When was the last time you ...

...checked your brake rotors ?

A lot of you reading this blog might think that as far as your braking system is concerned all you need to regularly change are pads and brake fluid but that's not all !

Go outside and take a look at your disc rotors ! Make sure though the car has cooled down enough and so did your brakes before you touch anything !

If the system is cool, run your fingers over the surface of the rotor ! Do you feel anything uneven ? little grooves here and there ? Does the surface look cracked ? is it ? can you see any warping in parts of the rotor ? better yet, take the wheel off and measure the thickness of the rotor ! The chances are after using agressive pads and/or frequent circuit driving your rotor has undergone significant changes and needs replacing. The most common visual symptoms of rotor degradation are a reduction in thickness, formation of a hard ridge on the edge and visible cracks. If your rotor is warped, well then you'll feel a pulsating brake pedal under your feet as the pads run over high areas then low areas of the rotor.

In my car's case it is the reduced thickness and early stages of surface cracking which are prevailing !

As you can see on the left the gap is over 1 mm (1 square on the card = 4mm) which in the case of Brembo 4 pot calipers warrants a replacement.

So what's next now ?

I had many choices for a replacement ranging from OEM Honda rotors (which I believe are Brembos) to aftermarket ones (Project Mu, Endless, DIXCEL etc). In the end I settled for DIXCEL SD (slotted disc) which comes highly recommended and allows for far superior cooling over the OEM version. I didn't choose Project Mu's as they didn't have rotors which would suit a Brembo caliper without major modifications and Endless not being a truly brake technology company I just couldn't convince myself for.

More to come when the new rotors arrive ...

Tsukuba (TC2000) Mar 20th 2010

Last saturday I ended up driving to Tsukuba circuit to attend 3 free practice sessions.

It was an ok kind of day, especially the 1st morning session at 8:30am in which I slashed my personal best down to 1'09''56! Subsequent sessions were a bit crowded with the last one ending up in a fairly serious accident for 4 cars but luckily no serious injuries for anyone !

Here is a look at the latest CircuitTools software I've been using to analyse my circuit lap times.

This particular screenshot captures my personal best together with the ideal (theoritical best) time of 1'09''03 so there is still a lot of room for improvement.

VIDEO PART I

VIDEO PART II

Fuji Speedway March 11th 2010

Last Thursday I took a day off from work and headed out to Fuji Speedway. I'd been itching to drive that circuit ever since coming back from Perth and that day just happened to be a perfect opportunity !

I left Tokyo at 6:30am and arrived at Fuji around 8:30am. When I got there I saw only a few cars getting prepped for the day and quickly found a spot to offload my stuff and start preparing myself.

I started NS4A at 9:30am.
It was very cold at that time, some 1-2 degrees C max. I spent about 15 minutes getting used to the car, speed and gusty winds then pulled into the pits and adjusted my tyre pressure. At that point I think there were about 5 maybe 6 cars out on a circuit so it was fairly free for everyone to do whatever they wanted. And so in the last 10 minutes of the session I pushed for the best lap and managed to get 1'09''70 which was slightly slower than my best. I don't know why perhaps I was tired or just pre-occupied but for some reason I felt hesitant when running down the main straight at over 210km/h and braking into the 1st corner. Normally I don't worry so much as I trust the car and brakes but perhaps psychologically that day I was just backing off a little bit more than usual.

In any regards, the new Project Mu's are just GREAT ! I will never go back to any other pad ! They grip, they don't fade and give you a very good confidence level to push at any point. There just isn't a better pad out there in my opinion. Coupled with freshly overhauled BREMBOs, stainless steel brake lines, they're just a perfect set ! The downside though, very dirty wheels from all the brake dust.

My 2nd and last session for the day NS4B was at 11:50am.
Somehow half of Tokyo decided to take a day off and come to Fuji. The carpark and pits were packed ! I later realised that there was a track day run simultaneously by ENDLESS (with lots of sexy girls!) hence all these people wanted to have a go and show off their skills ! Again in this session I managed a couple of 1'09s which speaks a lot for consistency (remember how long I'd been trying very hard to break 1'10s!?) but 1'08s still eludes me.

Lastly, there were a few in-experienced drivers on the circuit but one in particular stood out in a grey Mazda (as shown in the video below). I somehow felt like he was going to loose it and I was right. Sometimes people need to be realistic about their own abilities before trying to push like a pro and endanger other people's cars !

Enjoy the video !

Mystery solved

Since about 4 months ago or around the time I replaced my stock brake lines I've been noticing very slow reduction in the brake fluid level.

I brought this observation up whenever I visited my tuner SEEKER and had the guys check brake lines for leaks as well as the master cylinder for any problems but we couldn't figure out where the fluid was going.

You may also remember my near wall experience at Tsukuba when my brakes just seized for no reason and again we assumed the low fluid level was due to the pads wearing off. There was also uneven brake pad wear and under braking I felt a difference in the force applied to each side of the car.

Well I had the BREMBO calipers inspected the other day just in case and lo and behold the rubber seals around my 4 pot cylinders in each of the front calipers were broken and slowly leaking brake fluid ! I guess that can be expected from all the racing I've been doing and the sort of heat produced during braking so it was both a relief to know what the cause was but at the same a nightmare as it's going to cost me money to have the calipers OVERHAULED!

Anyway, the car is going in to HONDA tomorrow until saturday and will come back with completely overhauled BREMBOs! The cost you ask ? 28,500 yen

See you on the track !

Back from Down Under !

I'm back from Perth after my 2 week long holiday or as I'd like to call it a much needed re-charge from a very hectic life here in Japan, therefore I'll make this post short as I am exhausted from a looong flight.

Here is a video of my Tsukuba time attack session back in January.
I was on brand new NEOVA AD08s which felt really really good. Last time I had brand new tyres I wasn't so good at driving my car so I couldn't really appreciate the full potential of such tyres, but this time I made sure I made the most of it !







And here is a photo I took during my stay home. It is a place very close to where I live in Perth called Rottnest Island. If you're ever in Perth, WA, it is a must see destination !



Rod