Track car: Remove parking brake system?

[jlevie]

There is one other case for retaining the parking brake on a track car besides being handy in the paddock or on a trailer. If you have the parking brake and it is properly adjusted, it comes in real handy if you loose brakes on track. In my opinion that alone is sufficient reason to retain the parking brake. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out why I have that opinion.

[whowhatwhere]

There is one other case for retaining the parking brake on a track car besides being handy in the paddock or on a trailer. If you have the parking brake and it is properly adjusted, it comes in real handy if you loose brakes on track. In my opinion that alone is sufficient reason to retain the parking brake. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out why I have that opinion.

You can stop just as fast if you just downshift, the parking brake will overheat if you try to stop from racing speeds. I have mine removed in my streetcar, but thats only due to the porsche brakes.

[jlevie]

If you have unlimited room to stop, then yes down shifting will work. The more common case is finding that you have no brakes 100' from a corner while going triple digits. It matters not then if you overheat the parking brakes (they won't really). What is more important is keeping the car off the wall. For that the parking brake works really well.

[whowhatwhere]

If you have unlimited room to stop, then yes down shifting will work. The more common case is finding that you have no brakes 100' from a corner while going triple digits. It matters not then if you overheat the parking brakes (they won't really). What is more important is keeping the car off the wall. For that the parking brake works really well.

....and downshifting works just as well. Have you ever stuck it in the wrong gear and had the rear end start sliding? Im just saying there is two ways to do it.

[Mike The Bavarian]

....and downshifting works just as well. Have you ever stuck it in the wrong gear and had the rear end start sliding? Im just saying there is two ways to do it.

That's known as shift locking. It's a drift technique and is uber hard on diffs. and there's the possibity of an over rev if you're rmps are high.
I guess I'd rather do that than hit a wall, though.

[Dominic49]

leave it for track. lets you leave the car running with you out of it after a hard session when you get pulled in with out being able to do a full cooldown lap. keeps you and your car from heatsoaking and breaking shit...

[SA E30]

Wheel chocks will acomplish the same thing.

Ditch the hand break it's unneeded weight!

[JGood]

....and downshifting works just as well. Have you ever stuck it in the wrong gear and had the rear end start sliding? Im just saying there is two ways to do it.

The amount of deceleration done by downshifting isn't nearly what you'll see with a properly adjusted e-brake with good pads. Unless you are talking about just slamming into 2nd gear while doing 90mph or something. But properly downshifting so that you aren't over revving and destroying the engine will not slow you down as fast as an e-brake.

[kishg]

rebuilt it and left it in on the race car. comes in handy in paddock and trailer. agree with jim about the on-track use as well although i hope to never have to use it for that :) yeah i don't see the downshifting braking the car down fast enough.

[makard]

rebuilt it and left it in on the race car. comes in handy in paddock and trailer. agree with jim about the on-track use as well although i hope to never have to use it for that :) yeah i don't see the downshifting braking the car down fast enough.

Plus, a really light flywheel will permit the engine to rev very quickly in cases where down shifting is performed in the attempt to slow a car that is experiencing brake failure.... Much better to install those awesome BBKs from Massive Brakes! Lee can help prevent the failure so worrying about e-brake and/or downshifting is a moot point on-track.

Mine gas been removed. It would be nice to have one on the trailer since driveline wear occurs from leaving it in gear while towing and I personally like to have something acting as a safety in my enclosed trailer since u can't see if/when a strap (or straps) come loose.

When faced with complete brake loss at entry to turn one at VIR a few tears ago (pre Massive Brakes), there was only one option to help slow the car.... An intentional spinout. Risks flipping the car, but the speed that I was able to scrub off before I left the pavement heading to certain impact with the retaining wall was enough to prevent serious damage vs what was immenent heading straight for it with zero brakes and a 5.5" racing clutch/very light flywheel. Fortunately, it worked out really well for me. No flipping, and when I hit the tire wall I was likely going about 25% as fast as I would have been without scrubbing off speed with the intentional spinout. Cracked some composite panels, but following the intensive application of properly pigmented 200mph (duct) tape, we were back in business for the rest of the weekend (and from more than 20feet away the car appeared normal).

Having bought a few valves from over rev, I wouldn't recommend attempting to slow the car significantly via downshifting. Can get quite expensive in short order.

Call Lee!