[ggggbmw]

I was having some fun with a cheap FLIR camera at a track event, and thought I would post some pictures on just how hot our brakes get. These pictures were taken after a cool-down lap, at least 10 minutes after being off the track, and with a stiff 45F wind. So the temps are probably a lot cooler than actual track temps.

The biggest surprise to me was how much heat was concentrated at the rotor to hat junction. Over 300F! I'm not sure if it's just a side effect of the conductive aluminum hat pulling heat from the rotor, or what. But it does give me some concern that it is really baking the wheel bearings. Might be nice to get rotors with an air gap, but I don't think I've seen any that fit the 2'er.



This shot shows the rotor at 170F, but I don't think that's completely accurate. Because the rotor is shiny it tends to throw the FLIR off. You can see the reflection of the 'hotter' wheel spokes on rotor. They really aren't hotter, but the heat of the rotor is bouncing off the spokes, then back to the rotor reflection, and showing as hotter. You can also see a bit of brightness of the rotor edge webs, so the rotor internals are definitely still very warm.



This shot shows the caliper at a toasty 207F. You can really see that it wouldn't take much more heat to start boiling any water in the brake fluid. And why fresh dry high-temp fluid is so important.



This shot shows just how much heat is concentrated in the brakes/wheels/tires of the car. And also just how much thermal blanketing there is on the hood, as it is relatively cool in comparison.



I had hoped to use the FLIR to analyze tire temps, but the results weren't too good. Like an infra-red thermometer, the FLIR is only seeing surface temps, and the surface cooled too fast to provide any gradient information. Either that or my tires were at perfect heat distribution. The high heat in the grooves hints at the overall tire temps, but I think the TPMS readings are probably more useful. This is also from an early run where the tire pressures were too high and I was seeing temps over 180F.



Nothing really new or ground breaking with these, but I did think they were interesting.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by ggggbmw

I was having some fun with a cheap FLIR camera at a track event, and thought I would post some pictures on just how hot our brakes get.

The brake temp paint on my front and rear rotors' edges indicate temperatures are reaching somewhere north of 800° Centigrade / 1472° Fahrenheit. It's time for brake ducts.

[Maynard]

Very cool pics, thanks.