Recently I published a survey on Facebook asking what people thought about Ol Phartz Partz making a quality lightweight bolt on front brake kit for SCCA Sprites & Midgets.  I thought after the first few comments that I had truly stepped on people's toes.  "Why do we need such a thing. my old brakes are good"  I know I can teach an old dog new tricks very easy.  To teach British car racers something new, well that may be harder.  If you have been following my blogs of the last few months, it is easy to see the reason why.
  One guy named Nick posted "Isn't a 4 piston caliper too much?"  Nick, NO!  Four piston calipers are not too much.  The number of pistons in a caliper have nothing to do with too much or not enough brake.  Size of the piston, yes that does have something to do with braking power. 
  Lets look at the caliper that Nick has.  Designed in the mid fifties and used many manufactures for race cars.  It later saw service on Jaguars, MG's and Donald Healey's racing Sprites.  The caliper frame has two bolt on cylinder assemblies and depending on use these cylinder assemblies could be purchased with different size pistons. The Sprite caliper that Donald chose came with 2" pistons, one in each bolt on cylinder assembly.  The brake pads for this caliper were 2.25" x 1.88".  Not a bad setup for 1959 Sebring race in a 948cc powered car with 46 hp. This was clamping an 8.5" solid brake rotor.   Pretty sophisticated for a lightweight car in 1959.  
  This is not 1959 and Nick's Sprite has over 100 HP.  More than twice the horsepower and 10 times the traffic (his car is driven on the street).  An SCCA car would have 125-145HP, 8" wide rubber and 30 minutes of serious braking.  Both of these scenarios require more brake than what was used in 1959.  
   We have already discussed how to get more brake torque, now lets look at clamping force. Calipers are fluid storing compartments with steel cups that push against the brake pads when pressure is applied to them.
  In a brake system hydraulic fluid is pushed through metal pipes and hoses to the calipers from the master cylinder at a pressure relevant to the force applied by the drivers’ foot and the volume of the master cylinder multiplied by the length of the brake pedal. This pressurized fluid is then applied to the caliper pistons, which in turn apply their pressure to brake pads. If the area of the caliper pistons is increased enlarging the diameter, in theory the caliper will apply more clamping force to the pads and brake disc, effectively increasing the braking ability of the vehicle.  Hydraulic pressure remains constant throughout the system when the brakes are applied as long as the pressure on the pedal stays the same. It makes sense if more caliper pistons are added, the caliper will exert more pressure just as it did when larger pistons are used. More pressure or clamping power the rotation of the disc is slowed drastically. More pistons arranged around the periphery of the rotor makes a caliper even more effective.  Pushing brake pads from both ends creates more surface area on the disc than pushing the brake pad from the center where the effect is less effective.  When a larger quantity of smaller pistons are inserted in the caliper the clamping force more effective without changing the brake pressure.  Two operating pistons on each side of a caliper that are 1-1/8" diameter each are more efficient than one piston on each side of 2-1/4" given the same size rotor and brake pads.  With a given amount of room 3 pistons on each side are even more effective as long as the diameter of the pistons is reduced to proper size needed.  Room to insert more pistons is determined by the area available to insert a larger caliper onto a car's suspension and under the wheel.  All of this has to be addressed as a complete equation to make a proper braking system. 
  Four bullets in your gun make a more effective gun since you have 4 times to find your target.  Four pistons in your caliper push the brake pad with a even contact against the brake rotor.  Much more effective braking force.  This is something that we at Ol Phartz Partz have addressed in all of our uprated Disc Brake kits.  

