rider

I never heard if the you do need or you don't need backpressure to improve bhp discussion ever reached a conclusion. People still argue over that on various forums. Probably needs someone to go dig out data but people sometimes don't like data and just go with what looks best so the 4 inch will win every time.

I thought it was a few bags short of the SP complete bush kit that also includes the diff bushes. It was the full kit bit that confused me. Its the diff bushes I'd be most interested in so sorry, not for me. http://www.mvpmotorsports.com/superpro-suspension-parts/superpro-complete-bushing-kits/jza80comp/i-2275575.aspx

Its still a current product. http://www.meganracing.com/products/product_detail.asp?prodid=308 Not suited to jspecs

Would it be possible for you to list the bush SPF part numbers as they cannot be read from the bags.

As a side note on carpets I was looking at a car that has had a colour change (dyed) and looking at carpet options to revert back to the original colour. The OE carpets have been discontinued and the only residual stock I tracked down for new was black and in the USA for $1.2k which did not include the boot and has the foot mat on the other side. There is a site that I found can do carpets in just about any colour you could ever want for $300. For anyone looking to bespoke their interior it could be a solution and you never know they may be open to switching the foot mat to the other side. http://www.andysautosport.com/carpet_kits/toyota_supra.html

There are one or two of us here with vintage Mustangs, have a 65 fastback myself. Dropping in the 2jz means you probably have the most economical vintage Mustang in the World. Be interesting to hear what running gear you put in line with it.

I have to move my chargers around a lot at this time of year so am wondering if I buy a dozen smart chargers it'd take the rotation out of things. There is a thread from 2011 saying how good they are. The CTEK ones for around £60 (they were £45 in 2011) look to be a good choice but look to come on a Euro plug. Anyone have any good experience and recommendations?

You might find this useful reading http://www.verderflex.com/fileadmin/files/verderflex/documents/Verderflex_Chemical_Compatibility_Guide/Verderflex_Chemical_Compatibility_Guide.pdf

I have a jspec with an illuminated rocker on the panel by the right knee. I would not want that ugly switch on the dash but its handy and effectively invisible (except when on and glowing) where it is. It probably comes down to how aesthetic your switch is, to blend in with the dash, and whether you would prefer to cut into the dash panels or the out of sight kick panels.

Try one of the breakers. Keron is a usual place to start. I have someone checking out their OE condenser against a technical drawing for a condenser manufacturers part and if that comes in as a match (it is supposed to be the actual OE part - just direct from the manufacturer rather than via Toyota). I'll post a thread with the part number if he comes back and confirms the diagram dimensions and mount positions match his condenser. In the meantime, start off with contacting Keron who is one of the traders on here.

My head is a little sore this morning so my patience is not at its best. You have stomped all over this thread like a toddler in full on tantrum mode. Its a technical post, with technical information and even some data thrown in too. Your input across a good number of post has absolutely no technical merit, none. If you have chosen to ignore the facts or cannot comprehend them that is no justification to be both rude and very immature. There will for certain be owners running on Toyota brakes who will find the technical aspects covered within this thread very informative. There will likely be for owners running Toyota brakes an element of reassurance. There is even some useful information and caveats for those undertaking a larger (better) brake upgrade. What's not to like? You really need to look to and calmly reassess your own involvement in this thread, none of the technical input has been provided or enhanced upon by you in any way. If any moderators happen by on this exciting first day of the New Year I think we can conclude this thread has all the technical content it needs and is likely to receive so it could well be time to close it down. The only braking going on appears to be a members apparent impending breakdown.

Its clear you knew precious little about better brakes before this thread but your arrogance is such you still cannot accept you probably now know a little bit more. Pleased to be of service. Happy New Year.

