96 thunderbird road race rear brake options

[sexy jesus]

I have a really well-set-up Thunderbird race car (Lemons/ Luckydog road racing.) I run the cobra junk in the front and that's fine along with a bias Valve and Hawk ht10 pads, But in the rear, I can't find Pads that last. PortaFeild custom enduro pads are the best but a little hit or miss. I had one set delaminate and I have had weird wear problems. I tried using the Z26 power stop pads but they won't make it 8hr. Is there a caliper/rotor upgrade for the rear with a more common aftermarket pad shape? extra credit if they are drilled for 5x114.3. I don't actually need more rear bite just more longevity. and better pad options.

Thanks Brian Cole

ColeFab.Racing

 

[supergordo]

Not sure it will help but many of us upgrade the rear rotors also to the Cobra size. However there are relocation brackets for the stock calipers that push the caliper back to fit the larger rotor. However they still use the same pad configuration. Maybe the larger rotor would help dissipate heat better so the pad wouldn't wear so quickly??

I do believe that a couple guys over the years have put other calipers on the rear. Though I believe that means eliminating the parking brake setup. I don't have all the details. Give this a little bit and some of the other guys will chime in.

 

[supergordo]

Your car looks angry! I like it!

 

[MadMikeyL]

Cool car! I ran a Cougar in Lemons years ago, and there is one other user here (Gunn) who ran a tbird. I had the same problem with rear brakes. The tbird calipers with the 99-04 Cobra 11.65” rear rotors, along with a relocation bracket gives the best braking performance when matched with the 13” Cobra fronts. As for rear pads that will hold up, the only thing I found that was affordable and would last a whole race was some Wagner fleet pads, but Wagner has since revised their lineup, and I’m not sure what is equivalent to the old fleet pads. Many people I spoke to ran the EBC yellowstuff pads, and all had good things to say about them, but I never ran them myself. Gunn will probably also chime in because I know he found a company that will make any pad with any compound you like, but I don’t remember what company that was.
Edit: just remembered, it was Porterfield that will make the pads with whatever compound you want!

 

[Grog6]

I will mention there are ceramic pads that wear the rotor, instead of the pads, but that can be a budget buster on a race car. I ran them for a bi, but the warmup interval is a problem, in rush hour traffic. It can be a second before they really grip well. I would imagine, they would be fine racing. Might have to swap rotors when you swap drivers, but wtf. Racecar!

 

[Grog6]

Gunn is awesome, his last theme car made fritos. I can't wait to see his electric ferrari conversion. Enzo would shit a brick, lol.

 

[sexy jesus]

Thanks for the replies. larger rear rotors might help with warp but pad compound is really what I Need to solve for. I also don't want to add mechanical leverage I'm actually already reducing the vac signal to the booster to prevent unintentional luck up. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here but I may have to go with some wildwoods or something. I am friends with the owner of Bear Brakes I'll pick his brain when he has time. I also did all the math for manual brake conversion with twin masters which could be of benefit. but still doesn't solve for rear pad compound. sometimes I feel like ford didn't intend for these to go road racing.

OH, I also have a massive front sway bar if thats something anyone needs.

 

[Grog6]

I'm using power stop carbon metallic, but you tried those.

 

[MadMikeyL]

Yeah, road race stuff is a different animal. You may think you drive hard on the street, but I promise you, you have never come close to the abuse you put a car through on the track. Early on, I thought I would just get some generic auto parts store ceramic pads. Yeah, I burned through a brand new set of pads in 45 minutes!

 

[sexy jesus]

the car has a lot of race hr on it (hundreds) at this point and is fairly well dialed other than the rear pads.

 

[sexy jesus]

so oddly I just found out that the only other cars (non ford) to use that pad shape are the 01-02 Dodge Viper base model maybe as a park break? seems a little small. still, no other manufacturer is selling race pads. that I can find.

 

[MadMikeyL]

Did you try the Porterfields? I know Gunn had good success with those on his Lemons tbird.

 

[sexy jesus]

yeah, those have been my go-to. just a little spendy and they don't seem to last. I did find Carbotech has pads for the 01-02 Viper rear. in an endurance compound CT806-RP2