop rags.