What Brake Pads?

[Guest]

Avons, must be the cheapest trye to fit a 3.2, mine had them on when I bought it. I too waited for them to wear out, too ages and ages, in the end I ditched them still with decent tread on them. They were rubbish, must have been a hard compound, not that great in the wet and not that great in the dry.

 

[Robbiemeister]

ORIGINAL: ClubSport 911

Furthermore, the easiest way to improve your braking is to ...... wait for it..... reduce the weight of the car.
Steve (R10)

...........or brake less!

 

[Guest]

Furthermore, the easiest way to improve your braking is to ...... wait for it..... reduce the weight of the car.

I completely agree. The lightening program has already been commenced on my car - but this isn' t perhaps practical for most owners. My car lost its rear seats a few weeks ago and will lose the sound pad next - when time allows. I also intend to install race seats and I' m investigating options on that front at the moment. I am estimating about 65kg weight loss. My recent weekend of misfortune has however put a dent in my spending plans.

Jamie,

I think you know this already, but those ZZ1s are supposed to be truly awful. If you haven' t already read the tyre thread on this forum, then there is some good info there that may help you decide. You should be able to get some pretty good covers for around £300. Together with new pads you should get a real improvement - may be one of the more satisfying £400 odd that you ever spend on the car. If you are interested in Mintex you could also try Ninemeister, as yesterday, I discovered they have Mintex 1144 on their website (about £80 for a full set IIRC). If you can tell one end of a spanner from the other, fitting them yourself is a no brainer - it will take you a morning max (happy to give you my mobile in case you get stuck). Go on, use that bank holiday wisely.

ciao,
Richard

 

[Jamie Summers]

Hugh / Richard,
Spot on about the hard compound - I' ve done a good 8k miles and a whole day of do-nuts and power slides on a very abrasive runway on those Avons and they still look like they' re just out of the packet ! The P-zeros and SO2s running were down to the canvas by the end of the day !
It would seem that the only right thing to do is to bin the Avons front and rear despite there still being masses of tread (on the rears at least). Richard, I like the sound (or price !) of those Falkens you' re running. Do they do an N rated tyre ? (I realise it' s not the be all and end all, but worth it if there is one).
Richard, do you reckon that the Falkens plus Mintex will be a suitable set up for largely road use with the occassional trackday (with the understanding that my Porker is my daily hack as well).
Thanks for all your help on this guys, even if you are determined to lighten my wallet yet further []

Jamie

 

[Guest]

Don' t get Richard started on N-rated!

you need to read his previous tyre article, very informative.

Where was the course you did? Who was it run by? Sounds like a performance driving course is that about right? I quite fancy doing something like that

 

[Guest]

Jamie,

I do (so to speak). I used the Falkens for 4 track days plus Nurburgring and all general driving last summer and winter (say 5,000 miles). Fronts have say 60-70% tread (pretty even wear) and rears have 25-40% tread left (more wear in the centres). They are a very good tyre for the price. Have proved to be pretty hard wearing given the way I use them and also fairly comfortable and quiet (not high priorities for me but nice nonetheless). No N-rating.

Cheapest N-rated tyres will be Contisport Is (probably). You may get a set for £400ish. Essentially, if you want N-rated you will pay more - they carry IMHO an inflated premium for little or no benefit. Your choice.

If you can find Toyo T1S at a similar price to Falkens, I think they are a little better (certainly a slightly newer design). Yokohama ES100 are also new to the market and are very well thought of in the US for price performance compromise. I would be happy with any of these 3.

Mintex ought to be good, but you should maybe call Colin at Ninemeister and see what he says. Try Motorsport World for a price on 01357 529291 - Colin may match it.

Richard

 

[Jamie Summers]

Thanks once again guys.

Hugh,
You' re dead right, it was a performance handling day - really well worth it, particularly for muppets like me with next to no track experience ! It was organised by Easytrack who use a company called Drive Action for these kind of days - it' s run by Pat Jackson (the guy you may have seen on Channel 5 last week doing the set up on the GT40 that they were giving away on Dream Machines). I' ve sent Simon Davidson a full report on the day and he might be trying to organise something for the 3.2 register. If you' re interested have a look at my report on the Trackdays thread on 911uk.com. I really enjoyed it and for £150 you can' t go too far wrong !

