Superformance Brakes (or not)

[jhwalker]

The owner of SPF2694 does not visit Club Cobra, but is a Superformance Cobra Owners Forum member. He was OK with his note being posted here in its entirety.
Since I also have a Roush 427R in my SPF (2117) to which I added a vacuum device after not liking the low rpm braking, this is a thread of interest to me.

I usually read and learn on my Club Cobra visits, so it is nice to post.
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(the note)
Subject: SPF Brakes Newer Cars

I would like to comment on the brake issue with the newer SPF Roadster. I happen to have a car with just over 1000 miles and about 60-days old, #2694. This is my second SPF Roadster, the first was #855, which I owned, from new, for about six years, it was equipped with Wilwood brakes. After reading the threads about the brakes, I decided I would not take a family member or friend a ride in the car until I did some testing of the brakes. While I do not consider myself to be a professional driver, I have owned and drove race cars, for fifty years, so now you know I am north of 60 in the age department. Not to toot a whistle, but I know what it is to aggressively brake a car from 200 mph to a full stop, several thousand times, of course that was with the aid of a parachute. Have done a little road course, but experience there is limited to a couple days at Summit Point in WV, and a couple days at Sebring, FL, and several weekends at the Gainesville, FL track.

What I did today was to take my car to a private airport and play with the brakes a lot, here are my findings. I would like to say that the brakes perform well in excess of most factory automobiles I have driven over the years. I did hard breaking from 100 mph to zero, at least four times in a short period of time. The brakes generated the normal smell of brakes used to the max, but I did not experience noticeable fade. The method was to come down on the brakes hard but controllable, and when below 50 continue to press harder until I could hear the tires start to complain, but not lock them up. I found that the front to rear balance was good, both front and back tires sounded like they were complaining verbally about the same without either end breaking loose completely. I did the first brake test by dis-engaging the clutch, and of course since I have two four barrels the first response was they spilled over and the engine died, so I guess you know what happens to the vacuum assist when that happens. I did still have good breaking until the vacuum was gone then the brake of course got hard just like it would without the engine running, which was expected, and would be the same with any car. The remaining three times I did this test it was with the clutch engaged until I got down to almost a stop to use the deceleration of the car to generate vacuum, the brakes felt fine. I would like to say that my car does generate vacuum at the lower end of the scale of need, at about 11 pounds, The car has an aggressive roller camshaft, and idles at about 1000 rpm's, and peaks at 7000 rpm's,

I do have an event scheduled to run at Sebring in mid May, so will have more to say after that event. I am however now convinced that the brakes perform at a level that I fear not to take my grand boys a ride with confidence, and maybe even take a couple of neighbors a Cobra ride, if they are dressed appropriately for the summer season, if you know what I mean.
Ken #2694
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James