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As more and more MINI owners are taking their cars to the track they're finding that there are a couple weak points of the MINI (and any street car for that matter) when it comes to track use. And the one that seems to pop-up more and more is brake fade. Well Promini has a great explanation of what causes brake fade on the track and how you can go about reducing it. Here's an excerpt:
Once you understand the cause of a fading brake pedal you will see how easy it is to avoid it in the future. Brake pedal fade can occur for two primary reasons. The most common is the over heating of the brake fluid to a point where the fluid actually boils and turns to gas. The other common scenario is the over heating of the brake pad friction material to a point where it simply disintegrate from the pad backing plate.
You can read the entire article here.
<p>Nothing in there about steel brake pipes, which I had been told were a benefit …</p>
<p>Ian – a well respected tech in the Chicago area say the same things when it comes to brake fade.</p>
<p>I have not yet taken ownership of my mini, so my comments come from experience with other cars. </p>
<p>Slotted rotors are more durable than cross-drilled rotors – I feel they work better too; drilling removes too much material from the rotor making these rotors run a bit hotter than slotted rotors. I personally would never use Cross-drilled rotors on the track and I learned this the hard way. Cross-drilled rotors can develope spider cracks which migrate from the holes further weakening the rotor. </p>
<p>Performance street pads work very well in the Northeastern United States all year long so long as you remember to keep a bit more distance between your car and the one in front of you when temps are say, below zero; they'll need to warm up for a second or two and then they'll grab very nicely. These also double for light track use.</p>
<p>I personally use a DOT 3 fluid and have it flushed twice a year – when I have my alignments done.</p>
<p>Steel braided brake lines can also make a huge difference in pedal feel.</p>
<p>Steel brake lines can make a nice difference on the track…what happens with the stock rubber lines is that as the brake fluid heats up, the rubber lines can expand slightly…thus it takes a bit more pedal to slow the car down, typically this doesn't result in extreme brake fade though as poor pads or underrated fluid can. What can happen though is that as you are required to use more pedal, it can cause a poor brake fluid to generate more heat, and boil sooner then it would be expected, leading typically to front brake loss….I had first hand experience of the OE brake fluid boiling on me at Texas World Speedway a few weeks back, 95mph straight through a corner got me first hand experience at mowing the grass there. Ran out of time before the track day to flush the system and was hoping the OE fluid would be good enough – bad mistake, it is not good enough if you push it very hard on the track. Especially a track day where you have many sessions on the track…it heat cycles way to many times and breaks down very quickly.</p>