 Good Monday evening.  Been a long day but I feel energized to carry on with our brake discussion.  We have covered kinetic energy and potential energy.  Sort of started on rolling radius and the difference it can make. 
  The original reason for disc brakes was the resistance to fade versus the drum brake.  Brake cooling, water and dirt resistance probably counted some. The big winner as less maintenance, so less cost to the customer.  The greater surface area, clamping action for the given weight was also a big consideration.
  Weight?  Yes, weight, a big consideration over the drums.  Manufacturers including BMC were thinking about this 60 years ago.  Rolling mass and vehicle acceleration without adding horsepower was already a consideration long before the current fuel tax gas mileage kings.
 The Sprite change from drums to disc eliminated almost 4lbs on the spindle.  That is a massive amount of acceleration.  That is a massive amount of weight off the load the wheel bearings had to carry.  All of this was good at the time (1962).  The little 8" rotor only weighed 5lbs.  As better brakes were needed the race cars got 9" 5.25lb rotors.  Hardly a difference on the spindle but better stopping power.
  The rolling radius had increased and the weight stayed the same giving more stopping power.  Magic!  Increasing the swept area of the rotor aided in the stopping power.  A big consideration in selecting  a proper rotor for your braking system is swept area to weight and torque.  One way to get the larger swept area and torque is to use a larger diameter rotor or longer hammer handle.
  A larger diameter rotor usually means more weight.  This multiplied by putting the caliper farther out means more weight on the spindle.  Not always true.    Many years ago when doing a seminar on brakes I held up two very similar brake rotors.  The diameter was the same, the thickness was the same, they were both made of ductile iron.  The similarity stopped there.  One rotor was for a Toyota Supra and the other a BMW.  The stopping power of each rotor was very similar since they both had the same rolling radius.  The Toyota rotor suiting the same job as the BMW was 9 lbs heavier.  The cost of the Toyota rotor was one third of the BMW rotor.  Hence the reason Toyota used that rotor versus the lighter weight BMW rotor.  This is a classic example of price versus function.
  Weight is the killer of horsepower in our little British cars.  As much as we need big brakes to stop in current driving conditions we need to think about rotating mass.  This need to save rotating mass determines the type of rotor that our cars will require.
 So, we need to think about the rolling radius, rolling mass, cost, material, and cooling properties.  Without all these properties considered we cannot determine what we need to improve our brakes.
 Tonight without getting into all of the above lets consider just two.  The rolling radius and weight.  We can get to the material in part because that is an integral part of any rotor. 
  The original Sprite rotor weights about 5 lbs and is 8-1/4" in diameter.  The upgrade higher swept area rotor used by Healey for racing is 5-1/4 lbs and 9" in diameter.  The 9.25" rotor used in the Ol Phartz Partz kit is 6 lbs.  All of the rotors are solid rotors and have the "hat" section that mounts the rotor solidly to the hub. All three are sand cast ductile iron. Assuming all three of these cast iron rotors are of the same high quality casting, the torque the rotor has increases as the rolling radius increases.  A 1" larger rolling radius of the rotor will increase the effective torque by 25% and increase the cooling properties by generally the same percentage.  This does take in to effect the grip of the calipers, the grip of the pads, the swept area of the pads and many more areas of braking.  We are just considering the rotors.  In the Ol Phartz Partz Sprite Brake Kit we have increased the torque on the front end by over 25% and we have increased the brake cooling by 25% in just the rotor alone without increasing the weight.  Now does that say we have done our home work?    Longer handle and no more weight in the head.  A very effective hammer.










  

