Chimaera 1998 4.0L Modifications

[Gimlet]

Can anyone offer advice regarding upgrading the brakes on my Chimaera.
I am also interested in the potential of an induction kit and Chipping the car.

[rthierry]

Tower View may be able to help you. Also, I think this is where Mike Adams works - but don't quote me on this one.
www.t-v-r-services.co.uk/tvrs_home.htm



Roms
Antigua Blue Chimaera 450
MCC Smart Passion Grey with Bungee Red interior ;o)

[yum]

I looked atupgrading the brakes on my 4L when I needed new discs. speak to lots of people and you will get many different opinions.


Remember the brakes are a heat sink for the lost speed. If you upgrade the size of the discs without upgrading the callipers and the pads, you will simply cook the brakes faster. the simplest and most cost effective upgrade is grooved / vented / drilled discs of the same size and fast road pads.

Otherwise you need to put o new discs and new callipers, whic is vv expensive.

[Greenv8s]

quote:If you upgrade the size of the discs without upgrading the callipers and the pads, you will simply cook the brakes faster.

Don't know who you spoke to but this is simply untrue. The larger the disc area, the better heat dissipation you will get. The effect is very dramatic, for instance an increase from 240mm to 285mm gives almost 50% increase in useful cooling area and makes a huge, huge difference. Increasing the diameter of the front brakes also changes the balance of the brakes slightly, and can improve the excessive rear bias that recent TVRs seem to have.

quote: the simplest and most cost effective upgrade is grooved / vented / drilled discs of the same size and fast road pads.

Very true, I'd suggest grooved rather than drilled though as drilled discs are far more prone to cracking. Also if you have solid (non-vented) discs changing to vented will make a big improvement but requires new calipers, or rebuilding with spacers.

quote: Otherwise you need to put o new discs and new callipers, whic is vv expensive.

This is also true - the way I look at it is it increases the amount of time I can spend on track and on that basis they have paid for themselves several times over, and one small 'off' caused by brake fade would have been far more expensive!

Cheers,

Peter Humphries (and a green V8S)