20 replies to this topic

[James_eaton_thewholething]

So I'm going to be fitting floor mounted pedals and wanted to know if anyone can help me in a way to mount them.



Will be going with this OBP item. The master cylinders will be sitting infront of the pedals and have a plate over them.

Now I have seen someone who's had them fitted in his mini seven racer and it is mounted on some square box section welded to the crossmember and tunnel.

Now I was thinking could I get away with using some thick flat bar or a few plates out of 3mm thick steel welded to the top of the floor with holes drilled right through and some large washers or captive nut plates underneath to spread the load

[Alex_B]

Why are you planning to fit these instead of the standard system? 

You will struggle to fit them where you say as you will end up with the pedals being a lot closer to the seat than standard and thus require you to mount that back, and then a steering column will need to be fabricated to match. You will also have to calculate pedal ratios / pressure balance on the system to replicate the standard system or your own requirements. Also the system you have shown uses a split master brake pedal with a bias bar, this cannot be adjustable on a road car I believe, at least not from the drivers seat so keep that in mind. 

If you are serious on fitting this you will have to do a lot of work regarding how it functions, its far from a bolt in item and you wont see any benefits on a road car so make sure its what you want! 

[James_eaton_thewholething]

Why are you planning to fit these instead of the standard system? 

You will struggle to fit them where you say as you will end up with the pedals being a lot closer to the seat than standard and thus require you to mount that back, and then a steering column will need to be fabricated to match. You will also have to calculate pedal ratios / pressure balance on the system to replicate the standard system or your own requirements. Also the system you have shown uses a split master brake pedal with a bias bar, this cannot be adjustable on a road car I believe, at least not from the drivers seat so keep that in mind. 

If you are serious on fitting this you will have to do a lot of work regarding how it functions, its far from a bolt in item and you wont see any benefits on a road car so make sure its what you want! 

 

i was wanting to see how to go about fitting it before fully committing to buying it i know there was going to be a lot of work involved with it. i may just stay with the standard pedal set up and run servo less. if i do that now i will have to drill holes and weld in two studs for the throttle pedal as the had the be removed any way 

Edited by James_eaton_thewholething, 12 December 2015 - 01:05 AM.

[Alex_B]

 

Why are you planning to fit these instead of the standard system? 

You will struggle to fit them where you say as you will end up with the pedals being a lot closer to the seat than standard and thus require you to mount that back, and then a steering column will need to be fabricated to match. You will also have to calculate pedal ratios / pressure balance on the system to replicate the standard system or your own requirements. Also the system you have shown uses a split master brake pedal with a bias bar, this cannot be adjustable on a road car I believe, at least not from the drivers seat so keep that in mind. 

If you are serious on fitting this you will have to do a lot of work regarding how it functions, its far from a bolt in item and you wont see any benefits on a road car so make sure its what you want! 

 

i was wanting to see how to go about fitting it before fully committing to buying it i know there was going to be a lot of work involved with it. i may just stay with the standard pedal set up and run servo less. if i do that now i will have to drill holes and weld in two studs for the throttle pedal as the had the be removed any way 

 

Unless you are building an out and out racing car where you want to play with the ratio of pedal effort to fluid pressure then these are far more hassle than they are worth considering you wont actually gain anything. The gains are to be had by being able to adjust braking bias and achieve the optimum setup for a very specific situation. On the road you will always be running a compromise so having that adaptability is wasted. 

In terms of actually fitting them I would be looking instead into hanging them from a mount such as a roll cage bar in a similar position to where they are now, it means the master cylinders can be mounted up behind the dash keeping the pedals as far forward as possible and in a more traditional position. As standard the floor is also far from strong enough compared with the hefty triangulated mount thats standard so you would have to either brace it or incorporate it with a roll cage or similar. As to servoless whats your thoughts there? My own experience has found a servo to be a nice addition, you don't loose a lot of feel but you find you will have better stopping power as you wont have to press as hard to get the same pressure at the pads. (You don't gain anything other than a lesser effort on the drivers part but I find that does actually mean in a non full pressure situation you will likely stop quicker.) 

If it was me I would just look to modify the standard setup if you really need to due to change in driving position. The standard braking system is decent enough for a light car, just because you may or may not be going faster due to an engine change doesn't necessarily mean you need the biggest brakes possible as the total energy of the vehicle in motion will still be fairly low as they aren't heavy. 

