Brakes - "It's on fire!"

Well the car wasn't actually... but it certainly looked like it.

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Brake Bias Box

In order to fit the quad-cam, the power-brake booster had to be removed.  As power assisted brakes don't give you any better braking ability (they just use a bit of engine power to make the pedal lighter) we decided to install a brake bias box instead.  This allowed for service-time (as opposed to in-car) adjustment of the front/rear brake bias, but in reality it was more of a set-and-forget type operation.  Along with the brake bias bar, a set of AP master cylinders (one for the front, one for the rear) were installed.  Obviously the master cylinder bore diameters should be based on the calipers you're using, the amount of built-in front/rear bias, and how much pedal travel you want/have (dictated by the pivot location of the pedal assembly).

Front-End Upgrade

The car originally came equipped with VC Commodore V8 calipers (floating single spots) on ventilated discs.  We were finding the old calipers were getting quite worn and as a result were quite difficult to maintain.  Being a budget race team, we decided to upgrade to a set of VT calipers and discs.  This was done in conjunction with the suspension upgrade (more info here).  The end result was quite satisfactory.  The VT calipers were certainly better than the old VC units, and replacement parts were relatively cheap (and new).

Rear-End Upgrade

The rear-end upgrade was pushed on by the wonderful ability of the rear pads to disintegrate during a race.  The pic below (far left), was taken after the car had pulled into the pits and a large cloud of smoke had issued from under the back RH wheel arch.  It turned out that the back brakes were dragging and the pads had completely disappeared, even to the point of melting the backing plate around the piston.  The cloud of smoke was a large amount of hot brake fluid hitting an even hotter disc and being burnt.  Needless to say, both the caliper and disc were replaced before the car went out again.  Original equipment was VN/VP Commodore rear calipers (floating single spots) on solid discs.  It was decided to install VT fronts because of the following: a. they were relatively cheap, b. it meant we didn't have to carry as many spares, and c. they were quite light and ran on a ventilated disc.  So some caliper brackets were welded directly to the axle tubes, the only thing you really have to worry about is aligning the pads/pistons parallel with the eventual location of the disc; otherwise the pads will wear on a skew before they bed in properly.  It was a simple matter of biasing up the front brakes (with a master cylinder swap) and running a stock pad in the rear (to keep the temperatures reasonable).

Hydraulic Handbrake

The hydraulic handbrake is installed in-line with the rear brake line.  The unit was sourced from the clutch circuit of a Landrover, however any master cylinder would perform the same job.  The Wilwood brake bias valve is installed before the handbrake, so as to avoid reducing the pressure the handbrake can apply.  Note that the handbrake hydraulic assembly will be under pressure when the footbrake is applied, and as such care must be taken to ensure that the handbrake piston travel is limited to the confines of the cylinder (otherwise fluid will spurt everywhere).

Brake Pads

Stock items were replaced with EBC Green Stuff pads, which have been working quite well (both pad and disc wear occurs at an acceptable rate).