Okay, technically this review is premature since the ducts have never seen the surface of a racetrack. However, unless there's a little flap inside these ducts that comes down to block air from reaching my rotors, I think I can make some comments based on my limited experience. First, I ordered these ducts from:

SBMS racing: http://www.sbmsinc.com/race_shop.html

It is clear from the design that a great deal of thought went into making these and that they are very carefully measured in order to fit. I might have been able to make these myself, but I easily would have spent an entire day and wasted a lot of materials before I had anything usable. For that reason, I think they're money well spent. On top of that, Tom at SBMS shipped these ducts before I had even paid him just so I would have them in time to race this weekend. Amazing. If HT still had those little star icons, he'd get 5 of them.

Anyway, here's a picture of the ducts:



The build quality is excellent. There's no leaks or cracks and no huge chunks of metal in the way of the air flow. They are designed to accept 2.5" hose which is my only complaint (although to their credit, I didn't actually ask if they could be made for larger hose). I used a little adapter to fit my 3" hose and we're in business. As for the install and fit, let's just say I had these babies on the car in under 3 minutes and I didn't even have to remove the caliper or rotor. Okay, I did already have the car on jack stands and the wheels were off, but still, piece 'o cake. The fit is perfect. They tuck right under the knuckle out of the way of everything and there is just enough play in the bolt holes to get everything in place just right before you tighten them down. Also, the mount is very strong...these aren't going anywhere.

Passenger side, installed:



The hose connection was tight, esp with the 3" hose. I ran it basically straight down to the radius rod and then back out to the duct just so I knew for sure they wouldn't contact the tire under a full turn of the wheel. I'll replace the zip ties around the hose/rod with hose clamps just to make it more sturdy, but I suspect they would hold.

Finally, here's a pic from both sides with the hose and everythign installed, ready for a wheel. Nevermind the pixie dust everywhere, that's bondo from the roof project:

Passenger side:



Driver side. Note the location of the hose and duct under the required water bottle. Damn that water bottle...much of this project wouldn't have been necessary if I could remove that bottle and duct through the bumper:



I welcome any comments, especially the ones that say "dude, bad idea" since I don't want to do anything stupid.

*EDIT* pictures resized. e-mail for full size pics.


Modified by travis at 1:29 PM 1/14/2004

 

When you turn the steering wheel, does the back of the brake caliper hit the tubing?

 

I hope they were REALLY cheap. The build quality looks pretty crappy, and it doesn't even direct the air to the right part of the rotor. I would stay away from them myself.

 

Not to rob your Post but I found something way better...............

I think something even cooler and better is the Carbon Fiber Brake ducts Street-n-Track Autosports makes. They are so light it is sick, and look awesome and of course are very durable and have been tested rigorously, by the owner Chris Stiffler. Who is a very accomplished drivers and knows his cars. I suggest thoughs who are serious to spend the Extra money buy them because its well worth it and Carbon Fiber just rocks, thoughs who are intrested heres the contact info:

Street-n-Track AutoSports
Chris Stiffler-Owner
595 Lake Rd. C2
Medina, Ohio 44256
Local (330)721-6600
Fax (330)722-3949
email: cstiff@aol.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by trigun7469 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not to rob your Post but I found something way better...............

I think something even cooler and better is the Carbon Fiber Brake ducts Street-n-Track Autosports makes. They are so light it is sick, and look awesome and of course are very durable and have been tested rigorously, by the owner Chris Stiffler. Who is a very accomplished drivers and knows his cars. I suggest thoughs who are serious to spend the Extra money buy them because its well worth it and Carbon Fiber just rocks, thoughs who are intrested heres the contact info:
</TD></TR></TABLE>

do you have pictures of these?

 

Yes, we do have pictures, but are working on them to post them....
PATENT HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR.
Also- to those who think that they don't point to right part of the rotor, your wrong.
These were tested over a whole season last year, and it is hard to reach the inside of the rotor with an axle in the way! They work, and work well, we wouldn't have gone to the carbon set if the prototype wasn't efficient enough, think about it.

