So I been doing suspension and stopping mods over this winter and I'm on the wire about brake ducts..
does anyone have any hard numbers. Like , actually took rotor n caliper Temps befor and after installation ?
reason I don't just DO IT is because I have fog lights with a hella bright yellow leds and I do use them when ever I drive and its dark enough . but if the brake ducting provides enough of a benefit I will do it and remove my fog lights.
I don'tI want to yet do a caliper upgrade becuase of my rim and tire combo I'm currently running but that an option for when I need new tires as I will then look into larger rims for more room. But on the stockers I have done carbonfiber/ceramic pads , coated drilled n slotted rotors , ss brake lines and performance brake fluid...
please feel free to post pics of your setup as I'd like ideas of routing ect, though I probably am just gonna make everything my self..

 

In my opinion, you won't need brake ducts on the street, won't need them for autocross, most likely wouldn't need them for a track day event with short lapping sessions. You may need them if you're lapping a track for hours continuously. On a track, what brake pads you have and your driving style will determine whether or not you overheat the brakes and need ducts.

I've never driven a Mini on track but I've done several 24 Hours of Lemons races (hours long continuous lapping). Our heavy, high top speed car needed high-end racing pads and cooling ducts or the brakes would fail. Our lighter, less powerful car used mid grade racing pads on the front, street pads on the rear, no cooling ducts, and it has brakes for days (multiple races without replacing pads).

The Mini is light-ish and handles well, you should be able to carry plenty of speed through corners and not overwork the brakes. But I know your car makes more power than stock so you would be able to get up to high speeds also. Really just depends on how you drive it.

(Also once we had some debris enter the brake duct and get stuck on the rotor, which created a hot spot and cracked it. So now we run screens over the ducts. Something else to consider on a mainly street driven car, there's a lot more debris on the street)

 

oh my god, please do some custom brake ducts -- it's going to be entertaining, if your past posts are any indication.

 

I have brake ducts for track use. I used backing plates from advanced auto fabrication, scoops from MINI mania that mount under the lower control arms, and then some ducting to connect the two. I wouldn't run them on the street because you don't need them, and they reduce the amount of steering lock you can use because they'll rub if you turn the wheel too far either direction. I ran them on one track day with R53 calipers, EBC yellow pads, and Motul 600 brake fluid. I definitely had a soft spongy brake pedal by the end of the day. I recently upgraded to R56 calipers and hawk DTC-60 pads for my next track day. I'll probably still run the brake ducts unless I have trouble getting enough heat into the brakes.

 

See my thread here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...cw-thread.html
I did ducts through the fog lights. Only have one track weekend last summer but have another one this coming weekend. I measured my rotor temps a couple times and they were about 490 deg F, which is strangely close to my Cayman GT4 rotor temps following a session on the same VIR track.
If you are only doing street driving, no need for ducts.

 

Would be interesting to see the temp data of your ducts with one foglamp hole taped up for a session. That would tell you how well those ducts are working.

I couldn't tell in your photos, but are the ducts pointed at the surface of the rotor or the center of the rotor (to pull the air thru the rotor vanes).
If pointed at the rotor surface, I don't imagine a huge variance in temps.
If pointed at the hub and the air is drawn thru the center and out the vanes, that should be a large temp variance.

 

The ducts are over both the center area and the rotor itself. I looked at a ton of brake ducts before I did mine, and quite a few have the duct directed straight at the rotor. But, intuition says in the middle and flowing through the vanes would be better, and I believe I've seen race teams with ducts configured to blow through the center

What a great idea to block off one of the ducts. I will do that and report back!

 

I get the paint on my backing plates to light on fire on the street lol I do have big ducts on my mini's now as they are primarily used for HPDE & TT, I use them to control pad/rotor wear, it's extended the pad life by nearly 25 %. I only know this because I had one side cut and there was significantly more wear.

Never had brake fade before or after the ducts, but pad / rotor life sure is better

 

It's easier to add duct to the rotor surface, because of the axle being in the way. A duct to the surface of the rotor can cause cold spots, although it's marginal. People see that happening with rear brakes, since a lot of vehicles don't have vented rears.

As MrBlah mentioned, as additional benefits of brake cooling is you'll extend brake pad life -- and wheel bearing life (often over-looked).

 

lol...yaaaa? Well ducts can't be installed backwards sooooo it may not be toooooo entertaining...lol

 

I had ducts on my old brake setup (oem size with Hawk HP+ pads) before moving to the Poor Man's JCW conversion. But my car never had fog lights, so it wasn't a problem and I ran the hoses directly from there. Had Sneed Speed brackets at the calipers and some random ebay brackets for the bumper.




Driver side is easy as there's room for the hose, but it's tight on the passenger side. I might investigate a way to make something similar to Lexus where there's a duct simply pushing air at that general area, cooling the brakes when the wheels are turned, which is usually when brakes are the most abused. I don't want to run hoses again and I'd like to have full fender well as I cut a section of it to prevent the hose from touching the crank pulley.

 

Didn’t you source and assemble that set up that you use? I’m really interested in seeing how you made and installed it. Did you have a DIY thread on it somewhere?

Thanks.

 

Well I went to CMP, but only got in one day due to a front, left tire failure and did not get a chance to do the test with one duct blocked. I did measure the rotor temps and they were hovering around 550 deg F after a half a cool down lap and measuring in the paddock.


I don't have camber plates, but need them!

Also, my ABS got flaky and was on and off. I locked up this front left wheel a few times on turn 14 (last turn, right-hander).

I am still not happy at all with the excessive brake pedal travel. I am going to have to redouble efforts to fix that.

 

I really love cmp, and the new pavement makes it even better, my 135i does not like some of the left hand turns, oil pressure drops, hopefully I can get the mini back down there soon this vid was from the mustang event last fall my student had a GT500, lots of power but did not turn that great


here's how I do my ducts, quantity of air is better than quality, I threw my fancy backing plates in the trash. I cut the fog light area enough to run the duct, just have to make sure it does not hit the crank damper and it points at where the hub will be when the car is on the ground. I tried a few variations including backing plates that forced the air into the center of the rotor. This one tested the best my rotor/pad wear is much better now. Helps on the street too if I run ebc reds they do not start on fire or fade but work from cold too. On track I run ST43, 45 or 47 depending on what I can get cheap