quick questions guys is it ok to road race a civic with drum brakes or is it a must to have a disk brakes in the back?. the car would probably see road race for like 3 times a year only if that. i want to experiance this next year lol

 

Disk brakes = easier maintenance.

 

they will be fine but i would look into upgrading in the future. drums suck, im sure there are a few out there that just love having them on their 1970 supergt whatever but they still suck and are a pain in the *** to take care of.

 

i thought it was the other way round lol

 

ok cool then thanks for the inputs guys

 

Road racing=discs
Autocross=drums are fine

 

the drum brakes will get hotter than a *****, and probably cause some pedal fade issues. since its your first times, you are going to be learning or autocrossing i assume. so you can hold off on getting a disc swap until **** gets more serious.

 

Are you racing or just going lapping? Drum breaks are great at the track, I love drums, they are cheap , light and the shoes last FOREVER. They brake just fine too. Have you seen the price for rear calipers...not cheap. Get some good front pads and brake fluid ,keep your drums and try it out. You won't lose out anything by running rear drums a couple of times and then you might see your brakes are just fine and you don't need to change anything.

 

Let's think about this... The front brakes do the significant majority of the braking on a FWD car. You will be just fine, there is no need to worry. There is no need to switch to discs.

I've raced with Drums and so you can you and I've been beaten by racers with rear drums... Don't sweat it.

 

Use drums for your first event, just make sure you have nice front pads and good fluid

 

FINALLY, the answer i've been looking for! I always thought that having stock/ simple drums in the rear in good rotors and pads ( like Hawks) in the front would be kinda of an un- balanced set up.

 

nice front pads, bled+good fluid and drums did good for my first event.
trust me you're going to be more worried learning the course, brake zones, watching flags, pointing people by etc than trying to make a good time.

don't even rent a transponder.

same thing i was told by some good seasoned fellows here.

 

Fimally, peace of mind

 

also depends on how you drive, i overheated my pads with rear drums at a local road race, after that it wasn't much fun. it was one of my last sessions, though.. after i had learned the track and left foot-braked a ton.


good front pads and good fluid can only do so much. don't expect to hit a few races with just rear drums

 

I was actually going to point out the other extreme of this and say that beginners often are harder on brakes than experienced "momentum" drivers. So don't get frustrated if they get too much use in the beginning. Just learn to use them less to avoid the problem.

 

Wow thanks for all the info guys, really appreciated I just want to experience road racing next year so I'm prepping my car this winter time and want some inputs advices from the veterans here and I do mostly auto x, and I already know about the pads and rotors, brake fluids I want my car to be safe on the track

 

Sounds like hpde. Not racing. There is a difference. The pace kept durring a session and the rule book that dictates weather or not you can change the brakes.

 

Disc brakes equals brake dust on your fresh white wheels FTW..

 

As you can tell I'm a noob at this thing right now lol

 

Is it ok to track a car with rear drum brakes: Yes.
Is it ok to do endurance racing with rear drum brakes: Yes.
Can you win races with rear drum brakes: Yes.
Will you experience fade with rear drum brakes: Yes (Any lead foot driver can fade any set of brakes, regardless of design)

Discs:
- less parts, thus "easier" to maintain
- looks prettier
- pad selection is far far far greater
- heavier than drum setup (in CRXs at least)

Drums:
- set of rear shoes can least a year or more
- annoying to service, but thankfully you only have to do it just about never (ok, maybe twice a year)
- pad selection is next to nothing
- glowing drums aren't nearly as cool as glowing discs
- cheaper than discs to run yearly


IMO, keep the drums. The weight savings, the longer maintenance schedule (thus making it "easier" to maintain by simply not having to touch them as often), and since you already have them... makes it all the better. Just pull the drums, inspect the hardware, and reassemble.

Of the 6 years I had tracking a CRX, I did one repair job on the drums. Fade was never related to the drums...either the ham-fisted driver or the poorly selected front pads.

Have fun and enjoy the thrill of pushing the car around corners

 

Everybody here is focusing on all different aspects except the main one.

Drums were raced on F1's until the 60's and many other cars including high level racing well into the 90's. There's really no safety issue or any lack of braking capacity with the drums.

The main draw back for drums over discs are that they are not self adjusting like with disc brakes, and when the actual drum gets hot and starts to expand in diameter it will take extra travel for the shoe to contact the drum and therefore a longer pedal. Same goes with the wear rates, as the pads wear down the pedal continues to get longer. The longer amount of travel between the shoe and the pad creates a timing delay between front and rear brake applications.

Now the answer is can the OP run drums and ANY type of event? Of course, there isnt a single problem to do so as long as the shoe linings are of a decent operating temps.

 

Lots of good advice here. My road race CRX has rear drum brakes. Sometimes I think about converting over to disc brakes but right now, it's not a high priority.

Switching over to an ITA/H4 CRX from a Spec Miata, I find myself going through front brake pads and rotors a bit more frequently. Plus, the Miata just had a more effective braking system. Cooling ducts will help!

 

I converted my CRX over to disk brakes for two seasons of Honda Challenge. I found that they worked too well and would lock up the rears very easily which would make a twitchy car even worse. I switched back to drums right before the NASA National and the car calmed down. An additional issue that I ran into on my 1G CRX was that the Integra brakes I used increased my track width and I had to roll the **** out of my fenders to make my tires fit.

As others have said, the drums are significantly lighter.

 

1g crx is like trying to race a roller skate :p

 

They are not self adjusting when driving forward. Most rear drum brakes, including those on the CRX are self adjusting when you drive in reverse and press on the brake pedal.

So if your reverse gear still works, as you reverse out of your pit stall just tap the brakes a few times and voila... rear brakes adjusted.

As for the rear brake drums heating up and expanding this is exactly right, however unless you're running a brake bias adjuster to make the rear brakes do more work they aren't going to get very hot at all. Even on rear discs, we run the OEM pads which don't work well under high temps at all and they last all season long. Basically I'm saying the amount of heat generated by the rear brakes of the CRX is minimal at best. Don't worry about it.