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Essential for Production Race Cars

Essential for Production Race Cars

I remember the days in the 80s and 90s, when one of the key skills in driving a production race car was keeping from bending your brake pad backers. ...
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Key to Enduro Victory

Key to Enduro Victory

Team Sahlen competes in Long Endurance Races. These are not your ordinary 90 minute enduros. No,were talking long, long races, 9 to 14 hours long,...
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Track Wisdom

"Very high [brake] temperatures can also cause the brake fluid to boil with a resultant increase in pedal travel. This should be detected immediately by the driver, as a very small quantity of boiling fluid is enough for the pedal to go right to the floor without any effect; in contrast to the liquid brake fluid, the boiling part is compressible. It is particularly important that when the car has been stopped for a short time -- up to 15 or 20 minutes after a drive in which the brakes have become very hot -- the pedal is depressed for a check. When the car is at rest, brakes act as a heat sink from which heat spreads to the fluid contained in the calipers; brakes which were fully operative when the car was driven may have become totally inefficient after it has stood awhile."

-- Paul Frere, Sports Car and Competition Driving

About Us

The Hard Brakes Mission:

Create the world's best brake heat shielding solutions, with unsurpassed innovation and quality at unmatched prices.

We created our first titanium brake heat shield in 2004, in response to our own need for protection from excess brake heat generated from piloting our own 3,700 pound, 330HP, sedan (shown here) around the track.  With that weight/power ratio it was quite possible to boil the brake fluid and toast the caliper seals and dust boots without even trying, and we were looking for all the protection we could get.  We shared our creation with other drivers of the same car model (that's a Volvo S60R in case you were wondering), and found there was a quick consensus forming that we were on to something.  We started to spread the word to other drivers who were driving cars with the same Brembo brake system, and found that our product was giving good results there as well.

We recognized a good thing when we saw it, and started to expand our catalog to a wider range of cars and racing applications.  To date we have developed our titanium heat shields for close to 1,000 applications, with sales to pro racing teams, brake systems manufacturers and enthusiasts on all continents.  We still retain our roots to the racing community, and work closely with race teams big and small to provide the best thermal protection system available for brakes at a reasonable price.  We are still a family-owned business in Naperville, Illinois (in the Western Chicagoland area), with a global and growing market reach.

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