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Review: Garage Star Brake Master Brace

8K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  phillyb™ 
#1 · (Edited)
Much thanks to Ken from Garage Star for quality products, fast shipping and customer service.

Upon hearing that Garage Star was going to produce a brake master brace, a question popped into my mind. Why? What would the point be?



Answer is, whenever the brake pedal is depressed, the firewall flexes and the entire brake master assembly moves forward a good solid 1/8 inch, and braking power is lost. To remedy this, the Garage Star brace utilizes the factory shock mounting points to push back against the brake master, thus reducing the amount of flex in the firewall and potential braking power lost.

Design is very utilitarian and straight forward, the brace itself being made of steel, then powdercoated in a black finish. The stopper is made from delrin, with a 13mm nut threaded onto the protruding screw.



Being a prototype, there is slight weld splatter on the brace, which won't make it to the production version. Even then, it still looks good. The weld gives it some character, as if it came like that from the factory, and the black finish only adds to that feel.



Installation is easy, and should take 3 minutes max. Two shock nuts and the two bolts that hold the air box down need to be removed, after which, the brace can just slide under the air box and into the shock mount. After bolted down, a 13mm wrench is used to secure the nut on the stopper.

After installing it on the car, and going for a drive the first touch of the brakes brought forth a noticeably stiffer pedal feel. Not only during hard braking, but normal, even soft braking. It inspires confidence, just in the same way an aftermarket steering wheel gives a Miata better road feel. I removed it just so I could see if I could live without it, and I can't, it truly makes the stock brake pedal feel mushy. I just had to put it back on. Besides, it matches the engine bay really well.



 
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#4 ·
Have this sitting on my desk waiting to get installed. This review made me even more excited about it.

Also, those with a spongy pedal due to ABS could greatly benefit from this brace. My NA is non-ABS and my brothers NA has ABS; even after constant brake bleeds using all the methods described on the site, the difference in pedal feel is huge.

That said, non-abs + MC brace = win :)

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
 
#7 · (Edited)
While the car was stopped and turned off, I put a dial indicator with magnetic base affixed to the strut tower bar with the indicator end touching the end of the MC. I pumped the brake pedal with the car off to build up pressure and pressed it as hard as I could while a friend watched the dial indicator. I don't remember the exact number, but it was definitely less than a tenth of an inch, and I swear it was in the tens of thousandths.

Regardless, just use common sense- do you think the steel firewall can flex an entire inch and not eventually fatigue or break? I'm not saying that the brace doesnt do anything, I'm just pointing out that it definitely doesnt move a "good solid inch"

fwiw Emilio agrees that it does move: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=184184, im just saying that i doubt it will move the claimed inch
 
#9 ·
I don't know how much it actually flexes but I know for a fact that it moves more while actually breaking hard at speed than it does while the whole car is stationary. Your measurements are inaccurate....but so are the guesstimates of an inch!
 
#14 ·
I am going to piggyback off of Justin's review here.

I've been using this brace for the past 2 weeks now, and I can say it does make a notable difference in brake feel. I don't have any spirited driving or track time with the brace, but for everyday use, I feel much more feedback through the pedal. Before my brake pedal was "dead", in which I would mash it and get brake. Now, there is some tensile feedback through the pedal I can feel with everyday driving.


Highly recommend it. And it's back in stock! So level up your brake game and stop being a punk bitch.

http://garagestar.com/shop/brake_master_brace.html


I can't wait to test it out at Laguna Seca in 2 weeks.
 
#21 ·
ABS cars might not notice much of a difference. I had the prototype on my ABS car and it made some difference. Then again, I only got to drive my car for a week out of that month while I was leave so I never got a chance to really "test" it to see if breaking was improved. The pedal seemed to stiffen up a little quicker than before, but the nature of ABS makes it hard to tell if there was any real improvement.
 
#25 ·
I'll drink to this, despite having the unit disabled on my 95M track car, the unit is still there and makes the brakes feel garbage compared to other Miatas. This brace helped with pedal consistancy over the course of a weekend on my car though, which is great. Typically towards the end of day 2 the pedal would just get worse and worse, now it doesn't. And before everyone jumps on me and says it was the fluid not the brace, I didn't change or bleed the fluid after adding the brace, it's the exact same fluid with no additional bleeding, it's the brace that made the difference since it's the only thing I changed. Pads were the same as before too.
 
#23 ·
It's fine for DD duty, but leaves a LOT to be desired during any sort of spirited driving. I'd remove it if I could, but I don't want to deal with that headache.
 
#26 ·
Just ran my first autocross with the GarageStar brace, what an improvement in brake pedal feel.

Usually under hard braking I will feel the brake pedal give a little before the braking power firms up. This time when I hit the brake pedal the brakes responded immediately, I actually had to adjust how I raced the car from before have the brake lol.

AWESOME product.
 
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