The last words from us for the weekend.  I promised bigger hammers, what I meant was bigger hammer handles.  In the very beginning I started with lets get bigger brakes.  Bigger brakes are cool if they work better than stock brakes.  Handling, acceleration, and stopping are all related.  You add more horsepower you are going to accelerate faster - kinetic energy.  You put big brakes on and you have potential energy.  You add rotating mass (heavier hub and rotor) as part of this big brake kit, you remove some of the kinetic energy.  You bolt on a big caliper that weights 10 lbs more than the original you affect the handling- you add to the unsprung weight on a given corner.   In essence you cannot have it all, this is a give and take world.
 Lets start with a very known vehicle - Austin Healey Sprite or MG Midget (same essential car).   First cars had 7" drum front brakes with 3/4" wide front shoes directly off an Austin A35 or Morris Minor sedan.  The total package weighed about 12-13 lbs a corner. That is drum, hub, shoes, wheel cylinders and backing plates.  They used these parts since the parts were available and cheap.  Didn't take long before the management realized the mistake and offered disc brakes as an option through Donald Healey Motors.  These disc brakes worked perfect and were light weight.  However, they were Girling brakes and that would not do as the factory management was under contract to Lockheed.
 Management sent the engineers on a quest find better brakes and they had better be Lockheed.  Well, by 1962 they did just that.  The engineers at BMC developed a disc brake kit that worked.  8-1/4" disc brake rotor and a 2 -2-1/4" piston caliper with 2-1/4" x 1-1/4" pads that seems to work pretty good on a 42hp car.  First problem was not enough front brake pressure, so the engineers changed the way the rear shoes worked, double acting rear wheel cylinders, this helped.  They needed more help so they changed the master cylinder piston size from 7/8" to 3/4".  That helped more.  The acceleration was about the same as the rotating mass for the new rotor and hub was similar to the drum, in fact less at 9-3/4 lbs., but the handling was off because the unsprung weight went up with a 7 lb caliper hung on the suspension.  So, the next step was a sway or anti-roll bar to cure the handling.  But the cars still had problems and nothing was ever done about it.  No money for development was the BMC excuse.
  These new brakes did not work for racing.  Donald & Geoffrey Healey hands were tied.  They had to use Lockheed brakes for the factory race cars.  They got some rotors from the only small car around that had larger rotors than the Sprite.  These Triumph Spitfire rotors were 9" and had a bigger rolling radius than the Sprite brakes.  They found a bigger handle and moved the torque out to get more stopping power.  Next step was to find larger pads, this in a effort to gain longer pad life which we will cover later.  To get these big pads they used MGB calipers (Lockheed).  Sort of bolted on but they didn't care as they could modify the calipers to fit.  Well, the Healeys got the give and take.  They reduced the rotating mass by about 1/2 lb and gained a larger rolling radius.  They got better pad life but suffered from caliper pistons that were too large and a caliper that weighed 3 lbs more.  Handling was affected and braking was only good under extremely hard braking.  To fix this they change the bore of the master cylinder again 11/16" and put on bigger anti-roll bar.  The cars were better and since most of the braking at Le Mans is at the end of the Mulsanne straight, the Healeys got away with it.  This was developed in 1964.  This is what we now know as a big brake kit for a Sprite.  Use this on the street and you would be better off with the stock brakes.
  What have we found here so far?  A bigger rotor worked.  A bigger caliper did not.  A bigger pad worked.  The stock master cylinder did not.  The handling was terrible.   See bigger brakes are not always the answer.
  The one thing that did work was the larger rotor.  It had a rolling radius of .5" more.  This moved the torque farther out and allowed the rotor to be more effective.  The rotor also had more cooling area to help dissipate the heat that builds up from the potential energy used to slow the vehicle.  That is a win-win situation.   Why not go bigger?  Well, two reasons here.  Lack of an available rotor and the wheel size of the vehicle did not allow the big heavy MGB caliper any room inside the wheel.  This is your introduction to the hammer handle principal working on a car.   However, the handle was not long enough.  Monday, lets discover the theory in detail.  Larger rotors, vented rotors, rotating mass and rolling radius /torque for our Monday topic.   Ol Phartz Partz will come to the rescue for the Sprite brake problems.  Stay tuned.
 