Don't take this as me poopooing your ideas entirely, I am merely trying to suggest alternatives that will mean you can spend your money on bigger gains rather than "these are racing car pedals so they must be good" I get that a lot where I work and actually something that is fitted to a racing car is usually really good at one specific job but rubbish at everything else, so for a road car things like race cams are totally useless and an utter pain to live with. 

[James_eaton_thewholething]

i didn't mind driving without a servo I've got strong legs so can generate the force required to stop. i also don't like how much space is removed from the already small engine bay with having the servo there. part of the reason for going with a pedal set up like this was to also free up some space in the engine bay even more. in thinking about this though the underslung versions would make more sense. i also just wanted to be different from the norm and the car have that little something 

[Spider]

You'll likely find that you'll need to fit the seat about 6 - 8" further back in the car as the pedals will effectively move back by roughly this amount. You'd also need to lower and extend the steering column, by a similar amount.

[Ethel]

I'd only consider the engine bay servo an issue if you had something better  in need of the space. If you do, a remote servo can be fitted pretty much anywhere. It's unlikely you'll improve ergonomically on the set of pedals that were designed for a small car with an unusual driving position so integral with a solid steering column.

[James_eaton_thewholething]

Will more likely decide to go undersling than floor mounted although it is at the end of the day personal choice and which ever route I take there will be some work involved

[Tamworthbay]

Have you bought them yet? If you haven't I seriously suggest you look up some reviews of the obp stuff. My experience of a set fitted to a car I bought was not good at all and the quality left more than a little to be desired. From other reviews around it seems I am not alone in this.

[nicklouse]

I hate the action of floor mounted pedals. Your heel gets in the way when you need to put some force on them.

[Cooperman]

Having been using Minis in rallying since 1961 I've never found the pedals to be anything but ideal. The front to rear brake ratio can be adjusted with a valve at the rear and a servo is a personal choice. With regard to servos, I used to rally a 998 Cooper without a servo, but in all the 'S's I've had I have fitted the remote servo to reduce pedal pressure. That's a good thing on a long event. I did once try it without a servo and went out to test it on a night when the roads were wet. Going downhill into a tightening 90 right I braked, but the lack of pedal feel and higher pressure caused me to lock the fronts, then when I came off the brakes it over-steered and I just got round. I re-fitted the servo and it felt good again.

A friend of mine who also rallies a Cooper 'S' runs a later dual cylinder with no servo and says he likes the way the brakes feel, so it's personal choice. Best thing is to try them at competitive speeds and on slippery surfaces to see which is preferred and which gives best performance when times are compared. 

[madaboutcherry]

try driving a vw beetle first.

[Cooperman]

try driving a vw beetle first.

Yes, I had a Porsche 911 and that had floor mounted pedals. They were OK, but I always felt they would have been better in 'pendulum' configuration.

It is possible to get things wedged behind the pedals against the base of the pedals.

Pendulum pedals are better really.

[James_eaton_thewholething]

Having been using Minis in rallying since 1961 I've never found the pedals to be anything but ideal. The front to rear brake ratio can be adjusted with a valve at the rear and a servo is a personal choice. With regard to servos, I used to rally a 998 Cooper without a servo, but in all the 'S's I've had I have fitted the remote servo to reduce pedal pressure. That's a good thing on a long event. I did once try it without a servo and went out to test it on a night when the roads were wet. Going downhill into a tightening 90 right I braked, but the lack of pedal feel and higher pressure caused me to lock the fronts, then when I came off the brakes it over-steered and I just got round. I re-fitted the servo and it felt good again.
A friend of mine who also rallies a Cooper 'S' runs a later dual cylinder with no servo and says he likes the way the brakes feel, so it's personal choice. Best thing is to try them at competitive speeds and on slippery surfaces to see which is preferred and which gives best performance when times are compared.

When I used to drive the car I had driven it both with and without the servo in both greasy wet and snow. I preferred the without feeling on cooper 's' brake setup and 10x6 wheels than the servo with 8.4s and 12's. Thank you for your input and I trust your experiences. For a road car that will be driven hard what would the best pads be ?. I use ferodo ds2500 in my 205 which have a decent bite from cold so would like something similar as I know this is one of the things that determines stopping ability

[Tamworthbay]

Cooper man suggested mintex 1144 pads to me a few years ago and I won't use anything else now. They do a squeal a bit but stopping power is so far beyond standard it's hard to believe it's just the pads that have been changed.