I have spent numerous hours with teams from virtually every form of racing from sprints and midgets to late model asphalt and dirt teams.  In virtually all cases, the drivers, car owners and chief mechanics all had the same game plan.  They purchase every other component, EXCEPT FOR THE ENGINE, with the utmost of care, seeking out the least expensive pieces they can buy.  Then the remainder of the money is dumped into the best one or two motors they can buy.

 Have you ever wondered how the old guy with the 10 year old chassis, second rate motor and open trailer seems to end up in the top ten every night while you seem to have just one little thing stop you from being there too?   There are a few simple suggestions that will help you see major improvements in your finishes with very little effort. 

 First, remember the old adage, "In order to finish first, you first must finish".  In other words, your racecar cannot be built from components that cannot take the punishment.  If you build your car to be the lightest one on the track and then bolt on 200 pounds of lead to make minimum weight, you most likely have chosen components that will not take the abuse.  Don't sacrifice durability for a few pounds of weight and then watch that components fail and knock you out of the race.  In the late 80's and early 90's, many wheel manufacturer's had been talked into making their aluminum wheels from a thinner gage, resulting in disaster for many teams before they woke up and realized the need to finish was more important than the weight.  They also quickly learned that the benefit of a pound lighter wheel did not result in enough improvement to offset the cost of replacing bent wheels every few race days or worse yet, getting knocked out of a race they were leading, by being unable to finish.

 Second, take a look at where you get the most "bang" for your buck in improving the lap times.  (If I remember correctly, this is what will result in your ability to get to the start finish line before the other guy).   All kidding aside, my 38 years of working with race teams and building brakes has clearly proven what many engineers have been saying for years.  THERE IS NO CHEAPER SPEED IN A RACE CAR THAN IN THE BRAKE SYSTEM!

 Not only is that statement true, but another fact is that until you have the ability to slow the car in the shortest distance at the entry of the corner, with consistent, confident control, then you are wasting your money.  All of your knowledge of the weight distribution, spring and shock rates, and every other piece of information in your little black book is also obsolete.  Why?  Because as you increase your deceleration rates from say, .8g to 1.0g, the car unloads far more weight to the front.  This can be calculated by the simple formula, WT (Weight Transfer in pounds) =total vehicle weight in pounds times deceleration rate in g's, times the center of gravity height in inches, divided by the wheel base, in inches.  This formula tells you how many pounds of weight are moving from the rear axle to the front, during deceleration.  This formula shows how improvement in deceleration into the corner totally changes the spring, shock, suspension and tire pressure combinations for optimum performance.

Since all of these components must be readjusted for the new characteristics you will experience in the corner, the brakes justify being a priority item.  As your ability to decelerate the car improves, so does your confidence and control.  This means you are now entering the corner deeper, which means you are at a better angle during the transfer from the brake back to the throttle.  Since you will apex out straighter, you will be back on the throttle sooner, thereby lengthening the straight portion of the track.  But wait!  Back to reality, the brakes chosen for your racecar were the cheapest available, so none of these good things are happening for your team!  

 All joking aside, I am amazed at the number of times I have been told by a racer that he would love to upgrade his brakes but "can't afford it".  I'm going to let you in on a little secret; a quality set of brakes will improve your lap times more for an additional $1000 than you can get by spending $10,000 more on the motor!  The tighter the budget you are on, the more important it is to spend your money wisely. 

 Every year, by our own industry count, 20% of the racers at the track are new.  This means that 40% or almost ½ of all the racers at the track are just learning the ropes.  Most immediate source of information is their fellow racers, which is the worst choice you can make. 

 You are trying to beat these guys, not just race with them.  If you are looking at their car for inspiration as to what components to buy, again this is the wrong place to look.  Your racecar should be built to accommodate you.  You are unique.  For example, as it relates to brakes, if you are 5'5" tall and weigh 140 pounds, do you really think that your fellow racer who is 6'2" tall and weighs 240 pounds is a good person to tell you what calipers, master cylinders and pedals will make you comfortable and capable behind the wheel?  Believe me you will not be happy with the result.  That's why you need to reflect on your own needs and rely on your own intelligence to seek out answers from knowledgeable people in the industry to help you select what will work best for YOU!

 The racing industry, just like every industry, has manufacturers with great knowledge and technical expertise to support their component sales.  Many do not.  Some companies have manufactured a component by copying others in the industry and it shows when you call to ask a question. 

 Remember that you are not just buying parts, you are buying information.  Be sure that you have access to quality knowledge to assist you in your product selection.  A quality company considers the information and tech help they supply to be even more valuable than the parts they sell.  Even top quality components misapplied, will return poor results.  If you don't have access to information, you are asking for sub par results.