 The other day I explored how kinetic energy works by using a roller coaster for an example of the energy that is created with speed.  Slowing the coaster involves smaller hill, corners and friction.  Usually the coaster has to climb a hill before coming to rest at the gate.  This slowing caused by friction and drag doing the hill climb is referred to as potential energy.
 Potential energy is just another form of stored energy that increases when a weight is raised to a greater height. As the coaster rolls down the big hill, small amounts of speed are lost in friction and the drag of weight going up a hill.  In a real world situation the potential energy in a car is heat and drag.  The high horsepower engine you built puts that power through a transmission, differential, suspension rotating components and your tires.  All of these items have drag, drag creates heat and heat then ultimately creates friction.  Roll your 2000 pound car down a hill and it will hardly make it up the next.  Fire the engine up and race down that same hill, lift off the throttle and it will not make it as far up the next as if it was coasting.  The potential energy of the drag was higher then the kinetic energy of the speed.
 Assuming (?) the only potential energy in a car (3500 lb big truck) moving at 60mph was the brakes being applied it would take 421,000 ft lbs of potential energy to stop that vehicle's kinetic energy.  That same vehicle moving at 120 mph and slowing to 60mph would require 1,265,000 ft lbs of energy.  That is a lot of force.
  I think you see my point.  Stopping a vehicle is not just lifting off the gas and hitting a brake pedal.  There are many factors involved.  That pedal that you hit has to be connected to something that creates friction and potential energy in order to stop a vehicle.  
  Ever wonder why I sell brakes?  Why I look at brakes differently than most car people?  There is a story involving me.  I saved a life one day and will never forget it.
  Back in the olden days I was gifted a car that I used for a daily driver.  A car with most likely 200,000+ miles on it and more than 10 years old.  This neat little Toyota Corolla had been in a couple of accidents, burned more oil than gas, and had 1 pump brakes when I got it.  That is 1 pump to the floor and one more pump to get pressure.  Two of us car pooled 15 miles to work in it every day.  Why not, who cares if you get in an accident, it already had dents.  No one would steal the ugly thing. Best of all it got like 35 mpg in daily driving.  Great car.  As days worn on the pedal got worse.  Tried to fix the brakes but the drums were rusted on, so i just drove it like it was.  You just got used to sitting back in traffic so you could pump the pedal more before stopping.  It got to be 4 pumps before anything happened, then you were lucky.
  Then it did happen.  One fine Saturday morning, I was on a run to get parts for the race car from the machine shop and it happened, really happened.   On a 3 lane each direction street that had a 40 mph speed limit, I was traveling in a pack of cars.  As we climbed a small rise in the street suddenly the cars to my left slowed rapidly.  Rapidly to the point that the front car locked his brakes.  Now, I could not see why they did this until I was half way past the the first car.  There in the street was a little girl walking across carrying her doll.  She was just about to cross into my lane when I saw her.  That little Toyota was 4 pumps away from any brakes and I was going about or above 45 mph.  Although I had lifted off the gas, FAT CHANCE on stopping!    What next?
 Well, thankfully no one or car was to my right.  The street had a square cut curb and a small area over to a side street.  The side street was a housing tract.  I turned the car quickly and drove over the curb and across the small side street, climbed the curb on the far side of the small street and tried to get the car turned but went through some ivy climbed a cinder block wall cut through the front yard of the house and off the curb heading across another street that was 90 degrees to the other side street. Fortunately enough energy had been displaced that I was able to crank the car sideways and drop it off the curb.  Three bent wheels and two flat tires and the car was at rest.  The little girl was scooped up by one of the other drivers and out of harms way.  I walked home and never drove that car again.  I still can see that little girl in the street.   Brakes, I don't need no stinking brakes.  Brakes are for sissies.  Brakes don't make your car go fast.  Na, I don't need brakes!   What a stupid idiot I was.  That was 1979.
                                                           I still see the little girl! 
 Well friends, the brakes on your little British car are not much better, if at all.  A Morris with non adjusted 7" front drum brakes does not stand a chance in Southern California driving. A beautiful restored Morris would not look very pretty with a little girl on the hood. That is why we do brakes at Ol Phartz Partz.  I don't want any one of you to see little girls in your dreams. Brakes, good brakes could have prevented this.  Oh, NO here comes that truck with 35" tires.

