brake balance

[kev4]

hi, i have a skyline r34 vspec 2 the bhp is around the 1000 bhp mark and i just cant seem to find a perfect kind of brake balance so if anybody knows it'd be much appriciated if ya could help

 

[Duke]

There is no perfect brake balance for a 1000hp Skyline. The thing to do is to brake about twice as early as you think. If that's too early, graduallybrake later until the car is comfortable at turn in.

Other than that, the general rule of thumb is to start out even, and see what the car does at turn in. If it understeers, bive it a little rear bias. If it oversteers, give it a little rear bias.

 

[phattboy]

Originally posted by neon_duke
Other than that, the general rule of thumb is to start out even, and see what the car does at turn in. If it understeers, bive it a little rear bias. If it oversteers, give it a little rear bias.

I can't resist... So just so I have this straight...

We should maybe think about adding a little rear bias?

 

[Bollocks#999]

Take about 300 HP off and you will find your braking (and car stability) will improve appreciably
More than likely your lap times will improve also

 

[Duke]

Originally posted by phattboy
I can't resist... So just so I have this straight...

We should maybe think about adding a little rear bias?

D'oh! Acid flashbacks kicking in... Lotsa Nyquil... Boss walking towards my desk... There's gotta be some excuse! Just to set it straight:

To fix entry understeer add rear brake bias.

To fix entry oversteer add front brake bias.

 

[phattboy]

Originally posted by Bollocks#999
Take about 300 HP off and you will find your braking (and car stability) will improve appreciably
More than likely your lap times will improve also

Originally posted by neon_duke
There is no perfect brake balance for a 1000hp Skyline. The thing to do is to brake about twice as early as you think. If that's too early, graduallybrake later until the car is comfortable at turn in.

I concur with both of these statements... at least for me. Seems that while the (non-race) car with the big HP may do well to curb the boredom at the Torture Course, I can never seem to find a good compromise on actual road courses for the big HP/setup etc. (Although it's fun to blast them down the straights).

Braking is about 50/50 setup/driver.

The info given above by neon_duke on setting up brake bias takes care of the setup part.

The best practice for the driver part of that equation I have found is to load up a Zonda C12s, add some superslicks, pick your favorite course and go practice early braking and turn in points. If you can manage to control your braking on that unit, I guarantee expert braking techniques the very next time you jump in anything else.

I have also found that switching to manual transmission and using the gears to simulate compression braking is helpful for these situations as well. This however requires an entirely different strategy of accel/decel/tranny setup/overall driving technique to get around the various tracks.