My brandywine with blue pearl 408 roadster

[Cobraman]

It's been a few weeks since I've posted my first start and first drive. Since then I've corrected a small oil leak or I should say my engine builder did he was awesome made the 80 mile trip twice to make sure it was right.
While all this was happening I had to have total knee replacement on the right knee now it's even heavier ;). So my next project is to get the vin# assigned since I'm not able to work on it hands on I'll get the testy stuff out of the way before drive time. Also still need to bed the brakes it's made a couple trips around the neighborhood maybe 2 miles. The brakes worked really well, no dragging on hard braking doesn't pull to either side. But I still think it needs a little more front brake I have them balanced pretty evenly should I have the front apply just slightly before rear or just the opposite?

[CraigS]

Ahh, come on, where is a pic of you brandywine w/ blue pearl FFR. :D. I always set the F to R brake balance so the fronts lock barely ahead of the rears. I test on a good grippy road at about 40mph. I keep cranking in more rear until it locks first. That will definitely get your attention so that's why I keep the speed down to 40. Then I adjust slightly towards the front. Reason for the good road is this. When you have the balance perfect w/ good traction but then drive when traction is less than optimum, you will always get the fronts locking earlier. Less traction = fronts lock earlier. This is what you want since it will help keep the car from spinning in less than ideal conditions like rain, gravel, etc.

[Grubester]

I have a hand-held IR pyrometer. I'm not finished or running my Mk4 289, but what about making several medium hard stops at say 40mph, then measuring the disc temps, trying again and getting an average.
It would give at least a ballpark ratio, front-to-rear... maybe? Comments... (Also, thinking of the different road surfaces you mention -- that's a good consideration.)

[Cobraman]

Ahh, come on, where is a pic of you brandywine w/ blue pearl FFR. :D. I always set the F to R brake balance so the fronts lock barely ahead of the rears. I test on a good grippy road at about 40mph. I keep cranking in more rear until it locks first. That will definitely get your attention so that's why I keep the speed down to 40. Then I adjust slightly towards the front. Reason for the good road is this. When you have the balance perfect w/ good traction but then drive when traction is less than optimum, you will always get the fronts locking earlier. Less traction = fronts lock earlier. This is what you want since it will help keep the car from spinning in less than ideal conditions like rain, gravel, etc.

I'll try that here soon my knee isn't quite flexible enough to get back in YET. I'll make some adjustments and give it a go

[CraigS]

I have a hand-held IR pyrometer. I'm not finished or running my Mk4 289, but what about making several medium hard stops at say 40mph, then measuring the disc temps, trying again and getting an average.
It would give at least a ballpark ratio, front-to-rear... maybe? Comments... (Also, thinking of the different road surfaces you mention -- that's a good consideration.)

I wouldn't care about temps. That is helpful in a race car where too much temp can destroy brakes so they need to be optimized. But on an FFR, ALL we care about is the end result, which end locks up first. Think like this. We could end up w/ a set of brakes on one end that is too small. We balance the lockup w/ the balance bar but the small end would end up w/ higher temps since it is over worked. That would actually work fine for normal driving since the temps would most likely stay within a max range that wouldn't destroy anything. It wouldn't work on a track because those temps would probably build into the ruin pads range. I think temps are a proven technique and provide interesting data for a track car but they aren't the end all be all for an FFR.

[PMD24]

Photo of paint please