Good points .

I know they made minifin's without spacers back in the days but then changed to virtually all spacers . Just not sure if they completely redesigned them or just cast a spacer on . Will go looking for some photo's to compare ....

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To be honest mate, I don't remember where I got it done. I am just about due for some newy's so it was a while ago. It is a local place up in Toowoomba here though So somewhere in Brissy should be able to do it for you I would imagine.

In regard to brake fade. I can't tell the difference, they seem to fade at around the same time (as near as I can tell when using the brakes hard). I feel like there is negligable difference in fade.

The reason why my brakes are good for drums is all down to constant adjustment and super soft lining material. With that said I don't get really long out of them (maybe about 7,000 - 10,000 miles if I'm lucky). In 1,500 miles or so I need new drums (as I have machined mine out as far as they will go) so I figured I would buy some new shoes to go with them (start fresh).

TBH I think the super soft (or whatever compound it is) grips as well as the old asbestos pads (I still run asbestos pads in the rear). They grip as well but the asbestos pads don't leave brake dust everywhere

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

I don't remember typing that I thought I said Nick

I get it now someone has made N ick automatically change to Sir Spamalot

Yes , and he has to give his girlfriend some flowers before I'll change it back

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sport850,

i've looked into this, you could fit the front drums off a "twin" shoe onto he front of the single and run the wider pads. remember that the twin leading shoe breaks are 1/4 inch wider in the shoe!.

this will give you more contact area and thus more friction than standard. it's gotta help but it wont be as good as a twin set-up.
FYI some of the works 850's had disc's (same size as the 997 cooper)so you could go this way and still keep the car "period"


as for the minifins, the spacer & the later spaced drums there are reliefs cut into the spacer that prohibit the machining of these down. the early S drums don't have this spacer and can be machined:D(i've sourced some of these drums as i want to fit cooper s rims and want a totally legal spacer-set-up)

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Mugginsmoo, what do you mean by relief cuts? I can't make out what you mean...
I do see that by skimming most of the spacer away you will loose a lot of the 'fins' but not all. But that said alloy has better dissipation than cast iron and even with half the fins gone I reakon it would still cool better than the stocko drums.

what i meant was that in the centre, there are some reliefs between the wheel stud holes.

when you look at that pic they look like you could machine them, but all the fin drums i've seen have the reliefs, just the same as the later spaced drums.

if you could find a set of the drums you have in that pic you'd be "apples". my concern is that they will have that pic on their site and then send you the newer drums and you'd be unable to modify them.

however fitting the machined fin drums and wider shoes would help the stopping power, somewhat

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There used to be two different width Minifin drums. They had spacer and non-spacer.
Hmmm, I sold a Leyland Mini in the Blue Mountains with a pair of non-spacer drums....

yer, they're hard to find.

i've been looking for 4 of them, with no luck. only seen one for sale on ebay uk, but the seller couldn't locate the other one

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I have approached mini sport SA about the drums (thats where I got the picture) about whether they are machinable. We will see what they say...

Also I thought I would add this image to, it shows one way to try and get some air into the brakes, I was thinking of grouping the holes and making a scope to try and catch the air and direct it through...



Along with slotted drums, minifins and good pads I reakon they would perform pretty well.
I guess the only way to test these theories is to try them

Here is the response from Minisport SA:



Oh well, may have to look at other options...

bugger,
i thought that you might be on to something, i had a funny feeling that they couldn't be machined.

oh well we'll have to find an alternative

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Twin leading shoe brakes run the same width drums as the single 850 ones. They just use more of the drum width.
However, you can't easily put the wider shoes on the 850 backplate, you would need to pack the wheel cylinder and drum anchors up by 1/8", somehow.
If you don't, the shoes will sit crooked- I've seen it tried...
Easier to do it properly, fit the twinLS backplates, cylinders etc.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

That's the direction I'm heading I think , one day I'll find some non spacered minifins , need to get my London spy looking for them ....

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