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I think CW has poured some water on the subject as I doubt any of those unable to accept the word of journal and magazine experts and data from testers over their own multi-car experience will be able to bring themselves to call Chris a c*** or suggest he may well have just arrived today from planet Zorg. The inability of some to receive information and knowledge is worrying when they are handling powerful bits of kit on the road. Thank god most employ the services and advice of specialist tuners who take the guesswork out. This thread was never for those who know what they were doing wrt brakes. It was for people like me who know nothing maybe finding out somethings they didn't know. If that saves people money, stops them making bad front only choices its been worthwhile. I'll do a wheel and tyre size choice thread if I can get my head around all the variables there as it appears to be a much more complex area. That aspect is like a chain reaction of change this and that changes a whole shit load of other things. I'm sure there will be some that rather just not know.

I think its called Planet baffled. Baffled that you appear unable to either accept or counter actual data with any words of wisdom beyond better. I guess that's why many people writing about brakes mention the words myth and myths often. The data available in this thread shows, as a snapshot admittedly, that off the shelf solutions in alternative brakes can and under comparative testing actually do have very marginal impact on stopping distance. That's an undeniable fact, the data is there in printed text so for normal road use you would have to assume Toyota have the braking bases covered. If you have any other data fantastic, the more the better but please drop simply applying the word better. The real data which hasn't been easy to track down allows people to make their own assessment if with a brake upgrade the cost to benefit is a worthwhile investment for their individual style of driving as not everyone is going to take their car to the limit. That's an entirely good thing. You often see across all marques of car ownership people apply new brakes to their car and their main concern is will my existing wheels fit these big callipers. When, they should have quite a few other questions at the front of their mind when changing their braking setup. Its a complex area but wait till you look into wheel size and tyre width and offset impact on forces, scrub radius and suspension geometry. That is looking complex compared to brake choice. It all points to ordinary people doing things at a DIY level need to know what their expectations are and have realistic expectations around what specific changes will achieve. Background reading never hurt anyone as a means to reduce the opportunity to make poor choices, though unless you can understand the physics you may never become an expert. A little bit of knowledge is good and that undoubtedly does include practical experience, but data is far better as that categorically proves or disproves the theories.

This is a revolving door, my turn. The preconceptions were, rather, observations from doing a bit of research. I found them to be something that challenged my generalised preconceptions rather than reinforced them. I struggled to believe them fully, even though they were consistent comments amongst many commentators who read like they actually knew what they were writing about. I couldn't be a convert until I had some raw data to back them up, that's the science background in me still finding a way to show itself. That was a hard find, lots of hearsay where everyone has an opinion but raw data - not at all easy to track down. But when you have all the published 'experts' saying one thing and then some real and raw data comes to light (I'm going to claim a gold star for tracking that down) backing up what they are saying I'm probably going to believe it. I'm a convert, I've been educated.

LOL - I've got granddad on board stickers and glow in the dark paint, that'd help me find the car at night.

Someone PMd me earlier to say their UK brake setup is really good but also mentioned a spongy feel. I'll buy a OE UK setup ready to fit when my current brakes are no longer suited to my spirited driving or wear out. The car doesn't travel far these days so it could be a while.

I can see you haven't learned anything. As I said yesterday, its always good to have one resident expert. Hopefully you can spare some time to do a comprehensive brake write up as I suggested yesterday that I can send to the journal and article authors and maybe we can get you some feedback for you and us all because I'm not convinced, having read what I've read, that you really do know as much about the subject area as you appear to think you do.

I think its been useful, for me anyway to find out more about brakes and if anyone learns something, like me, that they didn't know or appreciate before - that's fantastic. Things I feel I've learnt or had confirmed from the viewpoint of strictly a on the Queens highway road user. 1. Bigger brakes, all things being equal, aren't going to pull you up any noticeable distance shorter than j stock brakes. 2. Bigger, wider tyres are the best way to maximise grip and through that, shorter stop distances. 3. Bigger brakes do dissipate heat much faster but that's not going to be an issue in every day road use. 4. You shouldn't just change the fronts setup without also doing corresponding changes to the rear brakes otherwise you unbalance system pressures and you deviate from the factory front to rear bias. My conclusion from having done a good amount of reading around the subject in the last 24 hours is pad choice and tyre choice are way more important that rotor size and numbers of pots in determining the braking performance of a Toyota Supra from any speed in normal road use. The report I reference mentioned after going on to do a car specific setup through trial and error they could reduce the braking distance by almost 20% but the off the shelf options only delivered a 1% to 2% improvement in stopping distance. So a bespoke system is much better than a generic system which is probably why OE bespoke systems tend to work well in the first place. Bigger brakes, especially moving to another OE setup such as the UK standard, are going to provide better endurance braking for those doing spirited road driving on winding roads. But possibly nothing that fresh brake fluid and racing pads couldn't match on the smaller j brakes. So UK brake upgrades for those still on smaller j brakes are a good way to go but probably, for me anyway, only worthwhile when the current brakes are worn out and in need of replacement and I also fancy gaining a new set of road wheels to.

