Video: The 2015 Dakar marathon stage was an extreme test of man and machine. From a brake system viewpoint, Stage-8 was the most extreme test of brake endurance that we have seen since we first supplied brake system components to a Dakar team in 2009. The second half of the stage saw the cars descend from an altitude of about 4400m - 800m in about 100kms hard of racing. The brake systems were pushed to (and beyond) safe limits by the leading drivers. We wont quote disc and calliper temperatures in a public forum such as this but it is safe to say that the drivers used up any safety factor that is built in above recommended maximum limits. Toyota Motorsports lead driver, Giniel De Villiers, put in an excellent performance over the 2-day marathon stage. An incident with an ASO helicopter flying low over him, resulted in reduced visibility and Giniel hit a rock causing a puncture and costing precious minutes. After the tire change Giniel again drove very hard and towards the end of the massive descent, the race brake fluid in his front brake circuit began overheating (meaning that it had reached a temperature of over 320 deg C). He had to back off slightly to allow the brake fluid to cool and condense in order to regain full brake efficiency. This cost him some time but in the end he ended the stage 8-minutes behind Nasser in the overall standings. An excellent performance overall. Although we do not expect another stage like Stage-8 in terms of brake abuse, Powerbrake has worked closely with the team today, to fine tune Giniels car with regards to brake balance and setup for the final days of the rally. Great news for Toyota is that Yazeed Al-Rahji took the Stage-8 win (driving an identical car to Giniels with the same Powerbrake race brake callipers and Endless race pads). Well done to him for this stage win on his first Dakar Rally. The video below shows some great footage of the tactics used by Giniel / Nasser to get across the 130kms of salt flats at the beginning of Stage-8. They reached speeds of almost 200kph in the process.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 21:12:25 +0000
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