I received an E-mail from Ron Silva on the subject of race brakes on the street. He gave me the go ahead to post this in case anyone else was interested.
Quote:
I had Wilwood drag race Brakes all the way around on my Demon. The 3/8” solid rotor with 4 piston Calipers. The brakes would fade after about 3 or 4 consecutive hard stops from 60MPH. I then went to the cast iron vented front rotors and did not get any more braking ability. All it did was give better pad wear and quieter operation if anything.
In my opinion the biggest thing you have to worry about is capacity (3/8” solid rotor), obviously, and the fact that they are not weather sealed. They should not be used in the rain or hosed down when washing your car. I almost never washed my car with water and if I did I wrapped the wheels/tires to keep them dry. If I wanted to wash the wheels/tires I always took them off the car.
I also think the Wilwood stuff was junk and I would never buy it again unless I was on a severely tight budget. My rotors wobbled (steering wheel would shake when braking) and they sent me new rotors and the new ones were no better. I had to keep clocking the rotors and the adapter rings and measuring runout and it took FOREVER. I finally got it where it was acceptable but I will never go through that again. There is something like 25 possibilities to try to get the runout low enough, but it never got anywhere close to production tolerances. I think I started at .012 and got it as low as .006 runout. ....... .012 would shake the steering wheel pretty good and the car was no fun to drive.
I have Mark Williams on the Valiant and there Brakes are better in every way. They cost $$ But well worth it if you can save up for them. Yes, I had to ship them my Spindles but that was worth it too as I believe they magnafluxed them as well as minor machining.
Anyhow, wilwood or mark williams are perfectly fine for limited street driving. I have NEVER had them fade on the street or race track but I am aware of their limited capacity. After 4 or 5 stops they WILL give up. I have never had a situation on the street where I was FORCED to stop hard 4 or 5 times in a row.
Ron Silva.