Nic, you know your parts really well. Do you know what is required to perform a complete jspec brake to uk spec brake upgrade? I now know you wouldn't want to change the fronts and forget the rears as that would alter the braking bias front to back so the shopping list would start off with: 4 rotors 8 pads 4 callipers 4 dust shields potentially 4 new road wheels On other parts Are the ABS sensors the same? Is the master cylinder the same? Is the ABS ECU the same? Are the hubs the same? Are the flexible hose couplings the same? Do you have an idea roughly how much would it cost with new parts using OE pads to do the complete j to uk brake upgrade?

I think its a case of Toyota engineers probably knew something about what they were doing. The data clears up whether big brake mods have any impact in a road car which is one question I was asking myself. Seems the journal and mag threads on big brakes I have been reading are born out in reality testing. I'm sure the data will be a revelation to many, probably not you though. You will definitely see the benefit of brake mods when you take your car onto the track. Any dates planned?

Finally located real test data on a Nissan 350z using different brake and tyre combinations. Pretty much clears things up wrt actual stopping performance relative to brake setup. https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=6446_6565

I have cars with all sorts of brakes, mostly non assisted and lots of drums including an all drum Land Rover. So I find the Supra standard brakes pretty good by comparison. I did find one piece of science to support larger rotors and thats Force = Work X Distance. So larger rotors for the same size wheel (including tyres) will require less hydraulic pressure to achieve the same slowing force translated into friction and heat. This is presumably why people say bigger brakes have a better fell, because they require less effort to achieve the same braking performance. But, less effort doesn't invariably mean you stop or slow any quicker because even on tiny brakes you can lock the wheels with the ABS disconnected. See what little gems you find when you read into a subject. Still the biggest upside everyone zones in on is heat dissipation to reduce the potential for fluid boiling and vapour locks. Still no data though. I just cannot find any supporting data. It'd be good to see the actual figures in distance and g force deceleration for an OE jspec setup compared to UK spec compared to 6 potters on larger still rotors using the same wheel size and if possible pad materials. If I spent £1k+ on brake mods I'd want to go demonstrate it'd been money well spent so surely someone has to have the data. Then it'd be obvious what advantages there are or indeed aren't in everyday open road use, forget track that's a given.

How did you deduce a pretence? Are you our very own Mystic Meg? I actually figured its a really interesting engineering balance with potential side effects, not all good, that I for one never considered. Call me dumb if you like because maybe as a Supra owner I should know things like brakes in detail but I learned some interesting things about brakes that I never would have thought of before doing a bit of reading, so maybe now I am better educated. Or just more confused? Interesting to note though was that slightly fatter tyres could be an effective and straightforward solution for people in their road cars looking to reduce their stopping distance. Brake upgrades can be assumed as unnecessary on road cars as Supras don't have a reputation for poor brakes. The question is only are they a useful upgrade and could they impact negatively on Toyota electronic braking aids unless those are reprogrammed or isolated? I don't know the answer to that but I'm sure there must be many who do amongst those who have done brake system upgrades over the decades and know what works and what doesn't. People like me who might normally just go down Halfords and pick a cheap Chinese kit off the shelf need to be aware and if that means reading up a bit to make sure all bases are covered to end up with a system configuration operating to the max capability, that can only be a good thing. Maybe we can have someone share some actual before and afterward data. Someone must have that to hand somewhere, I couldn't track down any real life comparative data online. On a track car you would definitely want big brakes, no ABS and no traction control. Just big balls. Now that's more like it.