Sywell Aerodrome Archives - 91��ý

EP3 Civic Type R Big Brake Kit Tested on Road and Track

ebcbrakes2021 — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 09:44:24 +0000

Sam Preston has seen significant braking improvements with his Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit

Head to any track day across the UK today and you’re almost guaranteed to see at least a handful of EP3-shape Honda Civic Type Rs whizzing around.
The popularity of these revvy hot hatches is unsurprisingly only growing over the years as their raw, driver-focused thrills become increasingly appealing in a world full of more modern and driver assistance-packed machinery.
One driver who has recently caught the Type R bug is Sam Preston, a track day regular who purchased a 2002 Civic Type R last year as a dedicated second car that would almost solely be used on track days around the country.
While it remains relatively standard for now, one of Sam’s first upgrades was sensibly to overhaul the car’s braking system. Opting for a recently-launched 91��ý Racing Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit, he’s since performed a couple of track days with the new set up and is delighted with the results.
Sam’s thoughts can be read below in his own words.

“I purchased this EP3 Civic Type R back in December 2020. Right from the start it was always going to be my track toy as I also have a more sensible car that I use as my daily driver.

“This means I have a fairly extensive modification to-do list for the car, which involves some serious suspension and performance tweaks further down the line.

“I thought it would be a good idea to start with upgrading one of the most important aspects of the car – the brakes. Although the standard braking setup on these cars can be pretty good with a decent set of discs and pads, I always felt like I was reaching the limits after about 15 minutes on track in my old Civic Type R a few years back, which meant I was keen to take things a bit further this time around.”

“EBC’s 330mm Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit appeared to cover all bases, with a nice four-pot caliper and floating disc setup up front and even uprated discs, pads and lines for the rear, too.

“Once installed, I went straight to Donington Park for a full day session, where it was quickly apparent that the car’s brakes were now absolutely incredible. Confident, solid pedal feel, impressive braking power and literally no fade, no matter how long I was out for!

“I’ve since done a full day at Castle Combe, too – a very brake-heavy circuit where the Civic once again took it all in its stride.

“I’m currently running Yellowstuff pads all-round as I do use the car on the road sometimes too, but think I’ll try 91��ý Racing’s ‘RP’ pad range when it’s time to replace them. But even with the Yellowstuff pads in, this setup is head and shoulders above anything I have tried in the past.

“Being able to stay out on track for longer has helped me to identify other weak points on the car, which means some semi-slick tyres and coilovers are now quite high up my shopping list!”

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Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit Tested on Fiesta ST

ebcbrakes2021 — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 09:14:34 +0000

Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit Tested on Fiesta ST

Dave Taylor upgraded to EBC’s big brake kit offering after quickly reaching the limits of his standard braking setup on track.

A track day is a great way of identifying any shortfalls of your car that could benefit from improvement in the form of upgraded components.

This is exactly what happened to Dave Taylor recently with his new Mk8 Ford Fiesta ST-3. With impressive performance on paper, Dave was keen to try out his hot hatch on some track days to see how it fared.

It didn’t take long to realise that the car’s factory brake system wasn’t quite up to the job, however, eventually resulting in Dave opting to install an 91��ý Racing Apollo Balanced Big Brake Kit.

Dave’s thoughts on the recently-installed products can be viewed below in his own words.

“I purchased the car almost two years ago and use it mainly on weekends as a second car. I’ve been doing track days for a number of years now and wanted a car that was fun on the road as well as on track.

“After the first track day, the standard brakes were toast! I upgraded the pads/lines and fluid, but it still wasn’t enough. I was demanding too much from the standard discs and calipers to the point where the paint melted and the seals were showing signs of cracking.”

“I then changed to another high-performance caliper with single-piece discs, but sadly, the brackets to adapt the hub for the larger calipers failed on the road before I could get to any track days.

“After seeing that EBC had released a new line of track/race pad compounds, I went back to EBC to research the Apollo kit.