 Yesterday we got into the jacked up pickup trucks and their "BIG WHEELS".  Sort of wandered away from British cars but yet we did not.  What I wanted to impress was the phenomenon known as kinetic energy.  This energy is easy to explain in an a way most of you are familiar with; roller coasters. What makes roller coasters work is kinetic energy.  The coaster is pulled up a extremely high hill and then released to roll through a series of smaller hills which increasingly get smaller as the coaster looses momentum.  The energy part of this coast is the weight of the coaster itself as it increases speed going down the big hill. The weight of the riders push the coaster to run faster and farther then it would by itself. The coaster then needs the rest of the ride to slow to a stop which happens due to a constant braking force of friction from the wheels and weight on the tracks on which the coaster is riding. Since the kinetic energy increases with the square of the speed, an object doubling its speed has four times as much kinetic energy. For example, a car traveling twice as fast as another requires four times as much distance to stop, assuming a constant braking force. As a consequence of this quadrupling, it takes four times the work to double the speed.  Hence the reason the coaster works. 
  A car traveling twice as fast as another requires four times as much distance to stop, this is assuming all is the same between the 2 cars. Now there are ways of changing this scenario.  We all know the first half and spend every dime we have to make the car move in a forward direction faster.  Speed! Every man needs speed!  Get there faster.  Horsepower, baby!  Build up the energy. 
                                                                        Now what?
 The end of the drag race comes at 1000 yards now but the strip continues for another 1/2 mile.  Why?  We have to reduce that built up kinetic energy so the driver can climb out after his 0-330 in 3 seconds run.  And this "slow down" strip is usually up hill. Again to help slow the energy.  The way these guys slow down is a huge parachute to pull against the wind of the forward motion, aka air brakes.  Potential energy at its best.
  As we drive on the street and we do the stop light grand prix, on the accelerator, through the gears and get up to speed, we can't always judge what will happen in from of us.  We might just have to stop our little rockets and reduce their built up energy.  What?  Stop?  I will  be a monkey's uncle.  Stop? never!   
 Well, my cars brakes are completely adequate (how many times have I heard that).  They were when the engine was stock why wouldn't they be now?  Hold on, cowboy, we put a better bull under you.   The better bull got you making more energy so you will need more braking force to over come this.  The answer is "BRAKES", better brakes to reduce the extra energy.  This is what we do at Ol Phartz Partz, build better brakes to work with the better energy that you just spent your retirement to produce for your little British rocket.   Safety first, here.  We can slow your rocket so you can do this again and again.   Tomorrow lets explore those bigger hammers or longer hammer handles.

We discussed braking systems and rotor sizes last night.  I mentioned that weight is a critical factor just as much as the rolling radius of the rotor.  All unsprung weight is a factor in a good handling car just as weight is critical to the rotating mass.  I drive the street and hiways of CA and often see trucks that are jacked up and big 33-35" diameter tires under them that are 10" wide. These trucks all have stock brakes.  I would like to put money on the stopping power of that braking system.  Lets take one of those trucks and pit the very same make/model of truck with stock wheels and tires against it in a 60-0 stopping contest.  Which vehicle do you think will win?  In just the same contest but 0-60 which truck do you think will win?  Those big 125 lb wheel/tire combination will require 6 times the amount of horsepower to move the truck the same speed as the stock one.  The truck will need brakes 6 times as big as the originals to stop it.  Now stopping it is one thing but how long will the brakes last, 3-5 good stops in heavy traffic and the truck will be out of brakes.  The truck probably need new brake pads every 1000 miles of driving.  Why is this?   The brakes were undersize for the truck to begin with but met the criteria that the manufacturer specified - cheap and available off the shelf.  Now we have added a wheel and tire combination that weights 100lb (times 4) more than the original and changed the suspension geometry so that the center of gravity is way up high.  No way that truck has a chance to stop like a normal vehicle.   NOW he is behind you at the stop light and coming fast.  Lucky if you do not get seriously hurt when the truck plows right through your car.
  Why am I discussing this on an import car site?
  That truck deserves the roadway just like your performance car.  That is why!  I have stated many times that the cars that we prefer to drive do not have proper size brakes, well we have other vehicles on the road that possibly have worse braking systems then the one our cars are equipped with. 
                                                         ROTATING MASS
  Albert Einstein found a formula for this.  E=MC2  Mass is energy - kinetic energy.  In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. The same amount of work is done by the body when decelerating from its current speed to a state of rest.
 In classical mechanics, the kinetic energy of a non-rotating object of mass m traveling at a speed v is 1 2 m v 2 {\displaystyle {\begin{smallmatrix}{\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}\end{smallmatrix}}}.  In relativistic mechanics, this is a good approximation only when v is much less than the speed of light.
  In simple terms what did we say here?  The huge wheel/tire that took many moons to get moving will take more power than the truck's brakes have to stop it in a reasonable distance.  Stopping a truck of this caliber is akin to stopping a freight locomotive from 50 miles an hour.  
 Why do I mention all of this?  It is just as important to understand the cars around us as understanding the antiquated braking systems of our British cars.   Our cars may not have the mass of the truck, nor the rotating mass of the big tire but they have kinetic energy just the same.  Move 2000 lbs of British car down the road and it does not stop in its own length.  It takes many hundred feet to slow from 60 mph with the brakes provided us by the manufacturer.   How do you change the distance required for this stop, - install bigger brakes, more efficient brakes, brakes that can stand the heat of decelerating the mass of kinetic energy moving down the hiway.  That is what we do here at Ol Phartz Partz.  We provide you with the tools to do the job correctly.  If the big truck does not stop in front of you and plows through a car stopped at a light, it is your job to stop shorter to prevent you from being in the same accident.  What prevents this?  Proper brakes!  Speed costs money, good brakes save lives.

