Mr S as part of your evaluation, are you planning to quantify the improvements with before and after testing?
No doubt you have thought of this, but before you rush to fit the new kit, I suggest a session on a quiet road measuring braking distances from certain speeds, including high speeds.
We could compare to original test data from Autocar reviews in 2005, but it would mean much more to compare against the performance of the brakes on your car before and after. That way tyre performance when comparing to someone else's car is removed.
Please note brake fluid types. I run Castrol R racing fluid. I'm looking forward to seeing the numbers.
PS happy new year.
Happy new year to you Bruce.
I like the idea of doing some measurements, however there are a number of issues at this play which will make it difficult to provide meaningful data. First is instrumentation - there are a lot for measuring 0-60, less it seems for deceleration. But I am sure this can be resolved. It’s raining quite a lot here in the U.K., and we are having quite large variations in temperature. This is going to make it hard to isolate the brake performance in a before / after scenario.
Most of all though, I think we need to understand what we are trying to achieve here. We know that with heavy enough brake pedal pressure the standard set up can trigger the ABS, i.e. exceed the traction provided by the tyre. This, then, is the limiting factor in terms of max deceleration. That being the case, the main benefits of upgrades such as this are in terms of resistance to fade over multiple applications due to improved cooling (greater surface area and rotors designed to channel air through the ventilation gap) and the much more subjective area of pedal pressure and feel, easier and more natural modulation of braking power.
As we have learned from the GT S upgrade, owners rarely max out their brakes, but all have reported a more consistent and predictable pedal, particularly when pressing on at road speeds. This, for me at least, is where the benefits of this kit will come from. The caliper / pad / rotor combination itself is well proven in many other applications, its benefits to drivability that we need to assess in this particular application.