How do i make my brake disc glow
- Thread starter farrelps
- 4 comments
- 6,903 views
- 1,545
- Singapore
- XSquareStickIt
From my personal experience, it's a little difficult to get underpowered street cars to produce brake glow. There are some powerful cars I can't seem to get the brakes to glow much, either, like the F1. For these cars, you can choose to bump the power up and equip racing soft tyres to really make the brake discs glow; that's what I had to do to make my FD RX-7's discs glow.
To get the rear discs to glow, you might also need to adjust the brake bias all the way to +5, though most cars' rear brakes don't glow from what I can tell. You might also want to try fully depressing both the brake and accelerator pedals.
I think a safe bet is any road car over 1,500kg with over 500HP. In things like the R35 GT-R for example, you couldn't avoid brake glow even if you wanted to. Most racing cars, from Gr. 3 and up should be safe bets as well.
Brake glow might be a little lost in strong sunlight. They're more obvious in darker areas like shadows, and walking right up to them can adjust the lighting a bit more to show you if there is glow or not before you shoot. I like driving at Tokyo in the night because they're bright enough for photo shoots, but dark enough to really make the brake discs pop when they glow.
Lastly, advancing the replay one frame at a time seems to cause a lot of details to be lost, like tyre smoke, kicking up water, gauges and wipers not acting correctly, etc.. I'm not sure if using frame by frame also costs brake glow as well; I haven't trusted it since launch and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't cause the brakes to glow when they should, as well.
Hope this helps.
To get the rear discs to glow, you might also need to adjust the brake bias all the way to +5, though most cars' rear brakes don't glow from what I can tell. You might also want to try fully depressing both the brake and accelerator pedals.
Brake glow might be a little lost in strong sunlight. They're more obvious in darker areas like shadows, and walking right up to them can adjust the lighting a bit more to show you if there is glow or not before you shoot. I like driving at Tokyo in the night because they're bright enough for photo shoots, but dark enough to really make the brake discs pop when they glow.
Lastly, advancing the replay one frame at a time seems to cause a lot of details to be lost, like tyre smoke, kicking up water, gauges and wipers not acting correctly, etc.. I'm not sure if using frame by frame also costs brake glow as well; I haven't trusted it since launch and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't cause the brakes to glow when they should, as well.
Hope this helps.
- 2,425
- South Auckland, New Zealand
- Nismonath5
Short answer: Just race hard.
Long answer: The brakes glow cos they're working their arses off to bring the car to a halt and getting unbelievably hot, so it's as simple as getting up to speed in whatever car you wish, then sticking it on its nose as hard as you can. But rather than do it once, try it a few times. Don't give the brakes a chance to cool down and it should be easy.
Most FIA races are a good place to look for glowing brakes, as they'll glow pretty easy in most heavy braking zones. It's a cool phenomenon, but it's not actually as uncommon as people think. Check out this week's Bathurst race which is at night. I can guarantee you you'll get glowing brakes braking down The Chase, the end of Mountain Straight, and possibly even the run down the mountain depending on how you do.
@XSquareStickIt is right about daylight possibly dulling the effect slightly, but if you're good with the effects and camera setup nine times out of ten it shouldn't be too hard.
Other things to consider:
-ABS. You won't get glowing brakes if the brakes are locked, so maybe use ABS if you aren't already.
-Tyres don't make a difference, but brake balance does if all you're after is a glowing brake shot. stick it to the front!
-Brakes typically cool down and lose their glow very quickly, so it's a good idea to get the shot while the car's still in motion. If you're after a static shot, you might still have some residual glow, but it'll be far more pronounced if the car's still in the process of stopping rather than stopped completely (Say, 50kmh or thereabouts).
Note: These pics were taken during real races, so most of the time my brake balance was 0 or even 2 to the rear. Sport tyres for the Pagani and Raptor, Racing Hards for the Nissan and Renault.
Hope this helps!
Long answer: The brakes glow cos they're working their arses off to bring the car to a halt and getting unbelievably hot, so it's as simple as getting up to speed in whatever car you wish, then sticking it on its nose as hard as you can. But rather than do it once, try it a few times. Don't give the brakes a chance to cool down and it should be easy.
Most FIA races are a good place to look for glowing brakes, as they'll glow pretty easy in most heavy braking zones. It's a cool phenomenon, but it's not actually as uncommon as people think. Check out this week's Bathurst race which is at night. I can guarantee you you'll get glowing brakes braking down The Chase, the end of Mountain Straight, and possibly even the run down the mountain depending on how you do.
@XSquareStickIt is right about daylight possibly dulling the effect slightly, but if you're good with the effects and camera setup nine times out of ten it shouldn't be too hard.
Other things to consider:
-ABS. You won't get glowing brakes if the brakes are locked, so maybe use ABS if you aren't already.
-Tyres don't make a difference, but brake balance does if all you're after is a glowing brake shot. stick it to the front!
-Brakes typically cool down and lose their glow very quickly, so it's a good idea to get the shot while the car's still in motion. If you're after a static shot, you might still have some residual glow, but it'll be far more pronounced if the car's still in the process of stopping rather than stopped completely (Say, 50kmh or thereabouts).
Note: These pics were taken during real races, so most of the time my brake balance was 0 or even 2 to the rear. Sport tyres for the Pagani and Raptor, Racing Hards for the Nissan and Renault.
Hope this helps!
