Singular Motorsports 2.5" & 3" Brake Ducts
 

These have been in the works for a while, I almost spilled the beans when everyone was talking about brake duct sizes a couple weeks back, but finally now I’m really pleased to offer 2.5” and 3” brake duct solutions to our community. :yippee:

These are now in stock at Good-Win Racing and Trackspeed Engineering:

2.5" Brake Ducts @Good-Win & 3" Brake Ducts @Good-Win

2.5" Brake Ducts @TSE & 3" Brake Ducts @TSE

Andrew is also offering kits with hose of the appropriate size, clamps, and zip ties as an add-on.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409391600

Why 2.5” or 3” ducts?
By this point it’s well established that proper brake ducts are a key part to a track car’s braking system, and there are huge benefits to increased hose size - the airflow increases as a square of the diameter, so a ½” increase in hose size actually produces a very significant difference.

This sums up the recent discussions that have been going on regarding brake duct size, and this is essentially the type of findings that started me down the path of developing these:

The largest difficulty that arises as hose size increases (especially with 3”) is getting the orientation just right between the wheel, spindle, sway bar, etc. since tolerances are slim - so a specialized part that locates the hose and its outlet position becomes more critical - and that is what these do for you.

But, these are not only for the extreme track crowd. It makes sense to use brake ducts on nearly ANY track-driven miata for two reasons:

A) Even if you aren’t at the limit of the brake pad/fluid’s operating temperature, decreasing the temps of the brakes can drastically increase their lifespan - in many cases pad life can nearly double (In other words, these pay for themselves over time)

B) A low-power car may be able to run track-only pads and avoid reaching the limits of the pad, but many people in the double-duty street/track category want to run a less than crazy aggressive pad. In these cases, really good brake ducting can be the key to keeping those pads within their operating temperature range and not destroying them.

3" vs. No Ducts test:

I recently ran the 3” version vs. no ducting at the track (taped over the duct inlet on one side of the car). Following a brief half-session, and after a cool down lap which allowed temps to come down and stabilize a bit, on the non-ducted side we saw caliper temps of 585*. For those of you keeping score, that’s just a breath away from the boiling point of the Motul RBF600.

On the ducted side of the car, the caliper was 445*. Perfectly happy.
I had intended to do more testing with the side that was blocked off, but after seeing those temps I aborted that plan and kept both sides ducted the rest of the day. I literally would not run my car without these.

I’m running the 3” on my car and Sean has the 2.5” on his, and these are already out there on a few member's cars - Keith Tanner is running the 3” units on the V8 Targa car, Martin has recently added 3” units to Lazarus, and Curly is running the 2.5" versions. I’ll welcome them to give any of their impressions and input if they’d like.

3" On my car:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409391600

2.5" on Scooby (Sean's car):

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409391600

I'm really excited to see and hear about you guys further raising the bar with your car's potential. It gives me a special kind of satisfaction to be able to have a hand in making that possible.

-Ryan

I've got a request... make something similar that will fit the Kiesler drop spindles. I'll help with what I can to get you dimensions. I think those of us baller enough to run them deserve brake cooling awesomeness as well :)
What say you Mr. Pass?

I have nothing but good things to say. The 3 inch kit was easy to install and I'm successfully running my 1.6 brakes on a 230 whp track car on Hoosiers. Even on hot days I haven't had any issues with fading due to overheating the brakes. Great product guys.

I'm game. I'll send you a PM and we can look into it.

-Ryan

2.5" hose run alongside the factory plastic undertray - 15x9 wheel turned to full lock, no spacer (keep in mind you're never at full lock except for in the pits or parking lots). Plenty of room:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409466913

3" hose, factory undertray removed, 15x9 wheel with no spacers turned to full lock. Perfect fit:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409466913

I might be interested in a set for Keislers as well...

Have already ordered a 3" set for the moment though :)

I should add that I am still running the stock undertray with the 3 inch ducting and have no issues with any rubbing. Wheels are 15x8 +32, some more photos
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409503503
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409503503
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409503503

Want!

Thanks for that pic Galant! 3" it is!
(Factory undertray plus 15x8s for meeeeee.)

