Miata Mailing List: November 1993, Message #34
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   From: buck@petra.ma30.bull.com (Kenneth J. Buck)
Subject: mx5 brakes and more power
   Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1993 07:08:36 -0500

> From: Jeff Maurer 
> Subject: mx5 brakes and more power
> 
> In recent discussions of increasing the horsepower on the Miata, several
> people have suggested that turbocharging or supercharging would require
> mods to the brakes as well.  While I wouldn't argue that better brakes
> and tires are "good things", do people really think that the stock brakes
> are insufficent to handle 40-50 more horsepower?

i think the key to this is the difference between
"initially designing the car" vs. "modifying it afterwards."

if Mazda (or whoever) is designing a car from scratch,
they'll want to account for the power it'll have and make
the brakes sufficient for the way they expect it'll be driven.
presumably they'll make them somewhat better than necessary
to allow for a certain factor of safety.  so if the crew in
the design room decides to bump engine output by another
50-100 bhp, they'll almost certainly want to consider
improving the brakes as well to accomodate this.

on the other hand, if you are modifying your own personal
car for your own purposes, you'll have a much better idea
of how the car will be driven and whether the changes you
make will significantly affect the way it will be driven.
that leaves some leeway for deciding if changes to the brakes
are necessary in your case or not.
i'd argue that in most cases, the answer would be "not."

exceptions would include if you plan to race and make full
use of the extra power, or if you plan to drive consistently
more agressively and at considerably higher speeds than
previously (probably not much of an issue in the US, anyway).


--                                             
Ken Buck                                          /|
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