[Z06] Good Dual Purpose Brake Pad
03-17-2008, 06:38 PM
#1
Good Dual Purpose Brake Pad
I thought you guys might like to know about a very good "dual purpose" brake pad I've found for our C6 Z06's. Some of you may remember my other posts in various "track prep" threads saying I was going to try the new Mintex Xtreme Motorsport pad before going to Laguna Seca. I've ran some other Mintex pads on my other track cars with great results, so when I saw these new pads available for the Z06 I figured I'd give them a shot.
I've had the pads on the car for a little over a month now, with about a 1000+ miles of street use and roughly 160 miles of track use at Laguna. Stock car, only Castrol SRF & the pads.
Street Results:
Excellent overall performance & only very minor (occasional) squealing. About 400 miles were put on them before the track event, and the rest since the track event. My stock pads squealed a tiny bit under _very_ light braking (usually backing up) and these do about the same, maybe just a hair louder, but not bad at all. They squealed a fair bit the first day I installed them (while they were bedding in), but got quiet after that. I'd say the pads are quiet ~98% of the time now. Friction seems very linear from cold to hot, with a better bite than the stock pads, especially when braking hard. They also seem less compressible & gave me a firmer pedal (could also be helped by the SRF fluid here). Dust levels appear a little bit less than stock, and it wipes off easily. I have the chromed factory wheels & a great trick is to buy a small California Car Duster (the one for interiors) and use it to remove the brake dust form your wheels. Works great. Overall, a great performing street pad.
Track Results:
They were so good on the street, I was a bit concerned about how they'd work on the track. The first session, I was being careful & bringing them up to temp gradually (I was learning the car anyway so no big deal). After a bit of hard use, they felt like they transferred some more material to the rotors (kind of like the old PFZ-01's did) and shuddered a bit. From past experience with other pads I knew just to brake through it. Once they finished wearing off the material from the stock pads & their friction material was embedded in the rotors, braking smoothed out & the friction level increased. At this point, I was ready for my 2cd session & stepped up the pace. I eventually worked my way up to ~135 on the main straight, which then requires some serious braking for turn 2, and I was hitting ~118 on the back uphill straight leading to the Corkscrew, which then required some more serious braking. The pads held up no problem, and we ran ~25minute sessions. There was another Z06 there on slicks with Carbotech full race pads & I was only about 1 second a lap slower than him. Overall, the brakes held up well & never let me down. Brake torque is very good, modulation is excellent with good release, and they held up fine to the temps & abuse. They did fill the cross-drilled holes with a fair bit of pad material, but I've seen other pads do that as well so I wasn't surprised. I wore off a couple mm of pad material, but taper was minimal. A lot of dust was generated on the track but it doesn't appear to be harmful to the paint & it easily washed off the wheels & body without any damage or residue left behind. Overall, a good track pad too (I was on street tires, don't know how they'd work with slicks). Rotor wear appears even, without looking too aggressive.
I would rank these as a better dual purpose pad than the Porterfield R4S or the Hawk HP+ (which squeal like crazy). Any dual purpose pad is going to be a bit of a compromise over a dedicated race pad, but I'm happy so far. Changing 20 padlets before & after every track event didn't thrill me, so if I can leave these in year around & get good enough performance on street & track I'm set.
Drawbacks:
They're sold only in full car sets (20 pad) box. They're a little pricey, but when I bought mine from ProPad Auto (online) they said they were giving guys on some of the Corvette forums discounts & knocked 15% off. I think they're worth a try if you're looking to run a dual purpose pad like I am.
I've had the pads on the car for a little over a month now, with about a 1000+ miles of street use and roughly 160 miles of track use at Laguna. Stock car, only Castrol SRF & the pads.
Street Results:
Excellent overall performance & only very minor (occasional) squealing. About 400 miles were put on them before the track event, and the rest since the track event. My stock pads squealed a tiny bit under _very_ light braking (usually backing up) and these do about the same, maybe just a hair louder, but not bad at all. They squealed a fair bit the first day I installed them (while they were bedding in), but got quiet after that. I'd say the pads are quiet ~98% of the time now. Friction seems very linear from cold to hot, with a better bite than the stock pads, especially when braking hard. They also seem less compressible & gave me a firmer pedal (could also be helped by the SRF fluid here). Dust levels appear a little bit less than stock, and it wipes off easily. I have the chromed factory wheels & a great trick is to buy a small California Car Duster (the one for interiors) and use it to remove the brake dust form your wheels. Works great. Overall, a great performing street pad.
