It’s unlikely Ford knew it was creating a Swiss Army knife of performance vehicles when it attempted to imbue the Mustang with a European styling aesthetic atop its existing Fox platform back in the day. That’s just what it delivered though, as the 1979-1993 Mustangs became a versatile canvas on which enthusiasts could create their dream performance machines.

We really are trying to ease the cost of entering the sport and growing your car’s performance and safety requirements while still delivering reliable and safe performance… — Jeff Anderson, Moser Engineering

The platform’s popularity and adaptability fostered vibrant aftermarket support, allowing these cars to become anything from street machines and road course warriors to tire-slaying drifters and straight-line drag strip warriors. However, the factory Fox hardware often needs support or enhancement to fulfill those missions.

The 1979-1993 Mustangs are legendary for their performances on the drag strip, but to ensure safety and durability, they need upgrades like Moser Engineering’s Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of NMRA)

While braking might not be the first thing you consider when building a drag car, it becomes quite important at the big end of the track. Plus, reliable braking is crucial to consistent performance, whether racers are building boost at the starting line or diving on the brakes before the stripe to match their dial-ins. To that end, Moser Engineering created its Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit for Fox Mustangs.

Competitive Edge

“As we have seen racing become more and more competitive over the years, you need to find ways to control every aspect of your racing performance. Something that has become more critical over the years is braking or driving the finish line,” Jeff Anderson, Marketing Director at Moser Engineering, explained. “The ability in bracket racing to dump your opponent or brake in a controllable manner that gives you the edge but doesn’t present a danger to you or others. This Moser Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit is just that. It gives you controllable braking on par with full-blown drag brake setups while also being safe, reliable, and easy to maintain from a service-at-the-track standpoint.”

A major player in the performance game, you might first think of Moser Engineering for its robust rearend upgrades and replacement rearend assemblies. However, the company has also long created braking improvements for a wide range of cars. These braking systems see success with numerous racers across several drag racing disciplines.

The Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit for Fox Mustangs is a complete solution to fortify your 8.8-inch rearend for the drag strip and deliver the stopping power you need to succeed in competition. It replaces the factory C-clip axle retainers with robust C-clip eliminators, while its competition-race series four-piston billet aluminum brake calipers clamp two-piece keyed, slotted, and drilled 11 1/2-inch rotors. This arrangement delivers a 25-percent increase in pad contact area and also enables the use of 20-percent thicker brake pads versus comparable arrangements. (Photo Credit: Moser Engineering)

“Moser Drag brake kits have been out for many years now and if you attend any race series you will surely see the Moser calipers glaring through many wheels in a lot of different drag racers’ hot rods,” Anderson said. “… One notable win last year using a Moser Drag Brake kit was Luke Bogacki at the Spring Fling Million in Las Vegas with his Moser-sponsored hot rod. Controllable braking at the line is mandatory and key to winning races like this in the competitive world of bracket racing.”

The kit in question features competition-race series four-piston billet aluminum brake calipers featuring Teflon-coated, stainless steel pistons and dual-pin pad retention enhanced by O-rings to eliminate the pad chatter. They wear one-piece bleeder screws and crossover ports that hasten fluid release at the outboard pistons. Paired with two-piece keyed, slotted and drilled 11 1/2-inch rotors, the system reportedly delivers a 25-percent increase in pad contact area and it allows for running 20-percent thicker brake pads versus other drag racing calipers.

The Moser brakes utilized two-piece keyed, slotted, and drilled 11 1/2-inch rotors paired with the company’s competition series billet brake calipers. The rotor hats make use of spiral retaining rings to attach the rotors while allowing for increased radial growth and reducing the possibility of sticking, warping, and beveling that crops up with other designs.

Safety First

Integral to this kit are C-clip eliminators, which supplant the notoriously fragile factory axle retention clips at the differential with robust retainers — filled with either 1.400- or 1.533-inch-diameter axle bearing seats — mounted at the end of the axle tubes.

“This kit was designed as an intermediate step between a stock-style 8.8 brake for a C-clip axle, like an OEM brake and the full- blown, press-on-style bearing and housing end conversion drag brake setup that requires a 9-inch-style housing end. The cost-conscious racer usually converts his Fox-body OEM setup over time as money allows,” Anderson said. “With this kit we are giving the racer options. The Moser Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit allows you to convert to a race-legal setup utilizing the C-clip-eliminator-style block. It also offers a major upgrade to a very controllable drag-style race brake, while its low-profile setup allows you to run most 15-inch, double-bead-lock wheel options.”

An integral part of this rear brake upgrade is the vaunted Moser C-clip eliminator, which retain the axle and bypasses the fragile factory axle reading clip, which can fail at the least opportune times. “C-Clip eliminators are required by most racing organizations for many classes, and as such this kit includes the eliminators along with all the hardware required to convert the brakes from OEM to performance drag brakes,” Jeff said. “This Moser Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit is offered for 1.400- and 1.533-inch bearing seats to offer racers an economical solution when growing their programs.”

“Basically, it was designed as a go-between for the racer that is at the point they require more controllable braking but they also need C-clip eliminators for safety and to be race legal and don’t want to or can’t justify the cost of swapping out a factory housing yet,” Anderson said. “We really are trying to ease the cost of entering the sport and growing your car’s performance and safety requirements while still delivering reliable and safe performance.”

If you aren’t ready for a wholesale rearend replacement, this kit makes your 8.8-inch rearend race-ready, legal, and ready to stop far more surely than factory rear drums could ever hope to.

“When it comes to brake design, most everyone realizes that it really comes down to transferring the heat and energy over to the rotors. Without getting real technical, you are converting the kinetic energy of the drag car into thermal energy (heat). That energy is absorbed from the brake pads into the brake rotors to then dissipate the heat to the atmosphere. The clamping force from the calipers, the pad size, and the pad compounds, along with the type of steel in the rotors determine how quickly and efficiently braking,” Anderson elaborated. “The larger pads we used from the beginning helped in another area: Braking at the finish line to dump your opponent. This unintended attribute has been used successfully over the years. You want to slow the car down but not lock up the brakes. We believe the control with our kits, when properly applied to match the pads to the rotors, is the key to its winning design.”

To learn more about Moser’s Rear Drag Brake & Eliminator Kit for Fox Mustangs, you can visit the product landing page, right here.