Brake Cooling Project Update #2

Prior to my last event at Putnam Park, I made some small updates to help aid in brake cooling.  I did not run in the racegroup at Putnam, only in Time Trials where we run a much shorter time period so I did not get a chance to fully test the updates.  However, the brakes felt good and there were no issues noted with fade.  After the event I pulled the tires off to inspect everything and there were no signs of excessive heat damaging anything.  The DEI wrapped ABS lines looked fine as well as the bushings around the steering knuckle.  I'm calling these minor updates a success.

While the small changes helped, they weren't going to solve my issue completely.  I still do not feel safe pushing the car hard for an entire 30min race.  Next up was my plan to run larger brake ducting from the front bumper back to the caliper itself.  I have been running a 2" ducting but the car simply needs more.

I purchased some 2.5" NACA ducts and hose and finally got time this week to set about installing these new ducts somewhere in the front of the car.  The only issue - space is severely limited!

To the right are some pics of the openings in the OEM Evo IX bumper.  The first pic is a 'faux' hole that most people route a cooling duct through.  The only issue is if you upgrade your intercooler (like me) the larger piping further restricts the inlet - plus a near immediate 90-degree bend is needed to go under the blue radiator/frame support. 

The 2nd pic is further to the left showing where a lot of production cars run their ducting from which is the corners of the bumper.  Here you see the oil cooler sitting in the back; which itself needs as much air as it can get to keep the engine oil cool especially when you run consistently high rpms. 
The patch job forward from the oil cooler is a previous attempt to route in a brake duct that proved to raise the engine oil temps by nearly 30 degrees.