mikahb

I raced this bad boy at Thunderhill a few weeks ago and had a blast.

For those not familiar, the car is a Factory Five Racing GTM; a kit car that uses lots of C5 Corvette parts - including C5 front rotors/calipers front and rear.

This car was running Raybestos ST-41 pads on NAPA rotors both ends and we never touched the brakes through a whole race weekend. Further, the pads looked (to the eye) as thick at the end of Sunday as they did at the beginning of the Friday test day. Now, this car weighs about 2700lb, so it's lighter than a C5, but I was still very impressed with the brake feel and wear.

So - has anybody tried these pads on a C5 for track use? I talked to a guy at Thunderhill who sells brakes and he was very big on the Raybestos pads when compared to Hawk and Carbotech pads. Said they have higher friction coefficient at higher temperatures, and they wear much more gradually. The initial bite of these pads is definitely less than the others, but overall braking power seemed very good.

Interested to hear any experiences.

ScaryFast

I've run ST-41's and ST-43's on my C4 for several years. I started when PFC stopped making pads for my caliper in 2004.

I was pleased, but went back to PFC 01's this season because I found a source for cheap ones...seems that some new calipers

They had good feel, the ST-43's were a bit soft for racing but fine for HPDE's.

JiminFL

I ran a set of ST-43s with solid NAPA rotors, Z51 calipers, and street tires on my c6. After an hour long HPDE session at Sebring with a passenger of over 300# I had zero fade and maintained strong consistent threshold braking throughout.

It was November, but at Sebring any day of the year is tough on brakes. In my C5 once at Sebring I totally destroyed a set of stock pads (and rotors ) before lunch.

Not sure I'll buy them again, since this was my first set of real race pads and I'd like to try one or two others before settling on a favorite, but I liked them fine and they still have some thickness left after warm days at Roebling and Sebring.


Jim

undertaker

I've been using for probably 15-20 trackdays a set of raybestos race pads (tossed the box not sure exactly which compound) and liked them more than the wilwood race pads I picked up, Never seemed to fade for 20-30 min sessions of HPDE on nitto R2's or hoosier R6's were able to brake more than stock Z springs were capable of handling, ate a few cheapo rock auto rotors, but I'm not the best about rolling the car around when its cooling so crap happens and the rotors are disposable anyway. I'd buy them again, but all I've compared them to is the wilwoods and preferred them for feel.

johns68

I was at Thunderhill that day ... I've wanted to build a GTM for several years, but just bought an '00 frc and am in the process of gutting and caging it.

Alan Blaine is a west coast race car builder, NASA/ARC tech inspector, f-body guru, and all around great guy. San Francisco region ITE champ for several consecutive years before spending too much time building 'em to race 'em. He did a ton of work on that Firebird chasing you in the posted pic.

I had HT10s in my last track rat (4th gen f-body with C5 front brake conversion) and have moved them over to the frc. Alan is heavily recommending the Raybestos pads to me once the HT10s are done. He's said "I used to chunk HT10's badly in my ITE Camaro. The Raybestos race pads are the hot ticket now"

Not personal experience (yet) but a Raybestos plug from someone I trust implicitly.

BTW, after my car broke at T'hill on a day in June, I spent several hours helping the owner of that white Griggs Mustang you were chasing troubleshoot his car ... Griggs had just finished bolting it together 10 hours earlier ...

AU N EGL

Some one mentioned that the ST43s were the same as the Wilwood H
and ST41s the Wilwood J

I do know that Raybestous does make the Wilwood brake pads

mikahb

Hey John - sorry I didn't get to meet you in person when I was out there. Ken, who was driving the Firebird, was a great guy and he and I chatted quite a bit after the Saturday race. He was running the Raybestos ST-41's on his car, and they held up great there too. He and I had a pretty good race going on Saturday until my engine started to go south. Turned out the injectors were clogging with some gunk and all the hp went away.

That Griggs Mustang was FAST. I got a great jump on him at the green flag on Sunday's race, enough to pull about 2/3 of a car ahead, and then he motored on by me before Turn 1 - seeya! Beautiful race car and very fast. I'll be back out there in December running the 25-hour in the GTM, if you get a chance swing by and say hello!

0Todd TCE

Some of Wilwood's pads are in fact produced by Raybestos. I'm not at liberty to say exactly which compounds are which (the above post is not completely correct) but for the most part if you like the Raybstos line of pads we can make suggestions on how you can achieve similar results on the BBKs with Wilwood branded product.

And FWIW, I have some oem pads in both E and H compound that I posted at "blow out" prices a few days ago if you're interested. You won't find them any cheaper than this.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...327&highlight=

Sidney004

What sort of laptimes were you turning in that bad boy? Bypass or?

Webz

Where are you purchasing the Raybestos pads?

Sidney004

I purchased mine from Porterfield, though I am using Ebay race specials(defunct PFC 90's) now:
http://www.porterfield-brakes.com/
I thought they were excellent but pricey.

mikahb

First time ever at the track or in this car on Friday we ran the Crows Nest and I got down into the 2:04's or so. Turns out I was shifting it wrong and running the whole course in 5th and 6th gear. :o

Saturday and Sunday we ran the Bypass, my best lap was a 1:58 but that was in traffic and with an engine that was not running full song. And, on (very) used Hoosier R6's in back and Kumho 710's up front.

I think with some fresh 710's on it and the new 560hp LS3 that will be installed for December, we should be well down into the 1:53's or so.

johns68

1:58, even over the bypass, is fast ... especially with the car not where you want it mechanically, and your first time at this track. Sub 2:00 is my goal, I'm nowhere near it, and I drive T'hill all the time.

Is this the same GTM that ran last years 25 hours? I was there then too, but didn't think it was the same car. I'll probably be at the 25 hours event this year. I'll track you down, Mikah.

Darrell Anderson owns and drives that Griggs Mustang. It set an AIX track record at Infineon first race out of the box ... 1:45, I think. Darrell told me a few weeks ago he has run a 1:42 in practice at Infineon since then. I'm not certain, and am too lazy to check MyLaps right now, but I think he ran a 1:53 in qualifying at T'hill the weekend you raced with him.

If anyone doesn't mind sullying themselves watching a Ford product here's in car vid of the AIX record lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyxsXR4Nc7g&fmt=18