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Midget 1500 brakes

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Camshaft

Camshaft

Jedi Knight
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I'm trying to prep my stock '78 Midget for autocrossing, and I want to upgrade my brakes while remaining in my current class (H Stock). I was looking at brake pads, what are the advantages/disadvantages of Hawk pads and EBC Greenstuff pads? What other options are there, pads or otherwise?
 
Brakes in an Autocross. Huh, thought the idea was to go fast, lol.
 
not sure whether it makes the car legal for the class but I think Classic Motorsports Magazine put MGB brakes on their Project Midget
 
I agree brakes are something you should not have to upgrade for solo 2. Hawk brake pads are great we've been using them on the race cars for years, but they take alittle heat in them to start doing their job and can be a bit noiseier than most street guys like.

The big brake package you read about in CMS, that Carl H. did on the Modern Midget used the SCCA big brake set up, all SCCA raod racing Spridgets are allowed this mod, I've used it for decades on my F-production race cars, it''s a Spitfire rotor, MGB caliper, with a special adapter that goes in between the Spridget hub and the Spitfire rotor. I wouldn't recommnd except for all-out racing, it's one PITA to get on the car and get everything aligned up, most of the times you have to do some machining to the MGB caliper mounting ears, somethime even to the rotors themself, so you better have a mill and lathe at your use to do this if you want to get it right. I installed maybe a dozen of these on race cars over the years, and I would never endorse it for the street, but if you're brave, you can get the special hub/rotor adapter from Winners Circle.
 
My brakes are terrible...on the street, every stop is a panic stop. As you can imagine, then, AutoX is rather frightening. By my last few runs, they have faded into oblivion, and they were barely there to begin with! How long, exactly, do the Hawks take to warm up? And how well do they behave during warm-up? Still waiting to hear from those of you running EBC pads. Speak up!
 
Stock midget brake are actually pretty good, if I had to live with them on a H-production race cars with only mods being hawk pads and cooling cans with 120 mph braking zones, then you can get them to work on a street/autocross car. I think hawk 'black" would work fine on your street car, they growl a little till they get some heat in them, but heck my wifes Honda brake pads do that as well. First thing to make sure of that every thing in the braking system is in top notch shape, have you got braided teflon brake hoes, if not get some, are the rear brake adjusted properly, if you don't have everyhting in top working condition then bigger calipers and rotor won't cure all your ills.
 
Boy, again Hap said it all. The street brakes are fine for what you are doing. If not you have something wrong.
 
Yeah, I'd agree with what the other guys have said about this.
For autoX you should be fine with street pads....you'll never get race pads warmed up enough to be effective.
I've used the regular sintered pads for racing (as well as the Hawks). Even with regular pads, a Spridget is OK for street/autoX use.

But make sure of several things:

-Be sure that your brakes are fully and properly bled.
-And really, you should change brake fluid every couple of years. If you're not sure how old it is, change it.
-Check your rear brake adjustment. Sometimees the little square adjuster nut gets stuck and feels like it's "bottomed out" when it's not.
-Look for oil on the rear brakes. This is not uncommon. If you find it, you'll need new rear hub seals.

If all this is OK, then you may want to look at glazed rotors or internally ruptured flex hoses.
 
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