Track Results:
They were so good on the street, I was a bit concerned about how they'd work on the track. The first session, I was being careful & bringing them up to temp gradually (I was learning the car anyway so no big deal). After a bit of hard use, they felt like they transferred some more material to the rotors (kind of like the old PFZ-01's did) and shuddered a bit. From past experience with other pads I knew just to brake through it. Once they finished wearing off the material from the stock pads & their friction material was embedded in the rotors, braking smoothed out & the friction level increased. At this point, I was ready for my 2cd session & stepped up the pace. I eventually worked my way up to ~135 on the main straight, which then requires some serious braking for turn 2, and I was hitting ~118 on the back uphill straight leading to the Corkscrew, which then required some more serious braking. The pads held up no problem, and we ran ~25minute sessions. There was another Z06 there on slicks with Carbotech full race pads & I was only about 1 second a lap slower than him. Overall, the brakes held up well & never let me down. Brake torque is very good, modulation is excellent with good release, and they held up fine to the temps & abuse. They did fill the cross-drilled holes with a fair bit of pad material, but I've seen other pads do that as well so I wasn't surprised. I wore off a couple mm of pad material, but taper was minimal. A lot of dust was generated on the track but it doesn't appear to be harmful to the paint & it easily washed off the wheels & body without any damage or residue left behind. Overall, a good track pad too (I was on street tires, don't know how they'd work with slicks). Rotor wear appears even, without looking too aggressive.
I would rank these as a better dual purpose pad than the Porterfield R4S or the Hawk HP+ (which squeal like crazy). Any dual purpose pad is going to be a bit of a compromise over a dedicated race pad, but I'm happy so far. Changing 20 padlets before & after every track event didn't thrill me, so if I can leave these in year around & get good enough performance on street & track I'm set.
Drawbacks:
They're sold only in full car sets (20 pad) box. They're a little pricey, but when I bought mine from ProPad Auto (online) they said they were giving guys on some of the Corvette forums discounts & knocked 15% off. I think they're worth a try if you're looking to run a dual purpose pad like I am.
10-15-2008, 04:57 PM
#2
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Member Since: Apr 2008
Location: Toronto Ontario
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I thought you guys might like to know about a very good "dual purpose" brake pad I've found for our C6 Z06's. Some of you may remember my other posts in various "track prep" threads saying I was going to try the new Mintex Xtreme Motorsport pad before going to Laguna Seca. I've ran some other Mintex pads on my other track cars with great results, so when I saw these new pads available for the Z06 I figured I'd give them a shot.
I've had the pads on the car for a little over a month now, with about a 1000+ miles of street use and roughly 160 miles of track use at Laguna. Stock car, only Castrol SRF & the pads.
Street Results:
Excellent overall performance & only very minor (occasional) squealing. About 400 miles were put on them before the track event, and the rest since the track event. My stock pads squealed a tiny bit under _very_ light braking (usually backing up) and these do about the same, maybe just a hair louder, but not bad at all. They squealed a fair bit the first day I installed them (while they were bedding in), but got quiet after that. I'd say the pads are quiet ~98% of the time now. Friction seems very linear from cold to hot, with a better bite than the stock pads, especially when braking hard. They also seem less compressible & gave me a firmer pedal (could also be helped by the SRF fluid here). Dust levels appear a little bit less than stock, and it wipes off easily. I have the chromed factory wheels & a great trick is to buy a small California Car Duster (the one for interiors) and use it to remove the brake dust form your wheels. Works great. Overall, a great performing street pad.
Track Results:
They were so good on the street, I was a bit concerned about how they'd work on the track. The first session, I was being careful & bringing them up to temp gradually (I was learning the car anyway so no big deal). After a bit of hard use, they felt like they transferred some more material to the rotors (kind of like the old PFZ-01's did) and shuddered a bit. From past experience with other pads I knew just to brake through it. Once they finished wearing off the material from the stock pads & their friction material was embedded in the rotors, braking smoothed out & the friction level increased. At this point, I was ready for my 2cd session & stepped up the pace. I eventually worked my way up to ~135 on the main straight, which then requires some serious braking for turn 2, and I was hitting ~118 on the back uphill straight leading to the Corkscrew, which then required some more serious braking. The pads held up no problem, and we ran ~25minute sessions. There was another Z06 there on slicks with Carbotech full race pads & I was only about 1 second a lap slower than him. Overall, the brakes held up well & never let me down. Brake torque is very good, modulation is excellent with good release, and they held up fine to the temps & abuse. They did fill the cross-drilled holes with a fair bit of pad material, but I've seen other pads do that as well so I wasn't surprised. I wore off a couple mm of pad material, but taper was minimal. A lot of dust was generated on the track but it doesn't appear to be harmful to the paint & it easily washed off the wheels & body without any damage or residue left behind. Overall, a good track pad too (I was on street tires, don't know how they'd work with slicks). Rotor wear appears even, without looking too aggressive.
