The Official 356Talk Forum

Richard you are exactly right. On the big brake S90 I am restoring the whole car was basically worn out yet the original 60 mm brakes had plenty of material left. I guess the philosophy was to build these cars with a higher brake to weight ratio!

Porsche drum brakes are good, that is why Porsche continued to improve them-magnesium backing plates-long after everyone else had gone to disks. But on the heavier 356A Carrera GT, at Laguna Seca they aren't up to the task. The problem is that the end of the straight is down hill into a 2nd gear turn. Full throttle down the hill to the brake point will get you only one stop. And that one will burn the paint off the wheels around the lug studs. After finding that out, I feathered the throttle down the hill so the brakes would last. Lighter pushrod Speedsters have an advantage there, and Spyders,of course much more.

@harlan,

What is the pad compound you used from Carbotech? 913? That is what they are recommending. Also do you have a source for Steel shoes with the pins for the springs? Carbotech will not line the alloy shoes and all the shoes I can find do not have the pins.

Chris

Chris,
If you are talking about brake shoes for your Spyder, I wouldn't go with Carbotec. There must be other places which will put a less aggressive conventional lining on your aluminum shoes. Nobody is driving a Spyder hard these days.
If you have steel shoes without the pins, it is easy enough to make and add the pins. Try Mike Smith in England for help.
We used a custom lining from Carbotec which had no number, I think it was a forklift lining, and that was 30 years ago.

I would use the shoes with less ribs to get a better prdal feel. Alan The Stable.

Porsche deliberately "weakened" The shoes to get better feel at the pedal the first shoes were too " rigid and gave too hard a pedal feel so they were hard to modulate so the shoes were Weakened so the pedal had a better "feel" Alan some people would cut slots in the rib of the shoes to get this "weakened" effect. Alan The Stable.

You will note tht the latter shoes have a much smaller rib on them this was done to "weaken the shoe the first verson gave too hard a pedal so it was hard to modulate the pedal braking the softer pedal made it easier to modulate the brakes for the driver. Some people even sawed slits in the backing rib to get a softer " feel" Alan The Stable.