Has anyone here taken the Magnum to a track day yet? If yes, how did the OEM brakes stand up?

TIA.

Joe

 

Brakes? I drive down my street to test my brakes...

I don't understand the question, don't you go to the track to test your Hemi?

 

Road Atlanta and Atlanta Motor Speedway haven't opened for the year yet, so I can't go test any theories there, but I've done a few 'trial' panic stops and these things have some of the best brakes I've ever trod upon. Bar none.

I suppose if you heat them up real good and then sit stopped, letting all the heat transfer into one spot on the rotors that they'd warp just like any other car's will, but then that would just be wrong, wouldn't it?

Since I've started stopping a few car lengths short and rolling real slow at the places I do have to stop at when going thru the mountains, I haven't had even one tiny problem with rotor warpage on this or the even heavier Van.
I haven't yet gotten the Magnum brakes to fade even a tiny bit.

Mike

 

Sorry for the confusion. I was talking about a road racing track. The plan is to run at Portland International Raceway in Oregon State during the first weekend of March. The track is not that slow (they run Indy cars there) and I would guess a Hemi could probably reach 120+mph on the straight and close to 100 mph in other sections between the corners. Slowing the 4200-lbs. car is my concern. All the other cars I have taken before were at least 1,000 pounds lighter and they all had pretty good brakes. I am just wondering if the OEM pads and fluid on the Hemi can take the heat generated in 20-minute sessions.

Joe

 

I've done these in Texas at Texas World Speedway in College Station and Motorsport Ranch in Ft. Worth. There is no way to explain it to people, just how hard you drive a car at these events. They are a blast though. My last car I used was an '02 Z-06 Corvette. I even had to change the radiator in it, to a racing version. I wore out the rotors in three weekends. But it was fun.

 

Joe,
You from Portland I take it? I think you're the first Oregonian I've heard of on this site!
I want to race my RT also...if you go to PIR in March, let me know how it goes. I'll be out of town the first few weeks in March so I'll probably go later in the year.
I drove down highway 53 (off Hwy 26) near the coast and it took 20 minutes to do the 18 miles...put the Magnum through some heavy testing on that very curvy road and it performed marvelously without brake fade.

Todd

 

Flush the brake fluid and restore with Motul 600.

Your brakes and rotors will be fine for your twenty minute sessions. Just don't come in an park the Magnum without driving around for a few minutes at low speed to cool the brakes. You'll definately warp your rotors.

I'm hoping HAWKs will have a pad soon.

Hope this helps,

Keep the shiny side up.

 

No. I live in Vancouver, Canada.

Joe

 

Got back from the event last night. Just want to report on what happened, in case if anyone of you are interested in tracking a Magnum in the future.

The OE brakes were adequate, but just barely. Couple of times, I was pretty aggressive with them at the end of the straight and the pads were just starting to fad at the end of it and I almost missed the corner entry three times. Once I learned their limitation, I started braking a little earlier and they performed great as long as I don't work them "REALLY" hard. Air temp was around 60-65 degrees. I suspect on hotter days and with better tires, the brake pads will be the limiting factor.

I ran the first three laps with the ESP on, and found corner exit speed was less than impressive. Once I turned it off, the car was more aggressive in putting power down and subjectively, the car felt faster coming out of corners. I ran without ESP for the rest of the day.

The OEM all-season tire is a major limiting factor in braking as well as cornering. However, they performed better than my anticipation. I was expecting a lot worse and I was surprised. The car basically understeers, which is not surprising considering the long wheelbase and the front weight bias. At no time, the car felt unstable and wanting to swap ends. Driven correctly, the car was VERY fast. I knew it was going to be fast on the straights, but it surprised me with its cornering behaviour and capability. I ran in the intermediate group, which consists of about 40 experienced drivers in mostly import sports cars (from Miatas, Lotuses to Porsches) and sedans (from Hondas, VWs to BMWs) . In two sessions, I lapped about two donzen cars (including two late models Porsches and a few Subaru WRX, but it did take some hard driving on my part). I was lapped once by a very well driven Subaru WRX. The fastest car in the group was my friend's '04 Porsche GT3. I drove it during the 3rd session and it was really impressive. It was probably one of the quickest production cars I have ever driven. During the first two sessions (10 minute each), he had my Magnum in sight towards the end of the session but was never close enough at all to lap me, so the Magnum wasn't really a slug. While driving the GT3, I encountered a Lotus Elise which was also pretty quick. No, the Magnum can't hang with a GT3 or an Elise if they are well driven.

Overall, my opinion is that if some serious R compound tires and higher-temp brake pads are put on this car, it can be serious fast. Yes, the steering feel is terrible, the chassis moves and rolls too much. But hay, as a tow vehicle (I use it to tow my open-wheel single seater formula car), it's not too shabby. How often can someone run his tow vehicle against other peoples' race cars and doesn't embarrass himself in the process?

Oh, one more thing. The seat sucks in high G situation.

Joe

 

Joe, if you were in the Magnum instead of the GT3, you could have just driven over the Elise.
The front brakes on the RT are quite large (13.6"), so they would have the ability to stop the car well with a good set of pads. Like you, I like Hawk pads. I've used everything from their HPS compound all the way to their HT15, which is just shy of an Indy Car pad. I see that they don't list one for the Magnum, but does anyone know if the front brakes are specific to the Magnum/300C, or are they lifted from some other Chrysler/Dodge car/truck? If so, we might be able to find something that fits...