 Selecting components for the right reason is also a major point to remember.  You must have a clear understanding of what your car must handle in the way of abuse, night after night.  If you are on a budget, believe me, it is even more important that you purchase the most durable components because the real cost of racing is not in the building of the car, it is in the maintenance and repair.  A quality brake system will usually help you avoid a major "incident" within the next three nights of racing.  Most damage usually results in a repair bill of more than $1000.  That alone, would have paid for the upgrade.

 Here's a little information that will surprise you.  If you drive a sprint car or a late model, either dirt or asphalt, you will find that the entire racecar is "bound up", or dragging badly after the race.  This is because the calipers are flexing and dragging the rotors.  Did you know the drag is robbing serious horsepower?  Did you know that just the rolling resistance of tires at 120 miles per hour robs 20 horsepower?  What do you think the brakes are robbing?

 Since the brakes are dragging, this dumps excessive heat in the rotor creating several additional problems.  Higher rotor temperature results in premature pad wear.  An additional 100 to 200 degrees can cause pads to wear out twice as fast as they would otherwise.  The constant drag does not allow the weight to transfer as readily as it would if the drag were not present.  This upsets the car balance and greatly reduces the momentum in the corner.  It further results in slower acceleration coming off the corner. Although many companies advertise calipers that don't drag, very few really are capable of handling the pressure.

 On many high speed tracks racers have found that limiting the amount of cooling air flow through the racecar, increases speed and down force, that why they try to tape off all the openings to qualify. In race trim this can be better accomplished with a brake system that has very little drag that generates minimal amounts of heat, there for needing less brake duct air- flow.

 For those of you that are weight conscious, the brake drag requires you to run a heavier rotor than you might otherwise run because you are forced to deal with the extra heat.  If you add a five-pound heavier rotor to all four corners of the car, you just added 20 extra pounds of the worst possible weight, rotating, unsprung weight. Either running too small a caliper or one that is not adequately designed to take the pressures required for your operation is causing all this.  If you bought it because it was cheap, then you just set your racing efforts back a bunch. 

 If the components are not properly matched, you will realize it right away.  Just ask yourself this question:  Do you have problems finding a brake pad that will "bite" enough to suit your racing style?  If you said yes, then you most likely have not properly sized the masters and the calipers to provide sufficient line pressure and clamping force.  Because of this, you are asking for the brake pad to make up for all the other inadequacies in the system.  This is similar to having a motor that does not have sufficient horsepower and the only way to get more is to put in a higher grade of fuel or nitrous.  It will work for a while, but will shorten the life of the motor considerably. The same applies to the brake system.  Asking the pad to do too much is the most obvious sign your brake system is not correct.

 When it comes to purchasing a component, whether it is brakes or any other, you need to do your homework.  DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ!  Just because the article or ad says something, it may not be true.  It requires YOU to do your research and find out what really will do the job.  Remember you are unique.  You may use more brake than everyone else.  If so, shouldn't you have a better system on your car than the competition? 

It is also interesting to note how often a team will break a component, knocking them out of a race, costing them serious prize money for the evening, but go out and bolt on a new component identical to the one they took off.the one that could not handle the load!  The money you just lost could have purchased better brakes for all four wheels!

 Have you noticed that although all teams want to finish first, most teams don't want to be first to install a new product?  But if the new component is a true advantage, the only drivers to benefit are the first to put it on.  After that, the rest of the field is just catching back up. If you are not looking for the new, leading edge components, you are probably relegated forever to playing "catch up".

 In the past few months, I have seen a big change in the interest of the racer's attempt to find improvement for the racecar.  Now that some teams have shown the importance of the brakes in corner entry, brakes are beginning to get the attention they rightfully deserve.  "Performance" is the key word here.  You have to learn to trust your own judgment.  If you sit down and prepare a list of questions and concerns you have about how your car is presently working, and then call and discuss your concerns with three or four potential sources for parts, you will realize it will become clearly evident which components you want to buy.

 It is important to remember to prepare properly for that discussion.  The more you know about your car, your driving style and the race tracks you normally run, the better the technical people can help.  Don't be afraid to ask the qualifications of the person you have on the phone.  Your source of information is critical to getting correct input.  If they don't seem to understand you, they probably don't.  Your own comfort level is a good gage as to whether the information sounds right.

 Racers have a tendency to get sidetracked when it comes to the brake system.  Frequently, the question comes up, "which rotor do I need to stop my car"?  The answer is, the rotor does not stop your car, the caliper does.  Clamping force comes from the caliper while the rotor only supplies a "lever" to input the force to the wheel for transfer to the ground.  Really, the tire stops the car, but the caliper provides the force to transmit the kinetic energy to the rotor. 

 A QUALITY CALIPER IS THE KEY COMPONENT AROUND WHICH TO BUILD CAR CONTROL!

