What happens when Hyde has complete brake fade at 120+ mph approaching turn 1?

[JekylandHyde]

That is a question I would have never wanted the answer too, but unfortnately had the displeasure of answering this past weekend.

(pic and videos below)

Jekyl and Hyde were both at the huge Kingston Canada MR2 meet (nearly 100 Mr2s there) this past weekend. Friday night we enjoyed free track time on the Fabi Circuit at Shannonville Raceway.

The front straight is a 1/4-mile long and on my second lap I had Hyde up over 120 mph as I approached the braking zone ... got on the brakes and total fade. The car was slowing, but not stopping and there was no way I was going to make turn #1.

My first thought was to go pass the turn as the road still goes straight for a couple of feet and then shoot the car on an angle across the grass. That idea was thrown out as soon as I saw the 2' square, 4"-tall concrete square sitting the grass ... so I had to hold it straight a little longer heading straight for a solid wall with a tire wall in front of it.

I was not fond of the idea of hitting that head on, so I nailed the car to the left as I went by the concrete slap and sent Hyde spinning. Luckily I spun right up along the tire wall and stopped next to it without having any contact.

This is as close to a tire wall as I ever want to be (turn #1 can;t be seen in the photo ... it is way to the right):


I had just passed Bill Strong on the front straight and he had his Chase Cam on as well.
You can see the video in the following link ... I pass him on lap #2.
Vid: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...70231609081856

David Hawkins, owner of twosrus.com was racing Jekyl and a few laps later he spun Jekyl in turn #1. Bill Strong can be seen passing him here:




Hyde had another "off" which I have video of ... did some major landscaping with the car. *sigh* I'll have videos of that later.

Hyde did win 1st place in the modified class of the car show on Saturday!

[BullDog71ss]

Haha. Looks like you had a fun day tearing up thier lawns.


At least there was no real damage to the cars. It would really suck to have one of those MR2s come unglued on a wall at 80+ mph.

[JekylandHyde]

Hyde's nose does have some battle scars now, but nothing to gripe about on a race car ... I think he still has some flowers hanging out of the flat bottoms

[BullDog71ss]

Scrapes and bumps on a race car are a good thing anyway. It gives the car some personality and shows that you drive like you stole it.

You didn't really steal it though, did you? Heh.

[JekylandHyde]

lol ... I only paid $1750.00 for the car.
Some might say I stole it at that price

[ac427cpe]

Lucky yet again!

you need to start being more careful

[TheStang00]

screw more careful

did something go wrong with the brakes? think you need to upgrade?

[clawhammer]

Wow. Talk about lucky. Time for a BBK though, right?

[-The Stig-]

That wouldn't of happened had you had Drum Brakes.




Because they always feel like that... so you'd of been going slower.

[BullDog71ss]

Matty has a point and I think it's time for a 4 wheel drum brake swap.

As a matter of fact, I'm about to swap the Cobalt for something that has 4 drums...manual drums even. I can't wait!

[-The Stig-]

Originally Posted by BullDog71ss

Matty has a point and I think it's time for a 4 wheel drum brake swap.

As a matter of fact, I'm about to swap the Cobalt for something that has 4 drums...manual drums even. I can't wait!

Has to be some Old Chevy... like... a '60s Fullsize B-body... Like... an Impala or something.

4 wheel manual drums.. man that's going back.

[TheStang00]

get some nascar short track brakes... brembo themselves have said that is the hardest application of brakes in racing. 3500lbs 850hp cars stopping immediatly over and over.

(sorry to ruin teh lighthearted drum brake mood ) woot drums

[JekylandHyde]

I want to lose unsprung weight so I am going to bicycle brakes on all 4 corners.

Seriously, we have been trouble shooting a braking issue with Hyde for over a year now *sigh* ... we will be getting to the bottom of this very soon; else, you all are going to get to see some crash video

[-The Stig-]

No, we don't want to see that... I'd say, next up is test 'n tune on just brakes.

Get 'r done! hehe.

[VR43000GT]

Man, tough day at the track. Glad to here you won the modified car show though.


You could fix this problem by getting an old Datsun Z. Then you for sure wont be going that fast next time.