BRAKE TIME
All good track and race cars need decent brakes. And after a trip to EBC’s Northampton HQ for a custom kit, our Mondeo does too
QUICK SPEC ■ Mondeo 2.5T ■ Titanium X ■ 19in Rotiform BUC-M alloys ■ Toyo R888R tyres ■ Scorpion Red Power turbo-back exhaust including sports cat ■ custom wrap by 3M ■ PB coilovers ■ Airtec intercooler ■ EBC front callipers with two-piece discs and Bluestuff pads
The Rep to Race Car project is taking shape quite nicely; we’ve still got a lengthy list of jobs to do and upgrades to fit, but if we stop to catch a breath for a second and look back, it’s already come a long way.
Upgrades to the wheels, tyres, suspension (coilovers), intercooler, exhaust system and a custom wrap have all been installed, and the transformation from repmobile to race car is well under way.
But there’s one area the stock Mondeo has been lacking in: brakes. The standard stoppers are reliable and quiet and do a surprisingly good job of hauling the old girl up from motorway speeds. But on track we’re hoping to be going a fair bit faster. And then having to slow down from those speeds several times per lap. Such repeated abuse
would simply cook the stock stuff in seconds.
All good race and track cars need proper brakes; arguably more than they need additional power or any other upgrade. Therefore we wanted something that would offer some serious bite; more than anything the stock calliper would be capable of even with performance pads and discs, we wanted a bigger, more powerful complete brake kit.
But not many people list off-the-shelf big brake kits for the Mk4 Mondeo. Thankfully, our friends over at EBC aren’t afraid of a custom project car (remember the Fiesta ST they built last year that also appeared in the mag?), so when we spoke to them asking how difficult it would be to make one of their big brake kits fit, they told us to drop the car off at their Northampton-based development centre and they would take a look for us.
So, just a week or so before Ford Fair, the Mondeo made a trip to Northampton, where the engineers at EBC got to work. EBC decided the most suitable kit for this car would be the high-performance four-piston calliper with braided lines coupled to a 355x32mm twopiece disc with BlueStuff pads.
This combo would offer a significant improvement in braking force and the ability to brake hard repeatedly without fade – a must for track cars. Also, as we still need to drive to and from the racetracks, this combo would remain fully road legal and compliant enough to use on the street, without fear of the brakes not working when not up to optimal temperatures.
Not only that, but when EBC put the whole kit on the scales we discovered that the new four-pot calliper setup was a whopping 3kg
per side lighter than the old OE stuff. Keep in mind that’s unsprung weight, and in the case of the disc, rotating mass too – both of which have a huge impact on a car’s acceleration, braking and handling performance. Losing weight here has many benefits.
There is no kit available for the Mk4 Mondeo, but EBC does offer the callipers and component parts individually for one-off and custom jobs like this. Although, with more complete kits being added to the catalogue, most Ford owners can take advantage of EBC’s development and testing work, and just bolt the finished kit straight on. The Mk7/Mk8 Fiesta ST and Mk2 Focus RS kits are proving very popular now for that very reason.
With the car already in Northampton, and a tight deadline to get the car back on the road in time for Ford Fair, the nice chaps at EBC were able to hand us back the car at Silverstone. The Mondeo was proudly on display on the Fast Ford stand and was rightly attracting attention from show-goers throughout the day; the shiny new bright yellow EBC callipers peeking out from behind the spokes to catch your eye.
With the front brake kit installation only being completed a few days before the show, we ran out of time to replace the rear discs and pads with matching upgrades. EBC’s balanced brake kits include upgraded rear discs with the same slotted grooves to match the fronts, along with the same compound pad upgrades, but we’ll get those fitted at Fords Parts R Us by the time you read this.
That also means we haven’t yet had the chance to really put the new setup to the test. We’ll follow EBC’s guidance on bedding-in (which can be found on the firm’s website), and once that is complete, we’ll be able to offer a proper comparison.
While at Ford Fair, we also popped in to see Corbeau to pick the team’s brains about bucket seats and harnesses – Jamie even sat in a few to get a feel for which ones offer the best compromise of support and comfort [You mean to see which he could physically squeeze his fat arse into – DW], so expect an update soon. Oh, and while at Silverstone we also popped over to see Ramair to pick up a performance induction kit, spoke to Helix about a clutch and flywheel upgrade, and picked the brains of Martin at Collins Performance about custom remaps and how we can get close to 300bhp from the 2.5-litre engine too.
It was a productive day chatting to various specialists, but now we need to get back in the workshop and get to work once more.