Deleting Rear Brakes & E-brake on Drag car

[CPHunter]

So, have any of you drag racers Deleted the Rear brakes and E-Brakes on your Drag Car? I'm building a 1g AWD Auto Drag car and it's basically a 2600 pound car with Vented 13" Cobra Brake upgrade. I know how important Braking is and i know most would say i'm stupid for even considering deleting them. But how much work do the rear brakes really do and are they even necessary trying to stop alot less weight then stock.

 

[whe3ls]

id check the rule book for the class you are planing on running in.

 

[noV8undrDIShood]

^+1.... im pretty sure that wouldn't pass inspection

 

[anthonydinatale]

i dont think that is very smart

 

[Nate Crisman]

I think Lucas English is running his auto-awd car with only front hydraulic brakes, I remember him mentioning something about "welded diff & transferring braking force".

IMHO I'd be far less concerned with total braking force than I would be of what dynamics happen in the event of a broken brake line. Put it this way, Iv never had to even remotely brake hard in my 1g at the dragstrip even when it ran nearly 150mph on single piston stock brakes. Your never slamming the brake pedal and using all the stopping power possible, usually it's just a mild pedal pressure. But if you only have front brakes and one of the lines blows up, you now have braking force on only once side of the car and it may force you into the other lane or the wall before you can let off. If you had 4 wheels braking, that dymanic might be less, and now you still have rear brakes to help get the car stopped.

That being said, removing the entire rear brake caliper/rotor weight and drag is not something Im catagorically against so long as the front brakes were "gone over" and some heavy maintenance applied.

 

[Phil1320]

Screw that. Removing E-brake ok, the rear calipers....no way.

Years ago when I was only trapping around 109-110 I hit the brakes after a run and my steering wheel shook so bad it scared the crap out of me.

Back home upon inspection, I found the pin seized on one rear caliper, and the pistion seized on the other one. Basically, no rear brakes. Not recommended in my book. With no rear brakes all the weight transfers and everything is on the fronts and you will definitely warp your rotors......but, your choice.

 

[rEclipserGST]

Have you never tried stopping when your rear pads are shot? It's not entertaining to say the least. It's very unsafe. I can't imagine that the weight loss would be worth the extra risk. Serious face

 

[Colt4G63 also]

IHRA rules clearly state that you need brakes on all four wheels.

 

[avenged5]

Im all for weight reduction but removing your brakes? Umm. No.

 

[Phil1320]

IHRA rules clearly state that you need brakes on all four wheels.

You would think....cool.

Im all for weight reduction but removing your brakes? Umm. No.

Ditto.

 

[slow gst]

Run zero breaks and cut a hole in your floorboard and put your feet down, if it worked for fred flinstone it should work for you.

 

[CPHunter]

Run zero breaks and cut a hole in your floorboard and put your feet down, if it worked for fred flinstone it should work for you.

lets all give this guy a round of applause guys, this guy is funny, man do you write your own stuff?

anyhow i will have to get in contact with Lucus , i just read the rules for BOTI and i need all 4 brakes, but there's not one classl i can compete in anyways with out me having something prohibited or the other class being way out of my league, E- Brake will come out for now

 

[cruisintalonawd]

they do a lot more work then you think and whats it matter if you are 2610lbs......10 pounds doesnt do much

 

[yepes281]

Run zero breaks and cut a hole in your floorboard and put your feet down, if it worked for fred flinstone it should work for you.

It must be a proven method, they even used it on fast and the furious..
No wonder the floorboard came off, he was preparing the landing gear!!

 

[avenged5]

Run zero breaks and cut a hole in your floorboard and put your feet down, if it worked for fred flinstone it should work for you.

Well if youre gonna do this might as well go the extra mile and get these rims.

 

[Nate Crisman]

Screw that. Removing E-brake ok, the rear calipers....no way.

Years ago when I was only trapping around 109-110 I hit the brakes after a run and my steering wheel shook so bad it scared the crap out of me.

Back home upon inspection, I found the pin seized on one rear caliper, and the pistion seized on the other one. Basically, no rear brakes. Not recommended in my book. With no rear brakes all the weight transfers and everything is on the fronts and you will definitely warp your rotors......but, your choice.

Dude, relax and live a little


Seriously, in 2005 I was running my Evo8 at Etown and wanted to see what would happen if I lost the brakes completely. I made a low 11 pass at 126+mph and made the turn to the return road with no brakes what so ever....on purpose, basically just to know I could do it if poo hit the fan one day. Basically just coasted and downshifted for engine braking, no brake pedal and no ebrake. I think I took the last return road turn at about 30mph. No big deal.

And another point...I raced my yellow 1g AWD in 2005 for the entire season with both rear calipers having jammed slider pins and never noticed. That car went between 145mph and 150mph on stock 1990 brakes and never had even remotely hard time stopping at Island dragway (one of the shortest NHRA tracks in the country).

Honestly, I think pretty much everyone in this thread is a baby if they are thinking that stopping a streetcar sub 150mph DSM at any dragstrip is in any way remotely hard on the brake system.

 

[Phil1320]

Dude, relax and live a little


Seriously, in 2005 I was running my Evo8 at Etown and wanted to see what would happen if I lost the brakes completely. I made a low 11 pass at 126+mph and made the turn to the return road with no brakes what so ever....on purpose, basically just to know I could do it if poo hit the fan one day. Basically just coasted and downshifted for engine braking, no brake pedal and no ebrake. I think I took the last return road turn at about 30mph. No big deal.

And another point...I raced my yellow 1g AWD in 2005 for the entire season with both rear calipers having jammed slider pins and never noticed. That car went between 145mph and 150mph on stock 1990 brakes and never had even remotely hard time stopping at Island dragway (one of the shortest NHRA tracks in the country).

Honestly, I think pretty much everyone in this thread is a baby if they are thinking that stopping a streetcar sub 150mph DSM at any dragstrip is in any way remotely hard on the brake system.

When I run through the traps I upshift to 5th as to protect gears and such on a sharp WOT to full off throttle situation. Then, I practice rev matching and downshifts to slow the car(remember I like road racing too).....so I'm using minimal braking as it is. Also, at "only" 113-117 mph I always exit at the first turnoff. I could slow from those speeds with no brakes at all if I wanted to take a 2 minute trip down the runout but until I'm running 135+ that probably won't happen. Stopping from those speeds is not hard on the brake system at all, but if both rear calipers are shot, it's DEFINITELY hard on the front brakes. The system is designed for four wheels, just the motion of the rear calipers clamping on the rotors tugs the rear end and prevents some of the weight transfer. Keep in mind I still have the single piston front calipers with the tiny 9" rotors. Maybe if I had 12-13.5" front rotors things would be different, but they would still be working overtime. I've got stainless lines, DOT 5 fluid, and a brake booster brace. I like a nice working brake system.

 

[90laserRSfwd]

I found this thread via google search, and even though it's from 2010, I still think that we can consider deleting the rear brakes completely a NO NO. That said (for anyone else finding this thread), there are other options to reduce weight (STM, Brake Man, etc.) all make scalloped rotors and lightweight calipers to replace the heav(ier), stock stuff. Keep your brakes, lose weight elsewhere..