Upgrading the brakes

[Mecky]

Hi boys,

after a quite succssful racing season (but with loads of trouble), we are thinking about leaving the FIA Appendix K racing behind and searching for other possibilities. The German motorsport association (DMSB) and the FIA have thrown so many spanners in our works, which means that the Lotus Europa is never going to be a really competative race car under these circumstances. My crash at the Nürburgring would'nt have happened, if the car had sufficient brakes. Because of that we are thinking about changing our racing series. We need something with more freedom in regulations.

Rear drums combined with these tiny discs at front is not enough for a real race car .

Do you know a reasonably priced possibility to improve the front brakes? The Banks kit with wider ventilated discs and new calipers costs almost 750 €. The discs' diameter is 247,7 mm (9,75 ").
For example: if I knew that the Triumph GT6 brakes fit well into a 13" rim, I would imagine that they are a good alternative. Maybe there are ventilated discs for the GT6 available, as well. Probably that would be a much cheaper way to improve the Europa's braking.

I am not so sure about the rear bakes. Maybe a wider drum would be helpful, or also a Banks kit. I think the front braking is most important and the rear could be pretty well improved by using a wider drum and a good brake balance.

I'm glad for any suggestions and advices.

Best regards

Stefan

[BDA]

It does look like you are mis-classed - not unusual for Loti. It amazes me that in a racing class, brakes are not free. Not being able to stop is a lot more dangerous than going fast.

That editorial comment asside, there are some things you might be able to do with your brakes. I have the Banks vented front disc kit from about 15 years ago. It's a great kit. The alloy GT6 hub should help, too. As you supposed, you can use the GT6 brakes, too. If you haven't seen the manual written about the Jensen Motors Europa campaigned in SCCA amateur racing (and did very well), it might be very interesing. It is pretty old so some of what they did may be out of date and some certainly may not apply to your rules: (http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/misc/jensen.pdf). I assume that you are not allowed to use rear disc brakes. The Jensen manual explains that they used a twin leading shoe arrangement but they don't explain how that was implemented and I've never heard of a conversion for that. It seems like you would need an additional wheel cylinder but maybe my ignorance is showing. You should also look here (http://lotus-europa.com/manuals/) in the brake section. There are lots of different options discussed there.

Good luck!

[EuropaTC]

The GT6 brakes will fit under 13" rims, IIRC the GT6 was on 13" wheels back then.  I fitted them to my Elan, which is on standard 13x4.5" rims & I've posted a couple of photos to show how they fit.  For that car it was a cheap upgrade at around £110 for new calipers, £25 for discs and £25 for caliper mounting brackets.

However it might not be as simple on the Europa. The Elan uses the larger stub axle/upright as on the GT6, whereas the Europa has the smaller Herald/Spitfire axles and when the Jensen Motors prepared TC was done I seem to recall they replaced the vertical upright/axle/hubs. If that's required then it will be an expensive exercise. Also the larger caliper mounting brackets are NLA so unless you can fabricate them yourself you will need secondhand ones.

The other downside is weight. The M16 calipers are significantly heavier than M14 ones, not a problem on a road car but you're trying to keep the weight down on a racer ?

Although it sounds expensive you might be better considering a 4 pot caliper which you can mount to the existing link. The old Austin Princess had 4 pot calipers with the same mountings and was a very popular conversion but these are now scarce here.  However there are alternatives and at least one Elan owner has gone with a kit from Hi-Spec which cost him £430-ish for calipers & hoses and spaced for 12mm discs - this sort of thing http://www.hispecbrake.co.uk/B4M14.html

I came to the conclusion it is at least a £500 exercise and so as I've done the suspension this year, that's a future project for when the car fund builds up again !

Brian

[BDA]

Nicely done, Brian!!

[Mecky]

The GT6 brakes will fit under 13" rims, IIRC the GT6 was on 13" wheels back then.  I fitted them to my Elan, which is on standard 13x4.5" rims & I've posted a couple of photos to show how they fit.  For that car it was a cheap upgrade at around £110 for new calipers, £25 for discs and £25 for caliper mounting brackets.

However it might not be as simple on the Europa. The Elan uses the larger stub axle/upright as on the GT6, whereas the Europa has the smaller Herald/Spitfire axles and when the Jensen Motors prepared TC was done I seem to recall they replaced the vertical upright/axle/hubs and if that's required then it will be an expensive exercise. Also the larger caliper mounting brackets are NLA so unless you can fabricate them yourself you will need secondhand ones.

The other downside is weight. The M16 calipers are significantly heavier than M14 ones, not a problem on a road car but you're trying to keep the weight down on a racer ?

Although it sounds expensive you might be better considering a 4 pot caliper which you can mount to the existing link. The old Austin Princess had 4 pot calipers with the same mountings and was a very popular conversion but these are now scarce here.  However there are alternatives and at least one Elan owner has gone with a kit from Hi-Spec which cost him £430-ish for calipers & hoses and spaced for 12mm discs - this sort of thing http://www.hispecbrake.co.uk/B4M14.html

I came to the conclusion it is at least a £500 exercise and so as I've done the suspension this year, that's a future project for when the car fund builds up again !

Brian

That's the kind of modification I'm talking about. Maybe with ventilated discs. That would be even more awesome.

