And that constitutes everyone.......
From the people who drove at the world finally, nearly, yes.
They improved mine, and a good number of other people I know.
A lot of people among the fastest in the world prefer to drive without. My point still stands that it's not a necessary step to improve your lap times, and anyone could be faster with no brake mods if they actually gave it some time.
The stock mod never made my rig flex, and most mods require no more max pressure/resistance than a load cell does.
You probably have a decent rig then. The regular playseat / raceroom / anything like that will flex though, and not by a small amount. I tried, and one sure thing is you don't want a brake mod if you have a cheap rig (unless you made yourself a solid one of course). Maybe it's just those two which were bad, but they're probably the most sold as well. Then you have people sitting on a couch or a regular chair, and trying to brake just moves the furniture, not the pedal. That's not a pleasant surprise when you have just unpacked your new wheel and you still don't have a proper cockpit.
And yes, load cells will require a harder pedal as well. But at least it's not travel based (some race cars basically have no travel). Thing is when you throw in load cell money into your wheel setup, you generally have to cockpit to mount it on as well.
The T3PA Pro stock mods allow for adjustment between 7kgs and 30kgs, if that makes you rig flex and you seriously need to look at you rig! My BBJ one is rated at around 45kgs and has never caused any flex in my rig at all.
Standard playseats will have a bit of flex even with a stock G27 pedal set. It's bearable, but with a brake mod, you can literally feel the seat tilting from the flex. I thought I was going to break the whole thing.
For reference the Fanatec one runs up to 90kg, so that argument is simply not valid at all.
It's not because someone makes it that it is necessarily good. I mean, people buy Raceland coilovers and slam their cars. They make it because there's demand, because of people misintrepreting random figures they've seen in articles (more on that below). They also offer softer options.
a stock G29 comes no where near close to that (
30kgs in fact).
It's harder than that to reach 100%. A friend has a T3PA Pro with the 30kg mod fitted and the G29 one felt harder to me. The stock G29 brake feels closer to a race clutch.
I disagree, based on experience in both fast road and race spec cars on track.
Brake pedal pressure (to apply threshold) of between 30kgs and 60kgs are common, and F1 cars are well know for requiring in excess of 120kgs to apply full brake pressure.
As I already mentioned, in a real car, you have G forces multiplying your effort, and that's why making the force required on a static rig the same as in a real car is not good. A F1 car already generates more than 1G longitudinal just when you're off the gaz from aero drag (which is basically any car on road tyres applying full brakes). Current F1s generate 5 to 6Gs under full braking. Which means under braking, your effort to maintain that pressure is multiplied. I have no issues braking in track dedicated machines in real life without thinking about it, so seeing a piece of rubber preventing me from reaching 100% with what seems a normal pressure to me is weird.
"Alonso stomps on the pedal harder and generates more pressure on the system, we are talking of a pedal pressure in the 130-140kg range (+/-285-310lbs)."
Source:
http://blog.axisofoversteer.com/2012/10/Brembo-Formula1-brakes.html
This is from 2012, now they have brake by wire on the rear, so definitely less hydraulic pressure. Drivers complained about how the brakes felt, I guess they might have modified the pumps to increase the required effort back after this.
So yeah, I'm keeping my opinion that brake mods are unnecessary to go fast, especially if you're on a budget and don't have a fully fledged cockpit.