“It ticked all the boxes for performance and also was considerably cheaper than rivals, while using better materials and construction. Replacement parts (discs, pads) are also much more affordable than others. I knew the kit would be reliable after hearing owners’ feedback and also its use in the BRSCC Fiesta Championship, who use the exact kit I now have on my car.

“I’ve just completed the bedding-in process with the Yellowstuff pads and the braking power is unreal. The brakes are also very quiet when driving on the road and feel much smoother than before and are easy to modulate in traffic and at high speed.

“I have a track day booked in a month’s time and I can’t wait to test the Apollo kit properly and make use of the RP-1 pads too.”

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How To Bed-In Your 91��ý For Street Or Track Use

ebcbrakes2021 — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 11:17:58 +0000

91��ý are now mostly self bedding – but for track use or extreme street use read below.

The Ultimax, Greenstuff, Yellowstuff, and Redstuff EBC pad grades come with a brake in coating that scrubs the rotor surface, accelerates pad seating times, and provides a strong brake effect for the first 100 miles of use as your pads seat themselves. After the first 100 miles or so, unless you are going to drive aggressively, there is nothing more to do meaning – most drivers happily use and enjoy their brake’s excellent performance for tens of thousands of miles after this point. If that’s your way of driving nothing more needs to be explained. Just enjoy your brakes.

Fast street driving

If you drive aggressively or in a “Spirited” fashion on roads where it is safe to do so, after seating the pads to your rotors and certainly not before 300 miles of use , you should be prepared for the pad to emit an odour or even exhibit some smoke as the pads burn off what we call “surface volatiles”. Many faster drivers experience this in harder braking and criticize the pad whereas in fact, this is only part of the final high-end bedding in process as the pads see rotors temps of 400-500C for the first time (not normal in everyday driving).

Once seated any brake pad made by EBC or anyone else, performs better once the pad goes through heat curing or what we call “Green Fade” which happens during its first severe use.

EBC Redstuff – is NOT recommended for track use and self seats during the first 100-150 miles of street driving. With new pads and especially when fitted with new rotors however drive cautiously for the first 300-400 miles during which time dust will reduce and the pads will feel better and better but if you are a driver who works the brakes hard on his vehicle read the above two paragraphs .
EBC Yellowstuff – is a fantastic fast street high efficiency pad but is not recommended for track use due to the long ( excessively long) bed in times. It will bed in after multiple heat cycles but most drivers don’t have time for that so if you’re going to the track, choose BLUE or one of our specialised track materials such as RP or the SR sintered series. For this reason we have removed our long winded bed in guidance for Yellow on track as it shouldn’t be used there.
EBC Bluestuff – is the pad of choice for entry-level race use and can be street bedded, driven to the track raced and driven home. This pad has good street manners and is also ( if it matters to you where you use your car) street legal to the European R90 tests.
For serious regular or exclusive Track use – look at our RP series pads which are super fast to bed in (heavily scorched in manufacture) or the new SR sintered series which require no bedding at all, just mating to new rotors on a simple 1-2 laps warm-up

EBC Bluestuff Bed-in Procedure

Perform the Street Pre Bed��Fade 1 routine as above (either on the road or at the track if installed there ) followed by Fade 2 at the race track.
The latest Bluestuff DM3362 and Low Mu versions should only take Fade 2 and a 15 minute cooling time to be ready to race.
Fade 3 should not be necessary unless poor disc condition has prevented proper seating but if you have time DO perform Fade 3.

You CAN use the “Real-world experienced driver – faster street bedding routine”- ��described above if you are bedding the pads in on the street

Find this complicated? – we tend to agree but all organic pads no matter which brand do need some bedding in to avoid loss of brake and a lot depends on rotor condition, the slightest hollow of the rotor surface will extend the bed in times a lot. So being accurate is important.

