Tornado Brakes

Bill D · 03-25-04, 10:26 AM

I talked with Andy at Tornado and he indicated his cars use Granda brakes. Can someone in the UK or who has a Tornado please provide more information? When I checked for Ford Granada, I came up with some US car from the 1970/1980's.

What are these? And what are the front/rear sizes?

My concern is, should I opt for a Tornado kit, getting replacement brake parts for it here might be troublesome. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Thanks
Bill D
Los Angeles, CA

Mike Dozier · 03-25-04, 12:26 PM

Easy enough...buy spare pads and caliper rebuild kits
from Andy with the Kit.

MikeD

Howard Jones · 03-25-04, 12:59 PM

Bill, at some point later this year,more than likely the end of Fall early winter, I will be removing a full set of granada brakes from my GTD and replaceing the entire setup with wilwood caliper, disk, hats, etc. When I am done I will have all the granada stuff excess. I am not sure if the GTD stuff will fit on a tornado but I am here in Calif. and would be willing to let you give it a try when I get it off my car. If you are interested send me a PM and I'll return you my Ph # and we can talk.

Frank Catt · 03-26-04, 03:45 AM

Bill, go for the very best brakes you can afford, it will be a much better investment than going to the standard Tornado/GTD Granada brakes and then changing them later after you have frightened yourself. I use AP Racing CP5000 Brake sets up with 305mm rotors and four pot race calipers all round on 15 inch wheels. If you are running say 17 inch wheels you can go much bigger ! Willwood do good brakes, but I consider the smaller Dynalite brakes too weak for the GT40, particularly across the bridge, and unless you go for their race calipers I think you should think bigger is better. But of course all of this is relative to the rest of the system, its no good putting on much bigger brakes if the pedal assembly is not up to it - and the GTD pedal assembly is questionable in this area. I use a Tilton Nascar type pedal assembly fitted in to the chassis by a custom made bracket giving a much larger pedal ratio than the standard GTD assembly ( 6.25 to 1 on the Tilton against 3 to 1 on the GTD )Most UK drivers also prefer not to use servos ( boosters ) for track work, and the AP/TILTON set up allows that. Frank

Bill D · 03-26-04, 09:28 AM

Thanks everyone

Howard Jones · 03-26-04, 12:18 PM

Frank is correct in that you will want to put better brakes on to you car in the end. But if you want to just get it running on a tight buget then I'll be happy to let you use mine when they are off my car. I have bought wilwood superlight calipers and 12.9 X 1.25 directonal vane rotors for my car. This setup is currently used on short track stock cars that weight about 500 pounds more that our cars and run 50 lap races on 1/2 mile tracks. Entry speeds into the corners are about 140 mph or so.

Thats 100 brake aplications in a row from 140 down to about 70-80 mph in a car that is at least 15-20% heavier than ours. I believe this is plenty of brake for us and if you compair to the costs of Bremos and Alcons I think you will conclude that the wilwoods are a very good deal.

The peddle issue is true and one I understand but will be more interested in after I get the bigger brakes onto the car and see where I'm at.

Bill D · 03-26-04, 03:33 PM

Thanks Howard, but I'm a least a year away from ordering. I plan on doing exhaustive research and planning BEFORE I order a kit.

Bill D

Howard Jones · 03-26-04, 05:01 PM

If I was doing it again I would do the brakes myself, thatis order the car without brakes and do it here in the states. Wilwood brake parts are a lot cheaper over here. The other thing is if you decide to use a Renault transaxle have it upgraded to the D.Bell spec along with a Quafe LSD before you have it shiped over.

One last thing, If you would like to send me a PM I will let you know when I have my GT40 day at my house this summer. There should be at least 4 or 5 cars here and its in the SF Bay Area. Thats not too far from you.

Robert Logan · 03-27-04, 07:01 PM

Bill,

We are doing a kit for the Willwood brakes especially for the US market.

It seemed logical to me that as the Willwood brakes are a US made system with the back up that this implies , than it was the obvious break up grade for the States.

I hope this helps,

Best wishes,

Robert

Bill D · 03-30-04, 01:20 PM

Robert-

Are you going to be at Knott's with Hersal next month?

Bill

Robert Logan · 03-30-04, 04:58 PM

Bill,

I will be at Knotts with Hershal. We will have Hershal's silver car and Chuck's Gulf car on display.

Hope to meet you then.

Best wishes,

Robert

Bill D · 03-30-04, 06:34 PM

Great Robert

I am looking forward to meeting you as well. However, I am leaving my checkbook and credit cards home [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Tim Kay · 04-06-04, 12:21 AM

Where is Knott's and what kind of event is taking place?

Bill D · 04-06-04, 10:18 AM

Tim-

The annual West Coast Kit Car Show is being held at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA (near Disneyland) April 24-25.

Hershal Byrd · 04-06-04, 11:04 AM

Tim,
It's a good show especially if you are into or interested in what's new in kit cars.
http://www.replicarclub.com/

Hersh [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Tim Kay · 04-06-04, 05:55 PM

Good to know, being that I live 45 min from there. If my plans change and I am in town I will be there and look forward to meeting the faces behind this forum.