I really wish someone would skip the ABS sensor mount and move the duct closer to the center of the hub where it belongs. Air needs to be directed into the cooling vanes not at one face of the rotor.

or make the hose attachment have a "cutout" for the ABS sensor, it might like cooling as well :)

Sure the area would be a little smaller and the cost goes up, but it would satisfy some ---- theorists...

Keeping ABS and non-ABS versions in stock isn't cheaper either.

Ryan,

What's the difference between these and the ones that Trackspeed has had on the market for a long time now?

3>2.5>2"

Looks more "worked" than the TSE ones.

ABS sensor hole doesn't make any difference. The spindle is the limiting factor, and Mazda used the ABS-style spindle on every 94-05 car. It makes absolutely zero economic sense to produce a brake duct that only fits a 90-93 spindle (and for you NB guys, that means sourcing a new 90-97 UCA as well). BTDT.

No need of new spindles or UCA's. You just have to be willing to grind off the ABS mounting boss (assuming no ABS) on the NB spindle.

I understand the economic side of things. It's probably hard enough getting a ROI on such an item without making it more specialized than it already is. Requiring people to grind off the ABS boss will make it even more limiting.

Can I get a picture of where the air is being pulled from? I have ideas, and I've seen what Hornet has done, just wondering if yours was similar.

These look great. I'll be getting a set when I redo my brake setup shortly, so this is perfect timing.

I'd also like to get ideas on where you guys are sourcing brake duct air.

Lots of DIY solutions out there for the air source, and lots of universal inlets available on the market that you can get creative with. Any inlet on the front of the car will work to a degree. They will be more effective the closer to the center of the bumper you can put them. As you move away from center, the air is traveling sideways over the bumper, not straight on, so inlets further to the sides are less effective.

Lots of guys put together some form of duct on the backside of the R package lip holes, or put an inlet in the NB fog light hole.

One trick solution is to put the inlets inside the bumper mouth, on the vertical walls of the ducting forwards of the radiator - air pressure is very high there so this is both effective and efficient as it doesn't add additional openings on the front of the car which would add a bit more drag.

Lots of ways to skin that cat. Here's my solution: oversized duct behind the bumper skin, and I've yet to but plan to make an adjustable block-off plate that allows me to adjust the inlet size on the bumper skin so that I can trim the opening down for when I run at ACS (NASCAR oval + infield where you spend ~45 seconds flat out on the straight/banked turn and top speed is king):

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409803196

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1409803196

-Ryan

It looks to me like there is going to be a hell of a lot of leakage with that sort of setup. Also, being a 'vented rotor' you want to feed all the air in to the eye of the rotor / bell, so the cooling air passes through the vanes at pressure cooling the rotor, not the surface of the disc/rotor!! Smallest gap possible so there's no leakage. Cools the bearing too (and the bell if you have them)

Obviously that setup works, but it can be optimized a bit more?

You'll actually find if you look around at alternatives that this is the least "leaky" design out there for our cars ;)

Sure, in perfect hypothetical dream land we'd all have hollow hubs with the brake duct passing through the center injecting air straight into the center of the rotor. Guess what, we don't have that. This is as close as a bolt-on option can get to the center of the rotor on a factory spindle. The only way to get closer is to grind down the spindle. And if you do go through that trouble, you only move it ~1" closer. It's still pointed right where it is.

It would be a mistake to think of the air as exiting the brake duct and then bam it does it's job and it's done when it contacts the rear surface of the rotor. For one, the duct outlet is angled towards the center of the rotor, so the air exits the duct and continues on a path towards the rotor center. Additionally, the top and bottom of the duct are angled towards the rotor (they get within ~1/8" to the rotor surface - you can't exactly seal against the rotating rotor any more than that) to channel the air towards the center of the rotor.

-Ryan

Looks like a standup setup like the old set. I'll pick up a set when I get some spare cash. Probably going to do a 3" setup. Any suggestions on how to tie my GV lip to the 3" hoses?

Couple of shots from my setup. Look at the massive difference between the old 2" ducts and the new 3" version.

No trouble routing the 3", but I did have a fight the the ABS sensor wiring. It is a little tight, but not many options...

Track day in about a week.