Jamie

 

[Guest]

Just saw your write up Jamie. Good to hear that you were quicker than a Boxster[]

From Bedford last year, I can confirm that a 3.2 will be near identical to a Boxster S in a straight line. Anyone who doesn' t believe me can work out the power to weight ratios for themselves. Very driver dependent, but I found I could lap faster than the Boxster S as well. The poor fellow nearly spun in front of me trying to keep ahead[]

I have also found that a 3.2 is as quick as a Ferrari 328 in straight line acceleration (Goodwood backstraight) and a 250bhp 944 Turbo (Le Mans).

Richard

 

[Guest]

Jamie,

Sounds like a great day - just read your write up. Sooo many forums!!!

If you are thinking about going on another let me know, would love to come along. Unless Simon sorts one out of course. Would be great to do a 3.2 drivers day there.

 

[Jamie Summers]

Annoyingly I was only able to go head to head against the Boxster and my mate' s Chimaera 450 - from a standing start I was quicker to 40 than him as he was wasting so much time spinning his wheels on take off ! After that the Bhp advantage kicked in and he would go past. I' ll tell you what, that Boxster really wasn' t too far behind me - particularly the one time I selected reverse instead of first on the start line [&:]
(I forget the number of times I' ve done that at traffic lights - very embarassing !)

More impressively, with one of the instructors at the wheel of my 911 he was keeping ahead of the 360 Spyder around the circuit even with my joke brakes !

Jamie

 

[Guest]

Jamie - I am really pleased that I am not the only one has the problem of selecting reverse instead of first, even after the first 3 months of ownership. The look of horror on the driver of the car behind is emblazoned on my memory!!!

Steve
87 3.2. Carrera

 

[Guest]

I too did this early on, as did my wife, however now, I so used to the gearbox, I dont know how I managed it!

Strange isnt it? i guess better that than having it next to 5th!!

 

[Jamie Summers]

Do you think is a strange manifestation of the German ' sense of humour' . I can see it now ......... the designers sitting round the table in Weissach, one says " I know let' s put a really useless spring on the gate between first and reverse and sit and laugh as all of the boy racers reverse into the car behind them at the traffic lights haa aaaahhhhhhahahahhhhhaaaaaaa !"

 

[Guest]

I thought it was just me being a silly girl.......[&:]
At least I know I' m not the only one. The look of horror on this poor guys face when the backend slowly started heading for his brand new beemer, whoops!

 

[944Turbo]

I have also found that a 3.2 is as quick as a Ferrari 328 in straight line acceleration (Goodwood backstraight) and a 250bhp 944 Turbo (Le Mans).

I' ll take the beer and the luggage out next time!

Tony

 

[Jamie Summers]

The tyre thread seems to have vanished, anyone know where it' s gone ?

Anyway, I think I have found the cheapest place on the planet for tyres, please forgive me if I' m slow on the uptake, but have a look at mytyres.co.uk

They would appear to be offering N3 rated SO2s for c.£355 for all four corners inc VAT and delivery - too good to be true ?

The Toyo Proxes T1S mentioned in earlier posts come out at about £280 for all four (I' m trying to confirm whether these are the ' N' rated ones or not - but at that price frankly who cares !)

Jamie

 

[Guest]

Jamie - I was looking for this tyre thread as well, and couldn' t find it either.

I read a post yesterday that mentioned Falkens. Mine had a pair on the front which had done c3K when I bought it, and they look like new still. They seem to perform well, and I have had no problems with them thus far.

Steve
' 87 Carrera Coupe

 

[Guest]

Re Tyre thread

At the first screen in the forum, there is a box that says
" display topics from last" then there is a box. I think it defaults to 30 days, if you change it to 90 days, lo and behold it will appear.

 

[Guest]

I' ll take the beer and the luggage out next time!

Tony

Hi Tony,

I never could quite remember whose 944T that was at Le Mans - but nice to put a name to the car!

I hate to tell you that I had a car full of camping gear and wine also - so similar handicaps. I think I would be forced to concede defeat above 120mph but I would back the 3.2 on the 0-60mph sprint. So fairly even. I clearly remember getting wheelspin on the 1-2 and 2-3 gearchanges and the cop dropping his gun on the Mulsanne as we drove past. Good memories.

Richard

 

[944Turbo]

I hate to tell you that I had a car full of camping gear and wine also - so similar handicaps. I think I would be forced to concede defeat above 120mph but I would back the 3.2 on the 0-60mph sprint.

[][][]

Yes, I remember now you still had the tents on board as well! To be honest the 944T (especially late ones) isn' t brilliant at standing starts unless you abuse the clutch - which I am not prepared to do - (relatively) no go below 3,000 rpm and a long first gear.

Are you back this year?

Tony

P.S. Diver944 (Paul) was in the passenger seat.