well the tinkerman is alive and well in me today. In getting my car ready for the next track event(3 days this time!!) I was looking at the front suspension (those are some trick suspension arms we have)- i removed the rear part of the front wheel plastic and saw that the front side vent is RIGHT there. It would be real easy to vent the front wheel well to it for track purposes and then have it closed for the street life. Should/could help cool the front brakes.
Thoughts on this idea?
Olddragger

 

Consider you could easily pick up debris laying on the track and shoot them into your side vent grill and maybe through it onto your doors' paint. Not to mention any people / cars near you at the time.

Better to do the front break vent DIY. Seems more effective and safer.

 

Yes, it is very eay from what I see we can do to add more air to the front brakes.

I say do it and post some pictures.

 

Are you sure that's the case?

 

The fact is, unless you are ducting air directly to the center of the rotor, allowing it to flow out through the vanes, your cooling effect and performance enhancement is somewhere between diddly and squat.

 

Nope, but I do know that top gear reviewed the TVR Sagaris and that originally those slots on the hood where opened to vent the wheels. But it kept picking up debris and shooting it at the windshield so they where filled in.

Top Gear Vid. The comment is at 3:00 min into the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Md486YysI

There is a DIY in the DIY forum for adding a vent from the front bumper to blow are onto the heat shield. That does seem to work. But like the DIY says, to close it for normal driving / bad weather.

 

my comment was intended for OD and his proposed mod

 

I'm not sure that opening the vent will help cool the brakes. It may help reduce drag on high speed tracks. The wheel wells trap air and create a high pressure area. That is why racecars have ducts on the top to let the air out and create downforce.

 

alnielsen---in promoting the airflow out of the wheelwell it would seem lodgical (to those of us that do not have direct to the disc brake ducting) to help some with cooling the front disc's. Not as much as with true brake ducts but hey every little bit helps? No doubt that promoting airflow helps with any type of cooling. To what degree---well thats another question. But since this is such an easy and inexpensive thing to do--thought it may be worth considering. I may try this next time I am at Road Atlanta. Going to Roebling this time and it is not nearly as hard on the brakes.
Those with brake ducting --are yall cleaning the inside of your brake rotors? Getting the rust out?
olddragger

 

Oops Team I see now. Yet another one of my (many) mistakes.

Olddragger, I looked over the DIY and there is a piece of metal on the inner side of the brake rotor called the heat shield. The ducts blow on this heat shield and not directly on the brake rotors.

Here are the 2 DIYs:

DIY- Brake Cooling Ducts
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=96296.html


DIY: Brake Cooling Ducts for Track Use
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=83801.html

 

Not worth the effort, or trashing oem parts, in my opinion. If you can't direct flow to the center of the rotor, there's really not measureable cooling of the rotor. Better to just get the right heat range pads and some good brake fluid...

 

Here I was thinking this thread was about how to reduce the wheel well pressure...I even went as far as to remember that I saw some aftermarket fenders with vents right over the top of the wheel similar to those snazzy race cars you see on that thingamabob...the TV...

 

The title DOES say "wheel well pressure", but it seemed like everyone took it in the brake cooling direction...

 

sorry for the mislead---i was relating the wheelwell high pressure meaning lower flow through it. the aerodynamic benefit of this is another story.
Too get real cooling from a vent to the brakes---yes you need to go directly to the rotor with your duct. This was just something I thought that may be interesting.
olddragger

 

od - but those fenders above, yes yes

 

Hate to quote myself but:

Definitely seems a bad idea to have top vents for street use.