Vorshlag has offered "ducted hose" style brake cooling backing plates, inlet ducts, and tubing for a number of cars for many years. This is how you cooled the brakes for track use for many decades. Well there are issues doing that, namely the corrugated hose have some serious flow restrictions and the tires and wheels can rub holes in them. But there is another way...
This is our brake "deflector" cooling kit for the S550 Mustang, which is modeled after the 2015 Mustang GT Performance Pack brake deflectors - which were much smaller plastic deflectors (ours are 3x the size and flow a lot more air). The 2015-up "S550" Mustang car came with a number of OEM brake options, but our kit is made to fit these systems with "non-inverted hat" rotors:
- 2015-up Performance Pack 15" dia Brembo 6-piston brakes
- 2016-up Shelby GT350/350R brakes
- Aftermarket "Powerbrake" branded 380mm 6-piston brakes
These deflectors will not work with the 14" inverted hat 2015-up Mustang brakes or the base V6/Ecoboost brakes - which have inverted hat rotors that cannot be cooled from the backside. Those are sealed solid on the backside and the air has nowhere to go.
How do they work? The incoming airflow from the two tunnels in the S550 *undertray are forced up into these add-on deflectors, which then pump air inside the rotor hat. This air cools the hubs then the vanes inside the vented rotors pull air through like an air pump, which cools the rotors and pads. It works surprisingly well. And they work better than our 4" ducted hose brake cooling.
*Your car needs the PP1 or Shelby GT350 undertray (or something similar with ducted tunnels). This OEM PP undertray above has two tunnel ducts molded into the otherwise flat plastics. These undertrays can be added to the base GT and other S550 Mustangs. We are also working on a solution to add "fabricated tunnel" to these cars so you do not have to buy and install the 15+ piece PP undertray plastics and bracing.
Doubtful? So were we. But over a 6 month period we designed and built 3 different iterations of these brake deflectors for the S550 chassis, all bigger than the original plastic PP1 deflector. After testing at a half dozen different road courses on our 2018 GT (above) we settled on the biggest deflector that would fit inside an 18x11" wheel. It is 3 times the size of the OEM PP plastic brake cooling deflector (which was restricted due to various OEM constraints).
We quietly tested these tunnel/deflector solutions on track for several months, later with two different cars - and we kept changing things, increasing deflector size, trying additional ducted inlets, all while using our 4" ducted brake cooling solution on one side of the same car. We would measure rotor temperatures side to side, and the biggest deflector we designed with just the basic undertray tunnel was always cooler, usually by at least 100°F. These provide MASSIVE amounts of airflow - when the wheels are straight - and won out over the 4" ducted hose in every test.
Will people believe us, even after seeing our test videos? Doubtful. Scientific facts are openly questioned these days - so believe what you want to believe. We will continue to sell our 4" ducted brake backing plate cooling solutions that use an inlet duct and corrugated hoses for this chassis. But this brake cooling deflector is cheaper, easier to install, and has no "consumable" hoses to get in the way of the tires that need to be replaced periodically.
Vorshlag tested 3 sizes of this brake cooling design with both the 15" 6-piston Brembo PP brakes as well as the 380x34mm Powerbrake 6-piston kit (see above), and with base GT arms (no mounting holes), the PP1 arms (3 mounting holes), SPL spherical arms (shown above), and GT350/R arms (3 untapped holes). We can accommodate all of these versions with differing hardware and hole pattern changes in the deflector.
Key Features
- CNC Cut, brushed aluminum deflector
- Maximized fit to clear the steering rack tie rod, swaybar , control arm, and inside of an 18 x 11" wheel.
- Sized to push the most airflow towards and around wheel bearing and through the vented rotor
- Does need undertray tunnels or ducts from the front of the car to "feed" these deflectors. Note: the PP undertray tunnels work best
- Mounting hardware included (either M6-1.0 x 10mm, 1/4-20 x 1/2" OR U-bolts as appropriate). For Shelby cars with unthreaded mounting holes you will need to tap them with an easily purchased 1/4-20 tap.
- BE CAREFUL removing the original bolts if applicable. We've heard back from a couple of customers that they have a tendency to break. You may want to soak them with some penetrating oil first.
- This product is for 2015-20 Mustangs with the OEM 15" 6 piston Brembo front brake option (PP1/PP2), GT350/R brakes, or Powerbrake 380 mm 6-piston brakes
- Works with PP1 control arms, base GT arms, GT350/R control arms, or SPL spherical arms
- Will not work with 14" Ford 4 piston or other inverted hat front rotors!
DEFLECTOR MOUNTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR SHELBY GT350
The Shelby GT350/R models have the 3-hole mounting holes on the front control arms - but for some reason Ford never tapped the holes, or installed the PP style plastic deflector.
The easiest mounting solution we have found for the GT350 is to use a 1/4"-20 tap and thread the three holes in these arms, as shown above...
Then use three 1/4"-20 bolts to attach the deflector. NOTE: the GT Performance Pack Mustangs (which have a tiny plastic deflector from the factory) have these holes drilled and tapped. On these arms just unbolt the plastic deflector and use the replacement M6 hardware. For all other options use the 4-hole deflector and the included U-bolts.
