Need advice on Unique brakes

[Young1]

My Unique Motorcars cobra was built from a deluxe pallet kit in 2008. 15 inch wheels. Firestone Indy 500 tires. Wilwood 3/4 master cylinders. Wildwood front calipers. Jag inboard discs in rear. 50/50 bias. My concern is the brakes are not strong enough to lock a wheel. I do not feel comfortable with the speed of the car and the brake performance. Are the front pads a "racing" type material that works best when hot? BTW they leave a brown rusty color residue on the inside of the wheel. Will a different pad be better suited for street driving? Anyone with the same experience?

[Mr Jody]

Not to circumvent any worthwhile advice with experience here, but you may want to contact Wilwood directly to see what they advise. I spoke with a Wilwood rep on the Hot Rod Power Tour this summer, and he was very familiar with the hub and brake set up that Unique uses and even had one there to show me. While you may not be able to speak with the same person I spoke with on the tour, there are probably other folks there familiar with what Unique uses and more specifically which pad material would be an upgrade to what you may have. And of course the folks at Unique are always willing to help out and provide information from their own personal years of experience with Wilwood brakes.

As a side, here is a great primer on brake pad material with information on brake dust appearance.
Tech 101 – How to choose the right brake friction material | Hemmings Daily

[mdross1]

Wilwood will take care of your problem.If the pad compound is correct it could be the masters need to be a little smaller.We picked up a pressure gauge to check line pressure.

Our problem was the rods that operate the masters had to be moved closer to the brake lever pivot to get the required line pressure.Good Luck

[turnpike boy]

I've had my Unique since...2002? 2003?; also built from the Deluxe pallet kit. Same brake setup with Wilwood front calipers/cylinders/brake pedals and Jag rear inners. I went to Hawk pads in the front some time ago and found much better brake performance by doing so.

However. The brakes in this car DO require a lot of leg, and always have. I will be following this thread out of curiosity since I've grown accustomed to them, and honestly don't have any issue with them. I have never locked up the brakes - never been able to - but find that the car can be stopped hard enough to stall the (carbureted) motor without much problem. A poor indicator, I agree, but the point is that non-power-assisted brakes are a real oddity in today's world and take some getting used to. The inability to lock up the brakes used to disturb me, but no more - the car can stop faster than my 2011 Infiniti G37S with 19" Yoko's. Which has power assist, anti-skid, and a whole lot of rubber on the ground.

Do get better pads - I'll see if I can find the part # for the Hawks too. They're dusty but that cleans off without too much effort. Do drive the car and be understanding that putting some real force thru the pedal will produce results commensurate with your expectations of a Cobra .

[JeepSnake]

Young1, it sounds like you may have air in the lines, old fluid, etc and need a thorough bleeding of the lines.

I tell you this from experience - I am the world's absolute worst brake bleeder to begin with, and the Wilwood double-master system Unique uses only magnifies my lack of ability. Seriously, when I bought my Unique (third owner), I couldn't lock the brakes. Took it to their shop (only 60 miles away from me, thank goodness!), Alan bled them, and oh boy what a difference! As Turnpike says, it will take a bit of leg, but you should be able to lock them. We are able to lock the "standard" Deluxe Pallet brake setup on both my car and my dad's 427 car.

When you install new pads, take some 80 - 100 grit sanding pads on an orbital sander and break the glaze on the rotors. Then follow the bedding instructions for whatever pads you use. This helps as well.

One other side item I'll mention, though it won't affect the actual force, is the pedal height. The stock setup has the brake pedal very low, which makes for easier heel-toe shifting. However, it always gave me the impression that I had terrible brakes because it felt like I was pushing my foot all the way to the grille in order to stop. Since I don't get spirited enough to heel-toe, I machined new extended pedal clevises to raise the pedal to a more "regular car" height, and this dramatically improved the feel to me.

Hope this helps, and best of luck getting it sorted. (Might post over on the Unique forum as well.)