 The statement above says a great deal about what allows a driver to push the car they are driving to the limits of its capabilities.  If you ask them, they will tell you that the most important characteristic above all others is confidence in the capability of the car.  Second is predictability.  This is what you strive for when you build the car. 

 It is a well-known fact that the most important passing zone and confidence zone just happen to be in the same place, the entry to a turn.  The driver that has the most confidence in their machine will be able to stay on the throttle just a little longer.  This confidence is what allows that driver to put the nose of the racecar under the car in front and take the position.  Without that confidence, the driver can't move forward on the track.  In order to rely on that control lap after lap, the car must be predictable.  After all, if the brakes quit working half way through the race, you are not going to be able to continue your charge to the front.  If the pedal gets spongy or changes its feel during the race, this is the "kiss of death" to a racer.  The driver's first obligation is to not overdrive the car and ruin it either by damaging the components or running into a wall or fellow competitor.  If you had an entire team depending on you to bring home the equipment in one piece, how hard would you push it?

 Although virtually every racer reading this article would agree with the previous paragraph, this is not even in their thoughts when they built the car.  The biggest part of my working with potential buyers is to get them to refocus on what their real desire for the brake system should be.  In most cases, their initial focus is either on weight or cost.  Since the real focus should be on performance, (just like every other system on the race car), the usual result is a second rate system. 

 Here's something to think about. Motors usually weigh well over 500 pounds.  Since most racers are looking for more and more power, weight is not an issue. In fact, if a motor with 100 more horses weighed another 50 pounds, they would bolt it in the car in a minute! 

 The brakes, however, weigh about 20-30 pounds per wheel.  They must not only undo all the motion created by the motor, they sometimes must do it while the driver still has the accelerator pressed to the floor!  Think carefully about this! The racecar must be capable of stopping in a shorter distance than it takes to accelerate it. In other words the zero to 100 mph time will be greater than the 100 mph to zero time. If your zero to 100 mph is 8 seconds and your 100 to zero is 4 seconds your brake system is dissipating all of the trust energy your engine produced in half the time! How can you then approach your brake purchases with the idea to worry about an extra pound in the caliper?

 If the throttle can't be depressed, then the motor is useless.  If your car does not stop RELIABLY now, then trying to lighten your existing brake setup is not where your focus should be.  Every component must carry its load.  Weight is not the important factor in choosing a brake system.  Don't let anyone tell you it is.

What is each component supposed to do?  Well, let's review.

The purpose of the pedal is to amplify the input forces from your foot (See illustration 5).  The formula for this is; Pedal ratio= pivot to center of pedal divided by pivot to center of MC pushrod clevis., For example, distance from pivot to center of pedal, 12", distance from pivot to center of MC pushrod clevis, 2", therefore 12 divided by 2 equals 6/1 pedal ratio.  It works in conjunction with the master cylinder to supply the ideal combination of fluid volume and line pressure to the components that will actually do the work. The direction of force is also critical to transmit that force to the master cylinder (See illustrations 3).  As the pedal travels through the arc, the direction of force must be directly into the master.  If not, premature wear will result.

The brake lines deliver the pressure to the calipers and the efficiency is dependent upon minimizing the volume loss from "ballooning" under pressure.  The more effectively you plumb the racecar with solid line and short, quality braided hoses, the better.

Your choice of brake fluid is important as well.  Quality brake fluid does not assimilate moisture as rapidly as others and has better compressive characteristics.  Changing to a quality fluid alone can improve pedal feel significantly.

The caliper supplies the clamping force.  If the caliper is well designed, it will have minimal deflection, which will use a lesser volume of fluid, which in turn, will allow a wider choice of master cylinder sizes to accommodate driver comfort.  The larger the pistons, the greater the clamping force.  The number of pistons does not increase clamping force but actually reduces it.  This component is potentially the most important component in the brake system.

The rotor has two important functions.  The diameter of the rotor acts as a lever for the caliper.  The larger the diameter, the greater the force generated.  The mass and design of the rotor determine the ability to dissipate the heat created from the friction between the pad and rotor.  Not all rotors are created equal.  Consulting a true expert, not just a salesman, can have a great influence in obtaining the best choice here.

Although a brake system has other components, such as residual valves and proportioning valves potentially required, the last key component is the brake pad.  This component can indicate a great deal about your system.  As we stated earlier, if you are constantly looking for the pad with the highest coefficient of friction, then you probably don't have the correct components on the car.  If you have excessive pad wear or fade is a recurring problem, then your system is most likely in need of review.

Basic laws of physics rule the brake system like every other system on the racecar.  Opinions do not belong in a science.  Stay away from opinions.  Look for reliable, knowledgeable sources.  If you are a racer on a serious budget, with a burning desire to be as competitive as possible, here is an opportunity to get maximum improvements in performance for minimal dollars.  Use your brain, instead of your pocketbook to move you to the front of the pack.