| Cosworth
braking system follow a similar pattern to the suspension; it is primarily identical in
all models. It consists of disc brakes front and rear, with a power boosted Teves
electronic anti lock mechanism (ABS). Two wheel drive cars have ventilated front discs
with fixed four piston calipers; the nonvented rear discs have a sliding, single piston
caliper with integral handbrake mechanism. Four-wheel drive cars use slightly smaller
diameter ventilated front brake discs, with a single piston sliding brake caliper. At the
rear, the discs are now ventilated, but with the same disc diameter & caliper design
as the two wheel drive cars. If
maintained correctly, and used sensibly, the standard braking system will be perfectly
adequate even with a mildly tuuned engine in your road car. When the cars are taken onto
the race track however, braking requirements alter dramatically. As a general rule, we
recommend that the origimnal brake discs ar used with Original Equipment brake pads, we
have found in the past that if harder pads are used with the standard discs, disc wear can
increase dramatically! (But there is a noticealble improvement in braking power). A big
improvement can be made to the feel and effect of the brakers by simply replacing the
flexible rubber brake hoses with braided hoses.
Surprisingly, the hydraulic
pressure in the braking system causes the rubber hoses to balloon slightly, incrasing
pedal travel & reducing the clamping force between the discs & pads.
As the front brakes do the
majority of the braking, this is the first area to concentrate on, when making
improvements. To make any significant improvements, the actual size of the brakes must be
increased, and this sometimes necessitates the change to larger diameter wheels.
(Conversely, many customers who have changed to larger wheels also fit the larger brakes
for cosmetic reasons. As the standard items look small inside the bigger wheels!).
Fitting larger diameter wheels
does actually redece the braking effort slightly as the larger wheel has a stronger
leverage effect ont he brakes, this is relatively small, but must always be considered. |