  Historically automobiles have been fitted with with drum brakes.  These brakes are designed with semi-elliptical "shoes" that act on cast iron drums.  The friction material that rubs against the drums is called the brake lining.  This material has in the past been made of splinters of wood, glass, leather, card board, shredded metal and some dreaded material called asbestos just to name a few.  These materials acted on the drum when the pedal was pushed causing the drum to have drag.  The harder the push the faster the drag slowed the automobile.  A later upgrade, if you will, was a new system called the disc brake.  This consisted of a large flat disc that rotated with the wheel and had a caliper that fitted over the disc with small "pads" inside.  These pads are pushed out and into the "disc" when the pedal is applied.  These small pads grab the disc via the same friction material, listed above, thereby stopping the vehicle.
  When the vehicle is traveling at speed it possesses hugh amounts of kinetic energy which has to be opposed by the braking system to effect any sort of deceleration.  This energy is turned into heat by the braking system and it is the efficiency of the braking system that dissipates  this heat.  The amount of heat and the deceleration of the vehicle determines the efficiency of the braking system.    This system depends on a few factors:

• The ability of the caliper to apply enough clamping force to overcome the rotation of the disc inertia.
  
• The ability of the caliper "pads" to maintain adequate friction properties even with the heat generated by the continuous pressure from the caliper
  
• The ability of the disc to absorb and dissipate  the heat generated.
  
• The traction from the rotating tires to allow the brake system to be effective.
  

  To make this system function better brake upgrades are required.  Typically an automotive manufacturer's brake system is limited by the size of the wheel used, available components and cost.  Cost usually is the largest factor in choosing the brake components used.  To upgrade any brake system several factors are involved.  The size of the "disc", the size of the "brake pad", the friction material of the brake pad, the size of the caliper and number of pushing pistons, and the hydraulic lines.
  Today we will discuss the disc size.  The distance from the center of the hub spindle to the outside edge of the disc or brake rotor (this is called the radius) can be thought of as a lever. The brake caliper in effect pulls against the lever to slow the vehicle.  The larger the rotor the longer the effective lever is, the longer the lever the more effective the caliper works.  A silly example of this is the handle on a hammer.  If you want to make a bigger blow without changing the size of the hammer head extend the handle length.  Another way of looking at this is, the longer handle makes a longer swing which increases the amount of "torque" the hammer has. To get a bigger blow get farther away from your work. 
  It is therefore easy to understand that a larger disc rotor will increase braking capacity.  If the disc rotor is then well ventilated, its ability to dissipate the developed heat is then improved allowing the brake pads to operate at a lower temperature.  This in effect then allows the pads to endure the torture to which they are to be subjected.
 The radius of the disc rotor is critical to the rotating mass of the wheel/tire combination.  The farther out and the heavier the rotor is the more mass it carries.  The more mass that is moving in a circular pattern causes the vehicle to accelerate at a slower pace and reduce rotation at a slower pace when contacted by the brake pads.  Again the hammer principal.  The longer the handle the harder it is to swing and the harder it is to try and stop the swing.   
  This rotating mass is a critical function of getting better brakes.  Bigger is not always better if the rotor weighs a great deal more than the smaller one it replaced.  To create a better brake system the size, weight, cooling ability of the brake rotor must all be considered before choosing the rotor to be used.
  All of these factors are part of the big brake kits we build at Ol Phartz Partz.   If we increase the radius of the rotor, the weight has to be close to the original rotor without over stressing the part used.  Not an easy task!
 Next we will get into pad material, calipers, brake system heat  and hydraulic fluids.
 