Pls. confirm, that these provide a "shadow" for the ball joint to shade it from the radiant heat of the rotors?

Right now of course, inlets are DIY. You might look around to see what Keith is doing on the Targa car - he made an aluminum funnel-like duct behind the GV hole that fed to his old 2" hose, and he is currently reworking that for the 3", so he may have some input on this soon.

Looks great, very clean install!

Confirmed.
Laur3ns pics a few posts above this show this well.

-Ryan

We've added a Tech Article section on the website. The first of these articles is on brake cooling.

Not for the TL;DR crowd ;)
My focus with this is to provide an in-depth article about a certain component or system on track/race cars. I'd like to compile all the information and knowledge into one place, trimmed down enough that it is still comprehensive but also easy to follow.

I'll copy it here so that I'm not just linking off-forum...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412375037

Brake ducts are a critical part to a car’s braking system when driven or raced on the track. They are found in nearly every form of road racing from the grassroots level up to Formula One. Across this entire range, the goals are the same: to decrease the operating temperature of the braking system.

Highlights of proper brake cooling include:

- Increases pad friction and stopping power
- Longer brake pad and rotor life
- Consistency in feel and performance
- Increased driver confidence
- Brakes generate massive amounts of heat – it is the only system in the car producing heat well over 1,000 degrees F besides the combustion chamber of your motor!

Brake components have a window of temperature which they can operate within, and their performance degrades drastically when they exceed their maximum temperature ratings. The list of problems that arise as the brakes get hotter is scary;

- Glazed brake pads lose grip on the rotor
- Boiling brake fluid
- Calipers will flex and exert uneven pressure on the pads
- Cracked and/or failing rotors

Brake Duct intakes in F1:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412375683

The Problem

Brake rotors are designed to dissipate heat, but the air in the wheel well and inside the barrel of the wheel is turbulent and slow-moving, which causes the heat to build up around the brakes and diminishes their ability to shed that heat.

Brake ducts work by channeling air from a high pressure source (usually the front surface of the car) to the brake rotor. The air introduced by the brake ducts is much cooler than the brakes, and the airflow continuously moves hot air away and allows the brakes to shed heat at a faster rate. This dramatically lowers the average temperature that the brakes are operating at.

Maximizing your brake’s performance

There is much more to brake cooling than avoiding catastrophic failure. Cooling the brakes is also essential to getting maximum performance.

Brake pad manufacturers list their pad’s effective operating temperature range. Within that temperature range, the pad’s friction ability (grip on the rotor) is not a constant; it falls off as temperature increases. Even staying within the manufacturer’s stated temperature range, a pad operating closer to its limit performs worse than a cooler pad.

This graph from AP Racing illustrates the relationship between friction (y-axis) and temperature (x-axis) for one of their popular brake pads. You can see the friction drop off significantly even within the approved operating range of the pad:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412375037

To give some meaning to the numbers above, peak brake temperatures can easily exceed 700 degrees C without any cooling. Even with the best cooling, you’re likely to be above 300 degrees, somewhere on the downward sloping right side of the curve. How far to the right depends on how effective your brake ducting is.

Cooling ducts are critical to getting the best performance from your brakes because they shift the operating temperature leftward on the graph – providing you with more bite and therefore stopping power.

Increasing the lifespan of parts

As the average operating temperature of the brakes increases, the lifespan of the brake pads, rotors, and fluid all decrease.

This issue begins long before you actually exceed the operating range for your brake components.

We see this demonstrated all the time with the difference between a rookie and seasoned driver at the track; For example, in the same car with all the same brake components, a rookie may get 12 track days out of a set of brake pads, whereas the advanced driver is only getting 4 or 5 days from the same setup without ever exceeding the brake’s temperature range.

As your skill increases, you put more heat and stress on the brake components. The average temperature of the brakes rises, and they wear out faster.

Some just accept this as a cost of becoming a faster driver, without realizing that a brake ducting system could get them much of that lifespan back.

Advanced brake cooling systems may use multiple hoses and ducts to focus air on various components, as seen on this Nismo GTR:

http://www.singularmotorsports.com/w...rake_ducts.jpg

Making a Good Brake Duct System

There are three main portions to a brake duct system in a production car with enclosed wheels: The inlet, the hose, and the spindle adapter/outlet.

