Unmasking the FR-S / BRZ / FT-86 Mule

[ichitaka05]

@Wow. Seriously, you're awesome photochopper! I wish, I can be that good... Is it possible to make it dark gunmetal color or Ferrari Red?

[ryun84]

^^ You, sir, are a professional. Amazing.

[Fly Guy]

Excellent, as always!

[Maxim]

So I've been looking through all the spy photos and such.....and I don't see any evidence of functional ducts to the front brakes. Should this worry me? Because it's worrying me.

Miatas also have no stock brake ducts and it does become an issue on the track....warped rotors and such. The spec Miata series also disallows making that modification....

This car will probably be a touch faster than a Miata and several hundred pounds heavier....it'll need adequate brake cooling if you track it....

[Sabastian]

Looks great, Wings! I wish they would keep those door handles for the production car!

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by Maxim

So I've been looking through all the spy photos and such.....and I don't see any evidence of functional ducts to the front brakes. Should this worry me? Because it's worrying me.

Miatas also have no stock brake ducts and it does become an issue on the track....warped rotors and such. The spec Miata series also disallows making that modification....

This car will probably be a touch faster than a Miata and several hundred pounds heavier....it'll need adequate brake cooling if you track it....

iv also worried about this, when i tracked my S14 for the first time i thought i had a good brake setup with R32 front brakes and a large Master Cylinder, with performance pads and new sets of brembo rotors. But i still experienced reallllly bad brake fade because of inadequate ducting..figured it out when local guy who was tracking with me that day took a digital thermometer to my rotors and it hotter than 2 naked Brazilian chicks massaging each others tits...

I know im going to track the FR-S...i hope they provide good ducting to cool those brakes....and speaking of brakes..i hope they provide some big aluminum 4pots.

[Fly Guy]

I'm hoping the intake from under the headlights will make it from the concept and is just hidden under the camouflaged car. I'm guessing that would make a good brake intake.

[Random_Art]

Ever thought of simply pulling out the foglight housing under the headlights? At least in the states, the turn signal probably won't be located there on the production model so removing the foglight housing would dramatically increase airflow to the wheel well. If it's blocked by the plastics, drill some holes in the well plastics.

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by Random_Art

Ever thought of simply pulling out the foglight housing under the headlights? At least in the states, the turn signal probably won't be located there on the production model so removing the foglight housing would dramatically increase airflow to the wheel well. If it's blocked by the plastics, drill some holes in the well plastics.

Well, given how large the opening in the front is, there's no reason why ducts that lead diagonally off from that opening (thereby shooting air directly onto the brakes from the inside) can't be incorporated without any cutting....in fact they might be there and just not visible on these spyshots. It's very hard to tell. That opening is significantly larger than the one on the Miata, which only feeds the engine compartment.

Also, I've removed foglights from cars before, doing maintainance on my old IROC-Z. There was solid bodywork behind those fog lamps...it didn't lead directly back into the tire. Crash structure, etc. So it probably wouldn't be as simple as just removing the fogs. I know in the 370z, people who track the car generally have to cut away portions of internal bodywork and metal IOT create brake ducts.




I'm actually very concerned about braking ability. My GTI...has shit brakes. I've had them fade noticably during a single stop from 130mph on the autobahn. Brakes can be a somewhat expensive modification...I'd really prefer that the brake-hardware (and ducting) is excellent to start with. Then all I'd need to do to track it is switch brake fluids and pads.

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

I'm hoping the intake from under the headlights will make it from the concept and is just hidden under the camouflaged car. I'm guessing that would make a good brake intake.

Yes, I was hoping that too, but it doesn't appear to be there in the prototype. There's a much less exaggerated "notch" in at the point where the concepts had the duct, but it's just a stylistic element now....

[WingsofWar]

Originally Posted by Random_Art

Ever thought of simply pulling out the foglight housing under the headlights? At least in the states, the turn signal probably won't be located there on the production model so removing the foglight housing would dramatically increase airflow to the wheel well. If it's blocked by the plastics, drill some holes in the well plastics.

Ghetto fabulous..thats what i would do too....but i think it would still be better if Toyota engineered good brake ducts anyway...just in case for people who enter their FR-S in cup challenges where mods are forbidden.

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by WingsofWar

iv also worried about this, when i tracked my S14 for the first time i thought i had a good brake setup with R32 front brakes and a large Master Cylinder, with performance pads and new sets of brembo rotors. But i still experienced reallllly bad brake fade because of inadequate ducting..figured it out when local guy who was tracking with me that day took a digital thermometer to my rotors and it hotter than 2 naked Brazilian chicks massaging each others tits...

I know im going to track the FR-S...i hope they provide good ducting to cool those brakes....and speaking of brakes..i hope they provide some big aluminum 4pots.

Unfortunately, big, high quality brakes are almost a waste if the car doesn't have any ducting.

You've read Car and Driver's Lightning Lap story with the Nismo 370z right? Their 370z (equipped with huge brembos) boiled it's brake fluid and suddenly lost all braking power with no warning at 130mph. It hit the sidewall so hard that they had to use heavy towing equipment to pull it out of the wall. They did a big story on it afterwards too, to figure out exactly what went wrong. They concluded it was the ducting. Replacing the pads and fluid let the Z's brakes last much longer, but they still faded much more quickly than the 450lb heavier Camaro SS, which surprisingly experienced essentially no brake fade, even though it's braking surface area to weight ratio was worse.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...ng_lap-feature

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by WingsofWar

Ghetto fabulous..thats what i would do too....but i think it would still be better if Toyota engineered good brake ducts anyway...just in case for people who enter their FR-S in cup challenges where mods are forbidden.

Another issue. Even if there was no material behind the fogs, and it led directly on to the tires and into the wheels/brakes, if there aren't actual ducts to direct the airflow out via the wheels, you're letting considerably more air under the car....which results in lift.

[serialk11r]

Weird idea, but how about using the rims as a fan? It would suck air from the bottom of the car and improve aerodynamics as well. BMW has that duct that lets air move around the sides of the car, the increased velocity of air due to that type of thing could possibly draw air through the rotors as well...and what about attaching heatsinks to the pistons? lol sorry if these are silly just bored and throwing ideas out there.