[skoolsen]

Rallydesign in uk has theese kits. 13" wheels :  http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=562_563_574&products_id=10595
        15" wheels:  http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=562_563_574&products_id=14505
Made for Triumph spitfire/Caterham 7 and will fit europas, they need machining of the hub, but i think that is not a big problem.

[pboedker]

The rear shoes and drums of the Special is 25% wider than then the ones of the S1/S2/TC. I don't know if it is sufficient or even allowed in your preferred class. But it could be a relatively easy(?) upgrade to the rears.

[Lotusjps]

I run Wilwood 4 pot calipers all the way around.  The fronts are 10" vented which I purchased from John Zender about 10 yrs ago.  The rears were a kit made from a yahoo forum member and use a 9.375 solid disk.  The clearances are VERY close, to the point that the edge of the calipers are machined to clear the wheels.  I also have dual master set up with a remote balance adjuster.  It's definitely improvement over the stock brakes.  ; )

[Mecky]

Hi guys,

now as I took part in the first race for almost 5 years, I have experienced again how bad the original Europa brake really is. I'm going to put discs on the rear, that's for sure. But for the front, I'm not sure on which option to choose:

1.) Ventilated disc kit from Lotus supplies, former Banks
2.) Big solid discs an calipers from the GT6 as shown above.

I want to keep the 13" rims and I'd like to keep as much as possible of the front suspension for the moment (not forever, but one step at a time). Could you please help me out with the explaination, which changes have to be done to the front suspension, uprights, hubs etc. in either of these front brake upgrades?

And from my look at the attached photographs, I'm not completely convinced that the floating brake caliper from Banks is the best choice for racing. It seems to be designed quite light. Is the stable fixed caliper of the GT6 brake maybe more stiff and resistant against deformation (or being bent open)? Normally, I'd prefer the ventilated discs, but the calipers make me a little bit nervous about that conversion. It will be sufficient for road use, but maybe the racing application is overstraining the material. Does anyone have experiences with that?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards,
Stefan

[jbcollier]

If you are unsure, talk to Richard.  He uses his kits racing so I think they would be fine.  Vented is going to be better than just bigger, IMO.

[EuropaTC]

Personally I'd say the Banks Kit is the better option for racing and that's despite me having the GT6 conversion on the Elan shown above.  I'd imagine the overall weights to be similar because vented discs are heavier than plain ones but without knowing the caliper weights it's possible the Banks kit edges ahead.

But a vented disc must be better for racing ?  I don't believe I need a vented disc conversion for my driving but if I did track days then I think I'd go that way.

Brian

[JR73]

I have raced, track day’d, and road driven using the Banks front vented kit for the last 21 years now and it is more than up to the job tbh. I’ve never had any fade or overheating issues and have run a variety of different pad materials. - have even used standard road compound pads for track days (when I had the additional weight of screaming passengers in the car) without issue.

The caliper is from a relatively modern road car and there are no issues regarding their strength or suitability. - there are also plenty of different options of pad compounds readily available too and at reasonable prices.

It all fits onto the original front upright, the caliper mounting bracket is different to suit the mounting bolts of the caliper and the vented disc can be fitted to the original hubs or you can go for the aluminium versions should you wish. The kit was designed to fit inside a 13” wheel.

I also have the Banks rear discs and their balance bar pedal box - all fitted when I built my car and I raced on that set up for a good few years before retiring it to track days.

[Mecky]

Thank you very much. That was exactly the information I needed. I will order the Banks vented disc kit.

[4129R]

I have raced, track day’d, and road driven using the Banks front vented kit for the last 21 years now and it is more than up to the job tbh. I’ve never had any fade or overheating issues and have run a variety of different pad materials. - have even used standard road compound pads for track days (when I had the additional weight of screaming passengers in the car) without issue.

The caliper is from a relatively modern road car and there are no issues regarding their strength or suitability. - there are also plenty of different options of pad compounds readily available too and at reasonable prices.

It all fits onto the original front upright, the caliper mounting bracket is different to suit the mounting bolts of the caliper and the vented disc can be fitted to the original hubs or you can go for the aluminium versions should you wish. The kit was designed to fit inside a 13” wheel.

I also have the Banks rear discs and their balance bar pedal box - all fitted when I built my car and I raced on that set up for a good few years before retiring it to track days.

Do you know the source for the pads front and rear, so we can replace them when they wear out? Also the source for the discs? Volvo?

[JR73]

Can’t remember what the discs are off but the front pads are Peugeot 205 Gti fronts (amongst others) and the rears are Ford Sierra disc rears (3dr Cosworth version is the same and as fitted to Caterham’s for many years).

The front kit uses the same vented disc for all versions (eg S2, TC, Banks chassis, Spyder chassis) but I’m not 100% sure that the rear kits use the same discs - I have the Banks chassis with their double wishbone rear and uprights that uses pretty much the complete Sierra rear - hubs, bearing carriers (with integral caliper mounts), calipers and drive shafts and I’m fairly sure that I have the Sierra discs too - it’s been some time but I think that the Spyder double wishbone rear chassis uses most of those Sierra parts.
The kit that converts a standard Europa from drums to discs I think has a different disc from mine as it has to fit around the original hub/upright and the caliper mounting bracket is manufactured to suit and bolt up to the original uprights.