By: Charles Juckett (Charlesj)

When taking your Subaru to the track, one of the most important areas to upgrade is your brakes.  Even with upgraded pads and track pads, one can see brake temperatures beyond the operating range of the brake pads.  This inevitably leads to fade and possibly boiling your brake fluid.  To combat these high temperatures, Race Comp Engineering  developed a bolt on brake cooling kit for the front of an STI/WRX. 

The kit consists out two powder coated aluminum ducts and more than enough 3” tubing to direct air from the front of the car to the brakes.  The ducts are designed to bolt to the bottom of the hub and direct the cool air directly to the center vanes of the rotors.  Since the rotors ventilation feeds from the center, the cool air is drawn though the entire rotor.  They also offer a upgraded high temperature tubing, however, in our experience, this is not necessary. At $300 they are certainly not cheap, however there is little else to choose from.

Installation

The installation is fair simply and can be down in about an hour.  You will need to purchase extra long zip ties to fasten the tubing as it requires quite a few.  Also, since you are removing the backing plate, you need to protect the ABS sensor line from the heat.  To do so, I used some DEI heat sleeve.  Additionally, since the tubing sits quite low, you may consider installing only the ducts and waiting until you are at the track to install the tubing removing it when you leave.

• Start by removing the front wheels.
• Next unbolt the front calipers and pull aside.
• Remove the discs.
• Remove the brake backing plate by removing the three bolts securing it.
• Install to brake cooling duct at the bottom of the hub using two of the three bolts you removed.
• Remove the bolt holding the ABS sensor to the HUB, slide about 8-10” of heat sleeve over the line, and reinstall.
• Reinstall the disc and rotor.
• Cut the long length of tubing in half which will require wire cutters.  Bend down the metal wire end so as to relieve tension.
• Slide on the clamp and tube to the brake duct and tighten.
• In order to clear the wheels, the tubing will have to be route slightly back along the bottom front edge of the lower control arm all the way to the subframe. From there it will follow the bottom edge of the subframe until it is complete clear of the tire at full lock.  From this point simply route it to the easiest front air source.  On and STI, this will be the fog light holes.
• Use the zip ties to secure to the control arm and subframe using several at each point.  The tube can also be crushed slightly to allow for more clearance.
• For a clean permanent installation, use the WRX fog light covers without fog lights.  The hole for the round fog lights makes a perfect match for the tubing

Results

After a few track days, it became very apparent that the Hawk HP+ pads could not withstand the high temps seen on high speed road courses and were fading heavily after only a few laps.  Further more, the lack of braking power and lap after lap abuse created temperatures so high that the rotors would glow and the Motul fluid would boil.

For our test, we returned to Sebring and tried out the new cooling system.  The results were mixed.  While brake fade was reduced, it was still noticeable and outright bad at times.  The largest advantage noted by the kit was the time it took to regain the brakes.  Before, once fade kicked in, it stayed until the driver backed off for at least a half lap.  With the cooling kit, the brakes were generally ready by the next corner without backing down depending on which part of the track the fade began.  In conclusion I would stay they do their job, however they cannot work miracles.  A more track oriented pads will  be required in combination with this kit for serious track days or tracks that are demanding on your braking system.