Brakes

[coxm]

Me again! I've got the Alcon brakes and Pagid Blue pads, but find that there is precious little feel and they lock up far too easily - invariably fronts first. I have found that the braking points are significantly earlier than for my 993RS and than a mate's Caterham Superlight R.

What pads and so on are people using and how do you find the brakes (aside from between the accelerator and the clutch)?

[atom290]

The new EBC green stuff!

[display2u]

have you been reading the rockingham thread?? we Atom drivers don't need brakes, we just barge our way through !!!
Mark
ps ,i run the Alcon calipers and blue pads,crap when cold ,very good with lots of heat.

[monza]

When i have changed the front "competition discs and pads" to the Alcon with blue pagid pads (in july), i have been obliged to put more brakes on the rear (you can modify the front/rear repartition). After Rockingham, i see that i can continue to increase the repartition to the rear brakes till it will began to block.
The reason is simple : for same pressure on the pedal, the Alcon have much more efficacity then the Competition one, so the rear are not used enought and you always make blue/grey smoke with your front tyres.
In fact your car is braking only with the front so that the braking distances' are to long. You can easily and progressively modifie the repartition to obtain the good compromise.
Jean-Pascal

[atom290]

I invested in an tilton brake bias knob

only £45 from Demon Tweeks

Easy to fit too!!

[Hubert]

Hello,

May I ask how does the braking ability of the Atom2 with stock or competiion brakes compare to the Caterham Superlight? Do the brakes lock up easily?

Can I fit race pads like Pagid RS14 to the stock calipers?

[coxm]

At the moment, the Superlight R has significantly better feel and stopping power. The braking distances were about half in the Superlight R. I think Jean Pascal has hit the nail on the head that its a bias issue, since the fronts locked the whole time. The bias adjustment makes a huge difference, since if the rears aren't braking, you don't get as much weight transfer to the front, so its much more of an effect than you might intuitively think (at least based on playing with the bias in the Clio Cup that I race).

Jean Pascal, how do you adjust the bias without a bias valve, please?

MC

[monza]

meyrick,
At the top of the brake pedal you have a whole in which there is an axis with a kind of ball in the middle (you don't see it , it's in the whole ).
You have to move this ball (so your axis) to the side of your FRONT wheel master cylinder. To do that you have to "play" with the bolts of your axis, take care and be progressive when you make the brake test, stability is not perfect with rear wheels locked ...
Hope it's clear enougth with my bad english !
Jean-Pascal

[Bruce Fielding]

I know nothing about the brakes on the Mk2, but I can tell you that despite driving really hard, I'm still on my original pads and disks after 4,500 miles of track action. The light weight means you don't spend so much on replacements the whole time! Having said that, I think a system bleed is about due (yes, Ross...)

[monza]

Hi Meyrick,
Nice interview on openwheelers website !
Can you inform me on the forum or directly by mail of the feeling you will have with the rear Alcon if Simon's team succeed to put them on your rear wheels ?
Thank you,
Jean-Pascal

[coxm]

Thanks: Car is going in for the supercharger just after christmas, as well as the lower seats and floorpan, lights and removable roll bar.

As an aside, the new seats and floorpan are 20-30mm lower than the current ones. They are not yet finished, so I think ours will be the first car to be fitted with them, so we will post the forum on what they are like. The floorpan is flat, so should be a bit more aero, the seats can then drop a little compared with the normal ones, but are otherwise identical to the current ones.

We are going to get some serious time in on some tracks - I will make sure everyone knows where and when - so that we can perfect the bias before we take the Alcon decision. It means losing the handbrake, which isn't a bad thing, because when we sling the handbrake lever itself, I will stop banging my elbow on it!

I expect we will go for it. Simon thought that it should be pretty easy to bolt on, and given the weight distribution, and that 911s and my 355 tend to have larger rears than front brakes.

MC

[monza]

Concerning the handbrake, it's easy to put a small simple 1 caliper on eache rear wheel just for this fonction.
Because of my "width" (1,81 fo near 100Kg ..) i have the same problem as you to control oversteering on right corners, so with fast steering-wheel mouvment to the left ... Now i put my left hand off the steering and control with one hand in this situation ! (remember i'm french so with left side steering wheel). My left arm is touching to a vertical straight tube of the chassis which should me much better with a 20mm curving (not my arm, ... the tube !).
Perhaps Simon can put the handbrake a little bit more to the front and modifie a little bit this tube on its chassis for the future (hope you are reading sometimes this forum Simon)!

[monza]

With lower seats, you'll increase the place "problem" for your right arm/elbow !