Searching the 'Net to help out a friend of mine with BMW break problems
(and who seems incapable of using a search engine - but that is another
story) and I bump into the following statement.
"The one thing about brake pedals is that they can never really be too
stiff. Anything that can be done to reduce brake pedal travel is going
to improve sensitivity and confidence under heavy braking. Ideally
pushing on the brake pedal should be like pushing your foot against a
brick wall. The pedal would not move at all and you would modulate the
brakes strictly by changing the force with which you pushed against the
pedal. This is pretty much what a top level racecar brake pedal feels
like (F1, CART ,WRC etc). Brake pedal travel and effort are adjusted by
changing the amount of fluid moved by the brake pedal. This can be
accomplished by changing the leverage ratio that the brake pedal has on
the master cylinder or it can be achieved by changing the diameter of
the brake master cylinder. The latter method is most common."
Now personally I prefer a little bit of 'sponginess' at the top to give
me more 'feel' of the brakes... but I do want to find (and know where)
that rock hard, this-is-as-fast-as-you-can-stop, level is. I would
worry if I had no downward play in my brake pedal.
Any comments? Is this just personal preference on my part - or
silliness.
Eric
'68MGB MkII
PS For Sprinting, I have large MetalKing brake pads that certainly do
stop the car :-)
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