Local Honda Engineers have seen them and agree they are the best they have every seen and had nothing but great things to say about the ducts.

Pics will be posted on Thursday Jan. 15th in the afternoon (EST) on Ohio Hondas website..

 

wow, maybe i can make these

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the DR. &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When you turn the steering wheel, does the back of the brake caliper hit the tubing?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, there is no contact because everything moves as one unit together. That's the main benefit of mounting your hose in this way. I'll get the 14x7"s on there and snap some pictures of how close everything is.

MightyMouseTech,

I haven't found anything even remotely in the same price range that serves the same purpose. These were cheap enough that I didn't even consider building them myself even if I could have saved some money in the long run. The quality isn't pretty, but that's not what I paid for. I paid for perfect fit and strong, and that's what I got. As for where they direct the air, you bring up a good point. It's hard to see from these pictures exactly where the air is being directed. A good part of the air is being directed onto the side of the rotor which is not optimal. However, a good portion of the vent covers the center of the vented disc which is exactly where you want the air to go. I think this design falls somewhere between pointing the bare hose at the rotor and having a custom setup built to fit inside the rotor itself (very difficult with the axles up front). As soon as someone builds one of these ideal ducts for a good price, I'll buy them

trigun7469,

Sounds sexy. $$$?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Roadracejunkie &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes, we do have pictures, but are working on them to post them....
PATENT HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha, Chris what's up? I just happen to write you about this subject a couple days ago and don't hear from you - then to find out you have a product of the exact thing I inquired. Um, like, you might make money, and stuff, by uh, returning emails. LOL - j/k. Get in touch with me.

Ben

 

well, the ducts ARE cheap. And they seem to offer the best compromise of

- price
- durability
- funcitonality

that I have found. As Travis mentioned, they put air both on and IN the rotor, they are solid, well designed and they only cost $80 for the pair, plus shipping. Actually, looks like they were re-designed for 2004 and now cost $90... Haven't seen the new ones yet.
But you are correct, they ain't pretty. bfd.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Roadracejunkie &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also- to those who think that they don't point to right part of the rotor, your wrong. These were tested over a whole season last year, and it is hard to reach the inside of the rotor with an axle in the way! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Nobody said doing it right was easy, if it was, everybody would be doing it.

As for paying $80 for the original ducts we were talking about, that seems fair, and should direct some air to the center of the rotor.
Better than just a hose pointing in there..

 

Anyone make a set-up like this for a 96 Civic Hatch?

 

I wouldn't say that they are crappy, the entire idea of the design is to get the duct as close to the rotor as possible and force air into the center of the hub. If you notice the lower part of the duct is shaped to deflect air into the center of the hub while the remainder of the air is forced against the rotor.

The unit is light, strong and will last quite a while. I have made a number of these units with no failures. I try and keep the price of these units fair, since I think that there is a lot of stuff on the market that is all glitz and no substance.

I am a long time road racer with a lot of experience and a lot of wins. I know what it cost to race and what it take for things to last. I fabricate some of these pieces myself as part of my racing effort, and want to pass on the experience.

I am proud of my work and for the price the unit is quite acceptable. On the new revision of the duct I am getting the inlet a little further away from the rim so the angle of the hose is not as tight.

If you notice on my airdam, it is designed to keep the hose from the duct to the inlet on the bumper up and out of the airflow so that should you do an "off" the hose won't get ripped off. All of my parts and my engines are functional and legal, and have proven to be winning designs.

 

Would the product work on my 96 Civic Hatch? If this particular application would not, would you be able to fab something up for my car?