Inlet

The key for the inlet is for it to be in a high-pressure location. Any inlet on the front of the car will work to a degree. They will be more effective the closer to the center of the bumper you can put them. As you move away from center, the air is traveling sideways over the bumper, not straight on, so inlets further to the sides are less effective. There are lots of DIY solutions out there for the air source, and lots of universal inlets available on the market that you can get creative with.

In racing applications, the inlets are often very low on the bumper, just above the splitter surface because the splitter makes this is a very high pressure area. For cars without a splitter, it is ideal to have the inlets higher up as there is much less pressure along the lower edge of the bumper.

Hose

Hose is the most common method of getting the air from the inlet to the brakes as it is flexible, so it can be routed around the suspension and other obstacles and it can also flex as the wheels turn and the suspension moves.

Hose is available from many online retailers – it’s important to get the kind that is heat resistant. We like the 2-ply neoprene or silicone versions, which can handle direct temperature of 300-500 degrees F depending on the specific construction.

Most hose with a steel spiral-wound support has an accordion shape both inside and out. While this allows the flexibility which is needed in some areas, the downside is that the ridges on the inside create turbulence and slow the airflow. For this reason, many well developed brake duct systems use a combination of smoothly formed tubes where flexibility is not needed, with shorter sections of the flexible hose for the portions which need to articulate.

Size

Choosing a hose size that is too small can handicap your entire brake cooling system.

For the flexible hose, the accordion shape which decreases airflow makes the hose perform as if it is smaller than its actual dimensions. Additionally, any bends in the hose drastically reduce the airflow. Bending the hose is nearly unavoidable though, because the hose must route around obstacles and then turn towards the rotor.

There is one sure way to directly combat these drawbacks – increase the hose diameter. The airflow through the hose increases as a square of the diameter, so even a ½” increase in hose size actually produces a very significant difference, and this highlights why the hose size is so important.

The largest difficulty that arises as hose size increases is getting the orientation just right between the wheel, spindle, sway bar, etc. since tolerances are slim – so a specialized part that locates the hose and its outlet position becomes more critical. That brings us to…

Outlet

This is the part which is usually designed for a specific car, and it does the job of getting the air as close to the brakes as possible. It also locates the hose at a precise orientation to avoid binding or interfering with all of the various moving parts in this area.

Brake rotors are designed to vent air from their center outwards, so the closer to the center of the rotor you can get the air, the better. This is why the Singular Motorsports Brake Ducts are designed with diverter flaps which direct the air towards the center of the rotor even after the air leaves the outlet.

Some DIY solutions try to avoid having an outlet piece, and just place the end of the hose close to the brakes. It’s important to understand that this has safety risks; brake duct hose is wound with steel wire, and while it is nicely contained within the hose along the hose’s length, at the end of the hose it is exposed and it can easily unravel from the hose if it catches on something. We’ve seen more than one catastrophic failure with sudden tire and brake line damage as a result of this. When the hose is clamped to an outlet, the clamp holds the wire in place and prevents this possibility.

3″ Singular Motorsports brake ducts for the Mazda Miata:

http://www.singularmotorsports.com/w...rake_ducts.jpg

Why it makes sense to run brake ducts on nearly ANY track-driven car:

A) Even if you aren’t at the limit of the brake pad/fluid’s operating temperature, decreasing the temps of the brakes can drastically increase their lifespan – in many cases pad life can nearly double (In other words, these pay for themselves over time)

B) A low-power car may be able to run track-only pads and avoid reaching the limits of the pad, but many people in the double-duty street/track category want to run a less than full-track pad that can be used everywhere. In these cases, really good brake ducting can be the key to keeping those pads within their operating temperature range and not destroying them.

3″ Brake Duct vs. “No Duct” Test at Singular Motorsports

I recently ran our 3” version vs. no ducting at the track (taped over the duct inlet on one side of the car). Following a brief half-session, and after a cool down lap which allowed temps to come down and stabilize a bit, on the non-ducted side we saw caliper temps of 585 degrees F. For those of you keeping score, that’s just a breath away from the boiling point of the Motul RBF600.