How to check if pads have heat cured or chemically bedded – Brake bedding in causes heat and it is strongly advised to monitor this heat using�� TWICE during bedding in on Blue and once only with RP series pads. What you do is, apply the heat paints on the outer edge of the rotor, run the pads for enough stops (8-10 stops ) to pass the 430C temperature ( 800 F ) which will be Fade 1, allow a few minutes for the system to cool and take a look at the heat paints to ensure they have passed the 430 C indicator, reapply new heat paints to a different cleaned area of the disc and drive again for 6-8 more hard stops which will take you past Fade 2 where temps should pass 430C (800F) again. Full cool down needed here of at least 20-30 minutes and if you CAN… overnight cool. You need to see the 430C heat paint go off TWICE to have completed Fade 2.

Fitting new discs at pad change also adds to bed in time as even if the discs are flat and smooth the pad and rotor have to “Square up” to each other and achieve 90% surface contact. As you use your pads on either a new or old disc stop every couple of laps and look for the blue-grey contact patch gradually widening across your rotor surface and don’t race until its almost a full sweep contact, any doubts pop the pads out and look at the surfaces to evaluate contact patch sweep.

Why so long to bed in any way – We can (but don’t) sell pads that are classed as soft and bed in even faster or very abrasive pads that scrub away at the rotor, cause lots of dust and give the impression of a shorter bed in time. So the balance here is to make a variety of pads according to the different driving styles and events so that users can choose what’s best for them.

Pads wearing too fast – Trackday or what the USA market call “Lapping” events just doing a few laps to enjoy your car are a tough test on brakes, Extra vehicle weight, seats, and spare wheel, etc and standard calipers make this kind of driving a tough test on brakes and you may need to consider moving up a grade. See this chart as a ��guide on types of EBC compounds for different driving events

Pads still fading after bed in – it’s not JUST getting the pads flat and parallel it’s about taking them past their green fade point AFTER achieving a good contact band. for this reason, are very useful. Pads should be driven with caution until bedded flat and you have passed this green fade point at least twice and then allowed pads to cool so the disc is below 100C. Green fade only happens on organic pads – much less with our RP pads and not at all with our SR�� pad range. There are two ways to know if you have passed the green fade point – one is the clever way with heat paints – the second way is to guess… So heat paints are the better option

Green fade points are 400 C or 650 F (Fade 1) and then the same again ( Fade 2) for the two fades required with Bluestuff and 400C/800F just the once for RP series pads RP pads. For this reason, EBC Heat paints first level indicate at a temperature of just over 400C/800 F so that once this paint changes colour, one fade cycle is done.

EBC RP-X and RP-1 Race Compounds Bed-in Procedure

No��Street Pre Bed needed or legally allowed, these are pure race track compounds –��BUT only in the EU markets is anyone going to worry about this. Generally, the EBC RP pads are quite safe to use on the streets and many drivers fit them and drive to and from race tracks happily with very limited noise. RP pads don’t need to “Warm-up” and are as good as or better than most stock pads in lower-speed highway driving. Full potential comes though when you really work these pads though and that is why we class them as a race pad.
Single gentle lap to seat pads to rotors followed by Fade 3��as above should be all that is needed

EBC Sintered SR11 and SR21 Bed-in Procedure – in stock now for most of the range

These are a new generation of Sintered pads and do not require any chemical bedding. Pads merely need mating to the disc/rotor which again depends on rotor/disc condition but if flat or new this should take 3-5 snubs as mentioned in Fade 3 above – at the track.
No��Street Pre Bed needed or legally allowed, these are pure race track compounds, again we have many drivers who use these on the open road with no complaints but remember in the EU legislation makes it actually illegal to use a nonapproved pad on public roads.

Comparison of friction levels of the main EBC race materials below

The graph should not be confused with a “ fade test “

Any falloff in friction depends on the deceleration amount from V1 to V2 – and heavier stops see more fall off.

