A quick Alcon brake review (glass half full for Dan) ;-)

titan · 09-10-2010, 09:31 AM

Righto, first trackday in the CSL...Snetterton. I've done Snet around 4 times in the past so it should make for a reasonable assessment on the car rather than trying to learn lines etc etc

Initial assessment is that they have all the stopping power you need, certainly (it was dry) I was seeing some ABS action on hard braking (conti sport tyres). I think a quote from someone else sums it up "King of the Late Brakers"

However longevity, feel and noise/vibration is an issue. After a few laps I was getting slight wobble in the wheel, moreso under braking, the pedal didn't feel as rock solid and braking produced that droning, rumbling noise.

Quick inspection of the discs and they show a "smearing" in sections and the surface is lined rather than a smooth finish.

Driving the car home and its pretty bad now. Now I'm no brake guru, so I'm open to suggestions here, but this seems to be exactly what happened on my brothers R26R when we used an incorrect pad compound. The pad can't deal with the heat and starts to break down, putting deposits onto the disc and generally its all a bit crap.

I am using RS29's. One suggestion offered up was to try RS19s.

As I say, I've experienced this before and to a lesser degree on the evo using carbotech pads - the fix was to simply move up a compound.

I think I'll have a go at cleaning up the discs (unlikely that they are warped) and switch over to carbotech XP10s - this being what I run on the evo which is a similar weight car. I have zero issues with longevity using these pads and I think they'll work just fine. I believe the pads are the exact same on the evo so it would be nice to only keep stock of one pad for both cars.

UBs assessment of the brakes were that they are "monsters" certainly I have been surprised at how much the rear brakes seem to bring to the party. From what I've seen my generalisation is that people who choose AP tend to do only the fronts whereas people choosing Alcon do the whole kit. Not sure why this is, Alcon do recommend doing front and rear as a matched set to not upset bias, I'm sure AP recommend the same as well.

Anyhow a good day and made a lot better by turning off the DSC entirely - I was under the impression that "track mode" was lots less intrusive, my reality was that it cut in far too much and got in the way. I note that on Gareths car with his R888 he didn't get much telltale light on the dash so no surprises big rubber also helps.

09-10-2010, 09:31 AM	#1
titan S5 - Full Throttle Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 268 Casino cash: $1363	A quick Alcon brake review (glass half full for Dan) ;-) Righto, first trackday in the CSL...Snetterton. I've done Snet around 4 times in the past so it should make for a reasonable assessment on the car rather than trying to learn lines etc etc Initial assessment is that they have all the stopping power you need, certainly (it was dry) I was seeing some ABS action on hard braking (conti sport tyres). I think a quote from someone else sums it up "King of the Late Brakers" However longevity, feel and noise/vibration is an issue. After a few laps I was getting slight wobble in the wheel, moreso under braking, the pedal didn't feel as rock solid and braking produced that droning, rumbling noise. Quick inspection of the discs and they show a "smearing" in sections and the surface is lined rather than a smooth finish. Driving the car home and its pretty bad now. Now I'm no brake guru, so I'm open to suggestions here, but this seems to be exactly what happened on my brothers R26R when we used an incorrect pad compound. The pad can't deal with the heat and starts to break down, putting deposits onto the disc and generally its all a bit crap. I am using RS29's. One suggestion offered up was to try RS19s. As I say, I've experienced this before and to a lesser degree on the evo using carbotech pads - the fix was to simply move up a compound. I think I'll have a go at cleaning up the discs (unlikely that they are warped) and switch over to carbotech XP10s - this being what I run on the evo which is a similar weight car. I have zero issues with longevity using these pads and I think they'll work just fine. I believe the pads are the exact same on the evo so it would be nice to only keep stock of one pad for both cars. UBs assessment of the brakes were that they are "monsters" certainly I have been surprised at how much the rear brakes seem to bring to the party. From what I've seen my generalisation is that people who choose AP tend to do only the fronts whereas people choosing Alcon do the whole kit. Not sure why this is, Alcon do recommend doing front and rear as a matched set to not upset bias, I'm sure AP recommend the same as well. Anyhow a good day and made a lot better by turning off the DSC entirely - I was under the impression that "track mode" was lots less intrusive, my reality was that it cut in far too much and got in the way. I note that on Gareths car with his R888 he didn't get much telltale light on the dash so no surprises big rubber also helps.