1976 Chevrolet Camaro - Project g-28 Braking News

Project g/28, our Second-Generation '76 Camaro, takes yet another big bite out of our performance goals this month--this time in the area of stopping power. For part three of our series, we drove out to Baer Racing in Phoenix, Arizona, to get an upgraded front disc brake system and a rear-disc conversion. But before we get into the details, first some background.

Our goals for this project are to build a practical and affordable g-Machine that can knock down 0.90g on the 200ft skidpad, run the 420ft slalom cones better than 46 mph, stop from 60 mph in 120 feet or less and run the quarter mile in the high 12s. Those are pretty lofty goals, but the toughest goal is the budget: do all this--price of the car included--for under $20,000.

So far, we've spent $6,189. That bought us our project car for $2,300, our PST suspension, Global West upper control arms, Weld wheels and Falken FK-451 tires. So far, we've improved our skidpad road holding from 0.70g to 0.79g, our slalom speed from 40.3 mph to 46.2 mph and our 60-0 mph braking distance from 216.9 feet to 134.1 feet. We haven't touched anything in the engine compartment or driveline yet, so our quarter-mile performance remains at a snail-like 17.63 seconds at 78.6 mph. (Check out the sidebar "Charting The Changes." If you missed parts 1 and 2, you can also check out the parts list sidebar to see an itemized list of the hardware.) Our Baer brakes cost a total of $2,275; that breaks down into the GT front disc system for $1,345, the rear Sport system for $875 and an adjustable proportioning valve for $55. We also want to point out that the total outlay for the complete brake package on project g/28 is significantly less than equivalent performing kits from other sources. We can now use the money we saved in some other area down the line, because there's always an unexpected expense somewhere.

Braking is often overlooked in the hot rodding world, often being forsaken for more glamorous hardware in the powertrain. But the need for better brakes is even more acute when the power goes up because the car is capable of even greater speed. Baer also knows that brake hardware is an afterthought for many people, so they build the bulk of their kits with off-the-shelf hardware from OEM manufacturer PBR. This brings the cost down significantly because the OEMs have already paid for the R&D and volume manufacturing.

In the case of our GT front system, the dual-piston pin-drive caliper from the Z51 C5 Corvette is used. In the rear Sport system, the single-piston PBR caliper from the C4 Corvette and Fourth-Generation Camaro/Firebird is used, once again maximizing our dollar in the areas of performance, reliability and serviceability.

Braking performance is based on two factors: the amount of torque you can apply to the rotor, and the amount of traction available at the tire's contact patch. Even before we added our Baer brakes, we discovered that we could improve our stopping distance just by increasing our tire contact patch; with the factory rolling stock we stopped in 216.9 feet and with the 18-inch Falken tires, we chopped that down to 163.9 feet, an improvement of 53 feet (24 percent). With the Baer brakes, 60-0 stopping distance improved to 134.1 feet, for a total duction of 82 feet (38 percent).

The improvement was well worth the effort, but we still aren't at our goal of stopping in 120 feet or less. We're once again at the limit of adhesion with our tires; no amount of extra brake torque is going to stop the car quicker. What we need for that extra 14 feet is a stickier R-compound DOT tire, which we've found in the Nitto NT555-RII. We'll be trying some 275/40R17s, which will require some different rims than the 18-inch Welds we have now. The Nitto tire will provide a wider footprint (a 275 cross section instead of our current 255 cross section) and more adhesion via a softer rubber compound. The change in rubber will graphically illustrate the impact R-compound tires have on overall performance; braking distance, slalom speed and skidpad performance will all improve dramatically. The question is, how much? Stay tuned!