Ol Phartz Partz offers the largest selection of bolt-on disc brake conversions with specifically engineered and matched group of components designed to provide superior brake system performance  All kits are bolt on performance and easily installed with simple hand tools that are used for routine maintenance.  If you would like additional information or to speak to one of our technicians contact us at 626-857-9300.  We can also help you out with applications you cannot find on our web site.

 Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?    That is a very common phase in the automotive industry.    Another line used by road racers is:  Go in deeper and come out harder.  Both refer to power and speed. However, the second also refers to brakes.  If you brake later that means you lifted off the throttle later.  To come out of the corner harder means that the car had to settle quickly and allow you to put the power down sooner.  That refers back to a good braking system.

  How much does speed cost?  Cam kit is $500 and head porting is $800, higher compression pistons are $600 and so the bill climbs.  Install it yourself and put up with all of the problems of parts not fitting together.  Take it to a professional and it could cost $10,000 for the complete engine to be done.   Installing a A-Series 1275 cc engine into a Bugeye Sprite may seem cheap because you purchased it used for $800.  Now add all the things you need to get it installed and you spent another $500.  OK, $1300.00 is a lot less than $10,000.  But now you can go fast or faster. 

   Driving this little "hot Rod" maybe very enjoyable.  You can race along side the kid in the loud Honda and beat him away from the lights and go down country roads as fast as the car can handle the curves.  What a thrill until that lady in the mini van does not see you and pulls into your path.  Stomp on the pedal and those old worn out brakes do not work or stop the car quick enough to save the high dollar front end sheet metal on your Bugeye Sprite.   Speed costs money!
 
   I hear it all the time, I am not going to drive this car very far or fast.  The original brakes are good enough.  Not true, with enough time to judge your stopping distances and enough time to plan ahead maybe the answer is yes.  In today's traffic I doubt you will be given the opportunity, at least not in California. 

  To refurbish the drum brakes on a British car with quality components that will work as the system was designed will cost about $800 if you do it yourself.(depending on the car of course)  Now this refurbished braking system will get you a car designed for 1958.  How was traffic then?  How is traffic now?   Now that you have refurbished it, every time you go out for that nice little ride, you jack up the car and adjust the brakes before leaving, remember to take your brick for the E-Brake since the original never did work.

  Or how about spending $1200.00 to $1500.00 and buy a disc brake kit that works.   Spend less time working on your car as the disc brakes are self adjusting.  Stop quicker, stop with more assurance and never panic when that guy in front of you that is  texting stops short without any reason.  Do good brakes cost lots of money - No.  Initially, the cost going in is about twice the cost of refurbishing a standard brake system.  In the end it is cheaper as you do not need to change pads or rotors as often as you will drums and brake shoes. In fact with our larger disc brake kits you will probably never change pads or rotors since the car will never travel close to 80,000 miles.

  Think about your little "hot Rod" and all of the dollars you spent to make it fast, then think about how you are going to stop it.  Disc brake kits cost less to purchase than a refurbished used front end for a Bugeye and that is without the cost of repainting that front end. 

• Quicker Stops
• Fade resistant brakes
• No gradual loss of brakes
• Easier to modulate
• Simple and easy installation
• No need to adjust brakes
• Longer lasting
• Easier to change pads than brake shoes
• Emergency brake that truly functions

  Brakes that bring your 50's car into the 21st century .

                           SAFETY FIRST

  Cost is relative.  I constantly get the question why do your kits cost so much?  Can I buy just the brackets and do it myself?  If I buy most of the kit from you can I just buy my own rotors and calipers?  Can you just sent me the parts list so I can save some money?  Well I have one question before I answer these questions.  Do you call a major manufacturer or parts house such as Moss Motors or Wilwood Engineering and ask these questions of them?  I would love to know the answer.

  Answering these questions in the manner that I learned from a former boss, Kas Kasner, why would you want to do these things? See, Kas never answered a question that you had but rather asked you a question or maybe more until you answered your own question.  That is called making you think.  Think about all of the questions that I posted at the top of this blog. Most you will be able to answer them yourself if you think hard enough without having to read through this complete blog.  I will answer them in reverse order scenarios.