On the ducted side of the car, the caliper was 445 degrees F. Perfectly happy.
I had intended to do more testing with the side that was blocked off, but after seeing those temps I aborted that plan and kept both sides ducted the rest of the day. I literally would not run my car without these.

We now have 3" brake ducts for the Keisler spindles!

Full post about them is in the brakes/suspension section:
Brake Ducts for Keisler Spindles by Singular Motorsports

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/download/file.php?id=2016

I have the trackspeed 2.5 setup but very impressed with the Singular Motorsports quality.

Trackspeed units are 2". We make the 2.5" and 3", which Trackspeed also sells :)

-Ryan

What part would you perceive not to be up to quality?

Just thought I would share pics of my installed Singular Motorsports 2.5'' brake ducts that I bought thru Goodwin Racing:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422753808

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422753808

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422753808

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422753808



...front inlets for 2.5'' brake ducting...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422753808



Great fit and finish and the second(also have SM hood louvers that I love!) Singular Motorsports product I have purchased and have been thoroughly pleased with, I look forward to new products from Singular Motorsports. :D

Looks good. Where did you source those inlets? Me gusta.

Thanks Steven! Very jealous of your LE, its my favorite factory miata! :D

Bought the aluminum flanges right hur:
ALUMINUM FLANGES FOR DUCTING from Aircraft Spruce

Have purchased several other items from them, always shipped quickly!

Thanks. My 3" ducting currently exits out the belly pan (next to the oil cooler). It's decidedly not pretty (and almost certainly not that efficient) but I was in a hurry before the last track day of last fall and didn't have time to disassemble the entire belly pan and find a better route. Suffice to say that it's a difficult fitment when your have to share limited space with intercooler tubing.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1422771378

I may have missed it somewhere but,for the guys who are routing these to the stock front bumper (Greasemonkey2000),about how many feet per side of hose did you end up needing? Thanks

Our ducting kits include 11ft. You need high-temp silicone hose, not dryer duct from HDM. We have it here:

Trackspeed Engineering - 2.5" Singular ducts + hoses

Trackspeed Engineering - 3.0" Singular ducts + hoses

^Yep, 11' should cover any routing method someone comes up with, and $80/$85 is a great price for that quality of hose.

Depends on undertray and inlet location, some routes use a little less length but the last thing you want is to buy just barely enough to save a few bucks and then find out you need another 6", and then you're buying another full length all over again.

-Ryan

Yep. I can do a car with about ~4ft on each side, but it will depend on exact routing, IC pipes, etc. 11ft makes it easy (and the ducting comes in 11ft sticks). I use the excess to duct remote-mounted oil coolers. :)

Thanks gents! Much appreciated.

Singular Motorsports brake ducts on the V8Roadster Pro Series assembly on display at the Mitty this past weekend.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1430152142

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1430152142

^ i see my car :D

Can't wait to get mine. Should have them Friday.

It's probably obvious, but these fit over sport brakes right?

Yes Sir.

-Ryan

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1430338128

that is a well used caliper hahah

Indeed these calipers have seen things and been places.

Assembling bits slowly for a much needed rotor and caliper upgrade down the road.

-Ryan

New updates have arrived for our brake ducts! Thanks to you guys, we are now manufacturing at a higher volume (still in the U.S.) , laser etching our logos and enlisted the help of robots to perform the welding!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1437494706

ABS with the big 3" brake ducts is a tight squeeze with the ABS sensor's wiring. Customer Russell Garner figured out that if you unbolt the sensors and swap the left sensor to the right side of the car and vice versa, they clear with room to spare:

Sensor in its standard position with the 3" duct, wiring gets squeezed:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1448841068

Left and Right sensors swapped:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1448841068

^^ lucky for me - I haz Keisler spindles with mr2 hubs - but you know that already :D

Good tip. I thought about doing that but didn't try it as there was juuust enough room to get the duct on, and the hose and clamp installed.

Todd C from Texas has logged about 100 hours and counting with his endurance car using our 3″ brake ducts. After a “fair” test Todd reported the following:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457389311

OOPS sorry for the aged bump....
Just what I was looking for.