AP Racing By Essex Radi-CAL BBK Drops Weight and Adds Confidence on the ND Miata

With a classic FR layout, minimal weight and near perfect balance, the Mazda Miata ND has a ton going for it as a track day platform. When it comes to extended lapping however, even the the Club trim's optional brake package isn't anywhere near as optimized as our AP Racing by Essex Radi-CAL Competition Brake Kits. One of our clients, Reno, recently offered some feedback on our system, which was a revelation to him in terms of consistency, confidence, and durability under extreme track use. After bringing home two SCCA TT podiums this year, and placing 3rd overall in the Tuner class index, here's what he had to say about the kit:

"When I went for the Radi-Cal setup, I wanted to forget about my brakes on track and that's exactly what has happened. They are always 100% consistent and I am very happy with that. As far as miles go, There's probably 3-4000 miles on the front brakes at this point and my whole season of track days and time trials which is somewhere between 15-20 days. For the summer, I was really only driving the car to, from, and on track. Depending on the track it's a 200-400 mile round trip on the freeway and averaging around 100 track miles per track day."

"Wear rates have been pretty good with the R12 pads. I was getting a bit tapering on the outer LF pad on clockwise circuits (which is 3/5 of the ones I drive and where I spend most of my time). In addition, I was wearing LF pads quite a bit faster than RF. I've started rotating them and it's helped even out the wear and tapering. I don't keep as accurate of records as I should but I think a set of front pads is lasting me 10-12 track hours. This is taking them down to probably 30-40%. I could run them longer but start worrying about heat transfer into the calipers and getting down to the rivets on the very expensive rotors."


"The calipers have been flawless and still look new. The pads are a little tricky to change as it seems to take a bit of maneuvering to get them out of the caliper and a bit of force to reset the pistons against the anti-knockback springs (editor's note: using a magnet makes the process of pulling the pads from the caliper much easier). The rotors have also been great so far. There is very little heat checking/ cracking, probably due to the ND being such a light car."