  First, I can send you a list of parts?  You can purchase it for the same price as the kit.  It also comes with the kit.  Now you do not need it. 
 If I did just send you the list and you chose you can go buy all of the parts in the kit. First question, how would you install it without instructions?  But you have chosen to go on and do it yourself. Suppose you drive a daily driver that gets 15 mpg and suppose the local hardware store is 5 miles away and your local auto parts store is 5 miles in the other direction.  Sound about right?  The wrecking yard for the real cheap guys is out of town and 10 miles from either store.  How am I doing?   Do you as a home tuner have grade 8 bolts on the shelf in a variety of sizes, grade 8 locking nuts and both in metric and standard threads?  I doubt it!  So you need 1-1/4" long bolts grade 8 with a grip instead of all thread ( qty 12), what does your local ACE Hardware charge you for them?  $1.25 each (or more) for a total of $15.00 and you drove 5 miles to get them and back.  Gas here (CA) is $3.00+ a gallon. So you spent $3.00 to get them and $16.00 to purchase them with tax.  That $1.25 bolt just cost $5.00 ea.  Now you realize that you need some other hardware that you did not think about, back to the store.  The joke at Home Depot and Lowes is that any time you purchase an item to fix your electrical, plumbing or woodworking is that we will see you at least 3 more times.  Ask any Home Depot or Lowes associate.   Now for the big items, the calipers.  Your local parts store does not stock them, what do you do?  Order them and make a second trip to pick them up?  Order them on line and wait a week to get them?  Take a trip to the wrecking yard to purchase used ones, spend time finding the correct car, dig through your tool box for the correct tool (if you took it with you), spend time taking it off, now you find that it is no good; start all over.  Frustration at its best.  Time, money, gas equals $$$$.
         When you buy my kit non of these trips are required.
 
 Second, can I buy my own calipers and rotors?  Sure, you can.  We sort of answered the caliper question above.  Getting into depth on caliper quality will be in our next blog.  Rotors are most likely available at your local parts store so the first trip was not totally useless as you just have to wait for the calipers to come in but you picked up the rotors and pads.  Lets just say you spent the money to buy the calipers from the parts store.  Now you wait 3 days and they finally come in and the $175.00 that the guy charged you for "rebuilt calipers" turns out to be an additional $175.00 each for the core charge since you do not have a core to return.  That makes it $175.00 x 4 or $700.00 plus tax plus 2 trips to and from the parts store for an additional $6.00 in gas. Plus you have now waited a week to get your "kit" done. (clock ticking)  When you get home you realize the calipers do not have hardware for the pads and neither does your pad kit, so off to the parts store you go again.  More gas, more time, more money and more frustration.  $$$$
        When you buy my kit non of these trips are required.

  Third, can I buy just the brackets and do it myself?  Well, I suppose I could just make brackets and you do it yourself.  The big question here is would you follow my parts list or decide to make changes based on what you can find or what is cheapest?  Now, when you finally get the brakes installed, the brakes do not function as they should.  You call Ol Phartz Partz for help and we cannot provide the correct information you need since you changed our design.  If you used a caliper too big and the rear brakes locked up, who is responsible, Ol Phartz Partz or you?  Did this cause an accident?  Where does the responsibility lie?  Ol Phartz Partz or you?  The answer to these questions is YOU but never once in my 50+ year career as a car builder, shop owner, parts man or executive at a major automobile manufacturer has a customer that made this type of mistake ever admitted error, the blame always points back at the seller.  Now with social media, fingers are pointed rather quickly.  Reason enough not to sell brackets only
               When you buy my kit non of this will happen.
 
Do my kits cost so much in the end?  No.  All of the parts needed are in the kit and all of the correct parts are in the kit. The disc brake kits are engineered to work correctly if installed exactly like our instructions.  A very complete instruction book and a very complete kit in the box.  No trips to stores, no gas to spend, no wear and tear on your daily driver and best of all no frustrations on trying to figure out what you are doing.  We are the "Kit That Fits" 

                SAFETY FIRST