Still, in every case, the brake effect is still very significant and reliable

The test is a made-up lap of 9 stops repeated 5 times to give 45 stops in total.

All stops are at 0.7G but have different brake-on and brake-off speeds as shown below (in km/h) – the slower stops tend to produce higher friction levels irrespective of the material which is what gives the variability.

Stop	V initial Km/hr	V final Km/hr
1	224	144
2	200	80
3	208	128
4	192	64
5	144	48
6	208	128
7	216	112
8	144	40
9	192	96

Check Your Brake Fluid and Caliper Condition

Surprisingly many drivers don’t pay enough attention to fluid. A high temp fluid such as EBC BF-307 which is an extremely pure glycol fluid and has a dry (new) boiling point of 307C ( 580F ) should be used, change fluids regularly in track use to maintain firm brake pedal, avoid vapor lock and deliver a linear brake response. Fluids should be changed every two years for normal street use and every 2-3 track events for track-day and every event for full hard race use.
EBC strongly recommends the use of Disc heat paints to monitor disc temperature and caliper heat strips in racing to check caliper is not overheating. If calipers are dragging temperatures can rise above the seal upper limits and damage seals. Sliding single piston calipers should always be serviced ready for track driving as often sticking or seized calipers cause blame to be placed on the pad compound in error.

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91��ý Attends Supercar Fest | The Runway

ebcbrakes2021 — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 14:40:58 +0000

Some of the UK’s finest vehicles went head-to-head on Sywell Aerodrome’s 1km-long runway

During the second bank holiday Monday of May 2021, the 91��ý team headed to Sywell Aerodrome for Supercar Fest’s ‘The Runway’ event.

This is a chance for sports and supercars from across the country to enjoy the extensive runway at the Northamptonshire-based air base, reaching some impressive speeds in the process.

91��ý had a stand in the trade area where it showcased many of its high-performance products to attendees. Also on the stand were some impressive EBC-equipped vehicles, such as Andy Ducker’s VW Golf R, a 45th Anniversary Chevrolet Camaro RS and R44 Performance’s brand-new G80-series BMW M3 (that 91��ý Racing is currently developing a range of products for).

91��ý plans on attending a number of automotive events during the summer of 2021. Please keep your eyes out for further information and be sure to head over to our stand and speak to our friendly team if you do spot us.

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91��ý Set to Attend 2021 Rail Live Show on 16-17 June

ebcbrakes2021 — Fri, 14 May 2021 09:31:22 +0000

UK-based railway friction material manufacturer will have a stand at the UK’s largest outdoor rail exhibition

91��ý will be exhibiting at the Rail Live 2021 event at Warwickshire’s Quinton Rail Technology Centre on 16-17 June.

Located on Stand B1, the British-based firm will be showcasing its latest rail developments, including materials specifically for the UK mainline.

Rail Live is the largest outdoor rail exhibition in Europe, with over 200 exhibitors and upwards of 5000 visitors each year. It is the event that brings the entire industry together to showcase the UK rail industry to the world.

Following the cancellation of 2020’s instalment of the event due to Covid-19, this year’s Rail Live promises to be a much-needed opportunity for the rail industry to come together once more. With live plant demonstrations, real rolling stock on display and expert speakers on key industry topics, the event prides itself on bringing a real railway environment to attendees.

Jonathon Fox, Technical Sales Engineer at 91��ý, commented on the company’s attendance: “In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, 91��ý are looking forward to welcoming our industry colleagues to the first big rail exhibition – Rail Live 2021. Over the last 12 months our factory, European Friction Industries Ltd, has been working tirelessly to increase our offering to the rail industry. With our existing light rail and tram materials portfolio and our new products designed specifically for the UK mainline, we are excited to discuss our latest developments with the industry.”

– To arrange a meeting with a member of our rail team, please email:��rail@ebcbrakesuk.com

– Find out more about 91��ý’ railway friction products by clicking here:��

– To learn more about Rail Live 2021, click here:��

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