I would rank these as a better dual purpose pad than the Porterfield R4S or the Hawk HP+ (which squeal like crazy). Any dual purpose pad is going to be a bit of a compromise over a dedicated race pad, but I'm happy so far. Changing 20 padlets before & after every track event didn't thrill me, so if I can leave these in year around & get good enough performance on street & track I'm set.
Drawbacks:
They're sold only in full car sets (20 pad) box. They're a little pricey, but when I bought mine from ProPad Auto (online) they said they were giving guys on some of the Corvette forums discounts & knocked 15% off. I think they're worth a try if you're looking to run a dual purpose pad like I am.
I've had the pads on the car for a little over a month now, with about a 1000+ miles of street use and roughly 160 miles of track use at Laguna. Stock car, only Castrol SRF & the pads.
Street Results:
Excellent overall performance & only very minor (occasional) squealing. About 400 miles were put on them before the track event, and the rest since the track event. My stock pads squealed a tiny bit under _very_ light braking (usually backing up) and these do about the same, maybe just a hair louder, but not bad at all. They squealed a fair bit the first day I installed them (while they were bedding in), but got quiet after that. I'd say the pads are quiet ~98% of the time now. Friction seems very linear from cold to hot, with a better bite than the stock pads, especially when braking hard. They also seem less compressible & gave me a firmer pedal (could also be helped by the SRF fluid here). Dust levels appear a little bit less than stock, and it wipes off easily. I have the chromed factory wheels & a great trick is to buy a small California Car Duster (the one for interiors) and use it to remove the brake dust form your wheels. Works great. Overall, a great performing street pad.
Track Results:
They were so good on the street, I was a bit concerned about how they'd work on the track. The first session, I was being careful & bringing them up to temp gradually (I was learning the car anyway so no big deal). After a bit of hard use, they felt like they transferred some more material to the rotors (kind of like the old PFZ-01's did) and shuddered a bit. From past experience with other pads I knew just to brake through it. Once they finished wearing off the material from the stock pads & their friction material was embedded in the rotors, braking smoothed out & the friction level increased. At this point, I was ready for my 2cd session & stepped up the pace. I eventually worked my way up to ~135 on the main straight, which then requires some serious braking for turn 2, and I was hitting ~118 on the back uphill straight leading to the Corkscrew, which then required some more serious braking. The pads held up no problem, and we ran ~25minute sessions. There was another Z06 there on slicks with Carbotech full race pads & I was only about 1 second a lap slower than him. Overall, the brakes held up well & never let me down. Brake torque is very good, modulation is excellent with good release, and they held up fine to the temps & abuse. They did fill the cross-drilled holes with a fair bit of pad material, but I've seen other pads do that as well so I wasn't surprised. I wore off a couple mm of pad material, but taper was minimal. A lot of dust was generated on the track but it doesn't appear to be harmful to the paint & it easily washed off the wheels & body without any damage or residue left behind. Overall, a good track pad too (I was on street tires, don't know how they'd work with slicks). Rotor wear appears even, without looking too aggressive.
I would rank these as a better dual purpose pad than the Porterfield R4S or the Hawk HP+ (which squeal like crazy). Any dual purpose pad is going to be a bit of a compromise over a dedicated race pad, but I'm happy so far. Changing 20 padlets before & after every track event didn't thrill me, so if I can leave these in year around & get good enough performance on street & track I'm set.
Drawbacks:
They're sold only in full car sets (20 pad) box. They're a little pricey, but when I bought mine from ProPad Auto (online) they said they were giving guys on some of the Corvette forums discounts & knocked 15% off. I think they're worth a try if you're looking to run a dual purpose pad like I am.
Can you please come back and let us know how the pads hold up after the next 2 or 3 track days. I'm wondering once the rotors start to wear, if the pads will get chewed up.