 

We can try I am not sure of the difference in the front hubs. If they don't fit I can modify they or build custom

Thanks
Tom

Oh by the way Thanks Travis for the plug. I am sure that they will work just fine.
If not let me know.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As usual, sorry for the huge pics. Can anyone suggest a free, downloadable program to resize pics before posting?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Microsoft Paint works....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sackdz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Microsoft Paint works....</TD></TR></TABLE>

Seriously? I thought I tried that and couldn't get it to work. Anyway, someone e-mailed me a link to a good program, so now I can fix the pics pretty easily. Thanks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tom Blaney &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">We can try I am not sure of the difference in the front hubs. If they don't fit I can modify they or build custom
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I sent you some PM's i'm interested to see if you can fit/build these for 3rd Gen (94-01) Integra spindles?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I sent you some PM's i'm interested to see if you can fit/build these for 3rd Gen (94-01) Integra spindles?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Me too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I sent you some PM's i'm interested to see if you can fit/build these for 3rd Gen (94-01) Integra spindles?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm also interested, so that makes at least 3.

 

I think they look good especially for the price

 

Since there appears to be continued interest in these ducts, I'll post an update now that these have seen some track time. I used these ducts for the first time at AMP in Phoenix for the Jan AZHC event. AMP is not overly hard to brakes, but I did experience some significant fade during previous events without any ducting. First of all, I was running 3" hose to the ducts which are designed to accept 2.5" hose. With the car on jack stands and the wheels off, this seemed like it wouldn't be a problem because I could just squeeze the 3" hose down with a hose clamp and the attachment was very secure. However, it became clear that at full lock the duct mounts came right up to the shock body and the fatter hose made a lot of contact. Additionally, the 3" hose is too thick to run between the crank pulley and the radius rod, so I ran it below the radius rod essentially between the rod and the tire. The wire coil in the hose makes it easy to mold, but there is still some hose-to-tire contact at full lock (even though I never experienced any contact with the amount of turning I did on track). So, if you plan to use this product, I suggest that you stick with the 2.5" hose not only because the hose fitting is 2.5" but also because they are not designed to make room for a larger hose. If you wanted, you could run 3" hose from the bumper and then reduce it to 2.5 before you made the turn toward the hub. Personally, I'm just going to insert an adapter onto the rear of my bumper ducts and run 2.5" all the way back.

The second issue is heat. Because these mounts are metal you would think that they would absorb and retain a good deal of ambient heat, as well as heat conducted through the knuckle mount. While these ducts do indeed get hot to the touch, I could put my hand directly on the rotor opening right after a 20 minute session. The material is just too thin to really hold any heat. Keep in mind that the pads are smoking at this time, so it's not like I'm not heating up the brakes. I'm going to get some of that color change paint and do some tests in Feb to see how hot each section is getting and that will give me a good idea if it would ever be worth moving to a different material for the mounts.

Finally, do they work? The answer is...I dont' know. I was using Cobalt spec B's for the first time last weekend and I don't really have a reference for them. I DID have some fade if I was really hard on the brakes, but strangely enough I could get them back after an easy lap or two which was never possitble before. Without the ducts, once my pads faded that was it until I stopped driving for a while. All in all, I would put these mounts up there in the "best value" category for things I have purchased for my car. They work as expected and there were no surprises other than the 3" hose thing. Also, these suckers are going to take some serious abuse, so I'm glad they're not all that expensive.


Modified by travis at 11:37 AM 1/20/2004

 

thanks for the summary travis. I do open track events and have experienced brake fade to a point where it was almost stupid to be out there. I have since upgraded to a 11" Fast brake kit running the VW rotors and GSR calipers. Undecided on pads . I will try these ducts out and see for myself !!!

 

It is also pretty hard to argue that this product doesn't work well especially with the results Tom continually has with his car / using these ducts. Numerous track records and always being in the front of the pack adds just a bit of credibility.

As far as looks? They are behind the rotor! You're worried about what a mechanic might think because they are not painted red? So paint them if you really want to.

Pretty cool product Tom.
Dave

 

I will have a set of 91 Integra knuckles this week so I can complete the first set of Integera ducts, my understanding is that the 94-01's are the same. If one of you guys knows different let me know. If they are and anybody has a spare set of L & R knuckles they want to let me play with let me know. I will pay shipping to get them to me for a few weeks.

Thanks for the orders guys and please make a point to visit my site once in a while or send me an e.